Downtown Houston’s Historic Scanlan Building Slated For Conversion To Upscale Hotel

Houston’s first Hilton Canopy hotel is coming to Downtown’s pedestrian promenade thanks to a Sugar Land-based developer that plans to convert a historic building. 

SLTX Capital plans to remodel the 116-year-old Scanlan Building into a 140-room hotel with a restaurant and bar, the Houston Chronicle reported. SLTX Capital bought the 11-story building at 405 Main St. in December, months after the previous owner surrendered it in lieu of foreclosure, according to the article. 

The building's lender last year moved to foreclose on its owner, a limited liability company tied to Expansive, a coworking firm formerly known as Novel Coworking. The previous owners completed building renovations in 2016 to offer private offices, office suites and coworking space. 

The building is now 30% occupied, and the remaining leases expire by the end of this year, SLTX Capital told the Chronicle.

The conversion into a Hilton Canopy brand hotel is slated to begin in 2026, and the developer expects it to open in summer 2027. It would be the first hotel in Houston under Hilton’s Canopy brand.

The building is set along seven blocks of Downtown Houston that are slated to become a permanent pedestrian promenade. That helped entice SLTX Capital to initiate the remodel, co-founder Ali Momin told the Chronicle, adding that he envisions people dropping into the hotel bar while passing by.

The Scanlan Building was the largest building in Houston when completed in 1909 on the site of the first official Republic of Texas president’s house. It was named for Thomas Howe Scanlan, a mayor of Houston in the latter half of the 1800s. 

SLTX will seek state and federal historic tax credits to subsidize the cost of renovations, which will preserve the facade, crown molding, marble walls, flooring and the large mural of a child on a bicycle on the side of the building, the Houston Chronicle reported.

But the building will need updated plumbing, electrical and mechanical systems, and elevators, the Chronicle said.

This project will add to at least 12 Downtown office buildings that have been converted into hotels, the Chronicle reported. SLTX Capital is a sister firm to Trend Hospitality, which converted the 1913-built Stowers Furniture Building to an Aloft hotel in 2016.