Cigar company to develop hotel, restaurant at historic property

TAMPA — J.C. Newman Cigar Co. has announced plans to restore the Sanchez y Haya hotel in Ybor City, which it acquired in August 2020 for $650,000.

The historic property, at 1601 E. Columbus Drive, will again operate as a hotel when it reopens in late 2023, according to a press release. It will also feature a restaurant and cigar lounge.

Drew Newman, J.C. Newman’s general counsel and great-grandson of the company’s founder, says the hotel will complement the firm’s El Reloj cigar factory, located across the street, which was recently restored. It now houses a three-level cigar museum, interactive theater showing old cigar films, space to host cigar-friendly events, factory tours and a cigar-rolling school.

“My family and I have been overwhelmed by the number of people who want to visit El Reloj,” Newman states in the release. “We realized that we need to provide more amenities to host our visitors. Restoring the historic Sanchez y Haya hotel will help us welcome even more cigar lovers to Tampa’s Ybor City cigar district.”

Built in 1910 to house cigar workers and visitors to the El Reloj, the Sanchez y Haya was home to a bootlegging operation during Prohibition, as well as gatherings of Tampa’s criminal underworld. Today, it’s inhabited by a 10,000-strong colony of bats.

J.C. Newman, the release states, plans to work with a nonprofit bat rescue organization to relocate the bats into custom-built shelters in a park across the street.

“We want our bat colony to grow and thrive,” Newman states in the release. “Our bats will become a tourist attraction of their own and will, perhaps, inspire a special, new cigar in the future.”