State filing sets $800,000 rehab of the vacant Travelers Hotel on Main Street for apartments and commercial space

The long-empty Travelers Hotel on East Main Street has a construction schedule on file with the state.

A project the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation registered Sept. 22 describes an $800,000 rehabilitation of the historic hotel at 300 E. Main St. into a commercial shell and multifamily residential space. The filing lists 8,500 square feet of renovation, with work set to begin Nov. 1 and finish April 1, 2027.

The registration, which spells the building "Traveler's Hotel," names Traveler's on Main LLC as the owner, with a Melissa mailing address, and Tren-Tech Design LLC of Justin as the design firm. It says the project is privately funded. Its status is listed as registered, meaning the accessibility plan review had not been marked complete as of this week.

The filing does not say how many apartments are planned or what kind of business would fill the commercial space.

A rezoning in the spring

The City Council rezoned the vacant building in April to allow mixed-use development, KXII reported at the time. Mary Tate, Denison's development services director, told the station the change could allow retail, salons, restaurants and possibly short-term rentals, and that the city wanted to make the owner's plans as easy as possible to carry out.

Owner Joseph Armstrong said then that exact plans had not been settled.

Denison historian Brian Hander told KXII the structure was built in 1893 as a family home and was converted to a hotel in the 1930s, serving railroad travelers for about two decades. It later housed a restaurant, an antique store and an art studio, he said, and the mixed-use zoning returns it to the kind of use it once had.

"Once they're gone, they're gone forever," Hander said of the city's historic buildings.

Sources

State of Texas

KXII