Last month, Austin-based hospitality company New Waterloo opened two hotels three weeks and 1,500 miles apart — each delivering much-needed experiences to the regions they’ve opened in.
“We have two hotels that they couldn't be more different in the physical product, but there's these great through lines,” David Lang, vice president of operations at New Waterloo, said. “They're both, in my mind, going to redefine and set the bar for hospitality experiences in their respective markets.”
The Albert Hotel made its debut in the central Texas town of Fredericksburg on Jan. 3, and the Fidelity Hotel in downtown Cleveland, Ohio, opened on Jan. 27. While both are historic adaptive reuses — with Fidelity opening in the Baker Building, a former office building built in 1921, and Albert taking over a collection of historic buildings off the town’s Main Street — the similarities end there, Lang said. Each hotel is intended to reflect what’s special about the town or city it’s in.
Upgrading small town Texas
For the 105-room Albert Hotel, that means playing tribute to the Keidel family, starting first with its namesake.
“Fredericksburg as we know it today would not exist without Albert Keidel and his preservation work to protect some of the beautiful buildings that are the identity of downtown Fredericksburg,” Lang said. “We've tried to do a lot to honor Albert and pay homage to the family, and it's been a guiding light for the project.”
Founded in the mid-1800s by German immigrants, Fredericksburg sees about 1.5 million tourists a year, with many visiting the more than 75 wineries and tasting rooms in the area. According to CoStar data, the town has 30 hotels with 10 more in the construction and planning pipeline. Despite its robust tourism scene, Lang said the Albert Hotel is the first luxury hotel to open.
“One of the great ironies is that [Fredericksburg is] a region that has so much for people to enjoy and explore, and it’s also a region that was kind of bereft of a signature hospitality experience,” Lang said. “It's dominated by select-service motels and short-term rentals.”
Originally, the Albert Hotel was slated for a 2022 opening after being announced in 2020. Through a pandemic and global supply chain issues, the New Waterloo team persevered, and even opened some of the dining concepts several months ahead of the hotel. The space now has a spa, Texas swimming hole-inspired pool, a coffee shop, a bar and a restaurant. A barbecue spot will also open in the coming months.
“Fredericksburg is just a stone’s throw away from four of the largest metropolitan areas in the state. It's close enough to home that it's accessible and easy, and it is far enough from home to where you can mentally, emotionally and spiritually downshift,” Lang said.
Cultivating culture in Cleveland
The company’s other new concept, the 97-room Fidelity Hotel, was designed in collaboration with Chicago-based architect Hartshorne Plunkard Architecture to reflect the architecture and culture of downtown Cleveland.
“I spent so much time in Cleveland over the past five years, and I've truly fallen in love with that city,” Lang said. “It is so underrated.”
Cleveland has 46 hotels open in the area, with another six to be delivered over the next few years, per CoStar data.
Renovating the 103-year-old office building had its own unique challenges, including getting creative with the room design. Lang said the building is small and not well laid out for living spaces.
“You kind of (get) a European pied-a-terre feeling with the rooms,” Lang said. “They really were designed with the urban traveler in mind, coming in for a night or two with your roller bag. The rooms are intimate, but they're efficient.”
The Fidelity Hotel also includes a first-floor full-service restaurant, bar and lounge.
A future in boutique hotels
New Waterloo has been in the hospitality industry for 15 years, and opened the South Congress Hotel, an 83-room luxury hotel in the heart of Austin, about a decade ago. Since then, the company has opened hotels in Baltimore and Merced, California, as well as several restaurant concepts, most within Austin.
Lang, who spent several years of his career at Four Seasons, said New Waterloo looks for partners in the markets it expands into and does its due diligence to pay homage within the hotel to its region. That’s something bigger brands don’t always do.
“You want an experience of the place you're visiting, you want something that's unique, authentic and true to the town you’re in, and that's what we try to do,” Lang said. “We try to present products that are true to the locale.”
The company has two more hotels in the works, one in Cincinnati and one in the Texas Hill Country, which Lang said would deliver in 2026 and 2027, respectively.
“We definitely do see hotels as the growth engine of the company,” Lang said. “I think the future of hospitality is boutique lifestyle.”