Brownsville’s hotel boom isn’t showing signs of slowing down anytime soon. As a number of multi-billion-dollar heavy industry operators set their sights on the Rio Grande Valley’s largest and oldest city, so, too, are a multitude of extended-stay hotels.

The latest one to be announced is a Springhill Suites by Marriott, which could begin construction later this year, according to Hershal Patel, the prominent hotelier whose company, Ruby Red Hospitality, is spearheading the project. The Springhill Suites will be located on the north side of the city near the Sunrise Mall, right in the heart of one of Brownsville’s busiest retail corridors. It’ll be located next door — and share a parking lot with — another hotel project that Ruby Red is working on, an Embassy Suites by Hilton, at 3301 Pablo Kisel Blvd., Brownsville, TX 78526.

Patel announced the new hotel project in a Facebook post on Wednesday, May 6. On Wednesday, the hotelier told MySA that Brownsville has become a “formidable market” in the best possible way.

“The Brownsville market’s been matured — and when I say mature, I mean they’re diverse. They’ve got all those different tourism streams,” Patel said.

Over the last year, the city “on the border, by the sea” has seen explosive growth in nearly every economic sector, from hospitality to cultural to commercial and industrial growth. In recent months, President Donald Trump announced that the first full-scale oil refinery to be built in the United States in 50 years will be built at the Port of Brownsville. An Austin-based tech startup called Saronic Technologies wants to create next-generation military drone ships at the port. Several global energy companies are also investing in Brownsville, as is Amazon. And Elon Musk’s SpaceX headquarters are located just a stone’s throw away in the nascent city of Starbase. Meanwhile, Breaking Bad star, R.J. Mitte, has committed to transforming Brownsville’s downtown cultural arts scene.

Last spring, Patel’s company announced that it planned to build the $10 million Embassy Suites. A year later, as crews work on finishing the foundation in that project, Ruby Red has announced that Springhill Suites will be built next door. Patel tells MySA that the Springhill Suites represents another $10-$20 million in construction investment. The hotel will have somewhere around 120 “generously sized all-suite accommodations,” according to a new splash page. Each suite features dedicated sleeping, working and relaxing spaces with trundle beds that can sleep up to six. In the hotel’s common spaces, guests will find a business center, a 24-hour market filled with packaged snacks, and a gym.

Patel expects the Springhill Suites to get underway as soon as this fall. And once the foundation is poured, construction should take about 18 months. Meanwhile, the Embassy Suites could open as soon as late 2027. The two hotels represent Ruby Red Hospitality’s entrance into the Brownsville market. But the company, whose CEO is Patel’s father, Barry Patel, is no stranger to large-scale infrastructure projects. The elder Patel previously served as South Padre Island’s mayor, and Hershal Patel previously served as the chairman of the McAllen Economic Development Corporation. And Ruby Red Hospitality has a well-established footprint in McAllen and on South Padre Island, with hotels such as South Padre’s Hilton Garden Inn and La Copa Inn Beach Hotel and the Aloft Hotel and Courtyard by Marriott in McAllen. The younger Patel is eager to see Ruby Red continue to expand.

“I’m excited. I mean, it’s something that, personally, I’ve been trying to advocate for within our company for a while,” Patel said, adding he’s eager to have an “excuse” to enjoy all of Brownsville’s amenities with his wife and children. That includes Brownsville’s iconic food scene, like the 104-year-old Rutledge Hamburgers.