The newest addition to San Antonio’s skyline will soon open in the heart of downtown, bringing luxury hotel rooms, restaurants and a $2 million piece of public art to Civic Park at Hemisfair.

The 17-story, $185 million Monarch Hotel is scheduled to open March 3 on the corner of Alamo and Market streets. Rooms will start at $600, but hotel owners are trying to connect to the community with upscale dining and an elaborate stained glass pavilion beneath the Tower of the Americas.

The 200-room hotel is hiring nearly 200 workers and will start to welcome hotel guests in April, said Rick Slutter, managing director of hotels for Zachry Hospitality, which owns the Monarch and the Hilton Palacio Del Rio across the street.

New in Hemisfair

Designed by Overland Partners, an architecture firm with offices in San Antonio, the outdoor pavilion has three arched walls of dozens of orange glass panels that are laced with three miles of LED lights.

Slutter said the pavilion will be lit starting in early January and will be open to the public in March in Civic Park at Hemisfair.

“The design of it is to really integrate the hotel and the property into Hemisfair Park and provide a reason for the community, for our guests, for guests around the city, to engage with The Monarch,” Slutter said. “We really looked at it like the Bean in Chicago.”

Workers install panels and lighting on a $2 million stained glass pavilion outside the Monarch Hotel on Dec. 2, 2025.

The hotel will also feature three food and beverage options, which will be priced competitively with surrounding options, Slutter said and includes an upscale coffee shop called Nectarie with a walk-up window and outdoor tables facing Market Street.

There’s a steakhouse on the hotel’s first floor as well as a rooftop restaurant serving Yucatán-inspired small plates.

“There really isn’t quite that type of cuisine within the marketplace at the moment, that Southern Mexican-inspired dishes” Slutter said. “I think it will be priced affordably so guests can enjoy a margarita or Oaxaca old fashioned, and a number of samples of different dishes, and be comfortable in the value that they receive.”

Inside the hotel

Hotel rooms, including 28 multi-room suites, will start at $599 per night and range into the $700 range. Slutter said those prices will vary depending on the season.

He added that San Antonio had a lower market share of luxury rooms compared to Dallas and Austin. Around 7.5% of hotel rooms are in the luxury market, Slutter said, compared to 20% in those two other Texas cities.

“People will come to San Antonio to experience this hotel just because a product like this hasn’t existed before,” Slutter said.

Slutter added that clients, including weddings and corporate meetings, have already begun booking the hotel’s 15,000-square-foot event space.

A rendering shows a lounge in The Monarch San Antonio, a new hotel located along the Riverwalk that is slated to open in 2026. Credit: Courtesy / The Monarch San Antonio

Monarch now hiring

Slutter said the hotel will have around 250 employees when it is fully operational. Around 60 of those have already been hired and Zachry Hospitality will ramp up its efforts in 2026.

“Once the holidays are complete, that’s when the hiring fairs really get started,” Slutter said. “We’re currently hiring for all roles.”

Most of those roles would be full time, Slutter said.

Slutter did not specify the pay range for jobs at the Monarch Hotel and positions listed on the company’s website did not include pay estimates, but he did say the new hotel would pay higher-end wages and include quarterly bonuses.

“The majority of our positions are hourly. Positions like housekeepers or cooks, some bellmen, valets, are all at the top tier of the market. We recognize that if we’re going to provide extraordinary service, we need extraordinary people,” Slutter said. “Our compensation packages are not just competitive, they are significantly more than some other employers.”

Housekeeping, dishwashing and busperson jobs at the neighboring Hilton Palacio Del Rio, which is also owned by Zachry, include free bus passes, offers medical insurance and incentive bonuses.