David and Andrew Wood, brothers and UT alumni, opened a hotel in the Rainey Street Historic District last month to expand on their real estate development ventures and reconnect with their past in Austin.
The brothers, members of the school’s rowing team during their time at the University, intentionally picked a location near Lady Bird Lake, the place they used to practice, to open the Cambria Hotel. The area has changed significantly since their time as students and highlights the best parts about present-day Austin, Andrew Wood said.
“(When) we lived here (as students), there weren’t many great condo residential buildings that you can live in to find a home,” Andrew Wood said. “Now you can live (here) and enjoy all the amenities of downtown.”
The Cambria Hotel includes a rooftop venue, a pool deck and multiple places to get food. It aims to accommodate a large variety of travelers, including college students, their visiting families and tourists, David Wood said.
“We’d like to tailor our hotel to a wide range of travelers,” David Wood said. “We want it to be young and fun and appeal to all demographics.”
Before this project, the brothers previously opened hotels in California. They said they credit a lot of their success to their time spent at the University.
“(In the College of Liberal Arts), you were surrounded by a lot of really talented individuals, whether it be your schoolmates or the professors,” Andrew Wood said. “It gave us a toolbox and a responsibility to be a critical thinker, to work hard (and) to be responsible.”
Another aspect of the University that guided their success was their experience as student athletes, Andrew Wood said.
“Part of (being a student athlete) is you have to be disciplined in how you manage your time and how you work in a team environment with others,” Andrew Wood said. “Like many sports, all the student athletes had to maintain a structure of full-time students in all our classes. The discipline part of it, and then working as a team. … You had to put the very best effort that you could to make sure that you were a dependable team member.”
For this project, the brothers said they utilized their alma mater by working with the expansive alumni base.
“The huge alumni base that we have has been an integral part with being successful in a lot of our projects,” David said. “From our builder … to our partners, (it’s) a huge alumni base, which goes across the whole country.”
Despite this being their first hotel in Austin, Andrew said the area feels like home to them, and he hopes to open more in the future.
“It’s an exciting first hotel … development for us in the city of Austin,” Andrew said. “We anticipate more to come.”
