Selma's St. James returns to inventory
The St. James Hotel reopened in downtown Selma on Tuesday 15 September 2026. The property trades under Series by Marriott and sits inside the Marriott Bonvoy programme. Spire Hospitality manages it. Spire's statement to the trade carries a 6 October 2026 dateline, three weeks after the reopening.
The operator calls the St. James a 55-room boutique property on Water Avenue and describes a landmark that has stood since 1837. Spire's release states that it is the only remaining riverfront antebellum hotel in the country. The 2019 and 2021 financing releases place it as the last pre-Civil War riverfront hotel in the Southeast.
The keys the redevelopment added
Two financing records bracket the room count. The April 2019 release describes a three-story brick masonry building with 42 guest rooms, a two-story porch and ornamental ironwork. The Woodforest CEI-Boulos Opportunity Fund release of 26 January 2021 describes Rhaglan Hospitality as having renovated and expanded the hotel into a 55-key full-service property. Spire's 2026 release carries 55 rooms. The redevelopment added 13 keys.
The capital behind the asset
The American South Real Estate Fund closed $3.4 million in senior bridge financing in April 2019 for the acquisition and the redevelopment. CoStar News put the redevelopment budget at $5 million and the job count above 40 full-time positions. The Woodforest CEI-Boulos Opportunity Fund announced a $2 million equity investment in January 2021 and described itself as the only outside investor in the project. That release projects 45 permanent jobs, 42 of them accessible to people with low incomes. Spire's release credits financing from Sarah Feinberg alongside continued investment by the Woodforest CEI-Boulos Opportunity Fund. No page read for this article links Sarah Feinberg to the hotel, to Selma or to the financing, so the name stands as the operator's own statement.
The room-day the day rate must clear
A guest room carries payroll, utilities and administrative cost across the whole day. An overnight sale and a daytime block each sell part of that room-day, and the committed cost sits under both. A daytime slot prices against the housekeeping and utilities it adds and against the overnight rate the same room gives up.
Selma is a rural market of fewer than 20,000 people, about 50 miles west of Montgomery. The 2019 financing release records a 54 percent poverty rate in the census tract and 1,250 historic structures, most of them downtown. CoStar News reported that the city's population fell 11.5 percent between 2010 and 2019 and that visitors drove 50 miles east on U.S. 80 to spend the night in Montgomery.
Joanne Bland, a lifelong Selma resident and a co-founder of the National Voting Rights Museum, described the pattern in the Woodforest release. “People come to Selma, take pictures of the bridge, and move on to Montgomery,” she said. The 2019 release records more than 25,000 visitors to the Selma Interpretative Center in 2017.
The Alabama day-use shelf on 13 October 2026
dayuse.com's Alabama page listed 63 day hotels on 13 October 2026, and 13 of those cards sat in Alabama. The Alabama blocks ran from US$60 to US$126. Country Inn & Suites by Radisson, Montgomery East I-85 carries a US$60 block against a US$82 nightly comparative, with windows at 8am to 2pm, 9am to 5pm and 5pm to 11pm. SureStay Hotel by Best Western Tuscaloosa Southeast also sits at US$60. Embassy Suites by Hilton Birmingham runs a US$99 block against a US$169 comparative. Hilton Birmingham Downtown at UAB runs a US$126 block against a US$335 comparative on a 9am to 7pm window.
Selma carries no listing in that read. All 63 cards were read across the page's two pages, and the nearest block inventory sits in Montgomery, 50 miles east.
The operator and the managers on the record
Mike Hogan, area general manager for Spire Hospitality, said the St. James adds a one-of-a-kind property to the company's portfolio. He said the team is focused on the consistent, high-value experience Series by Marriott guests count on alongside the preservation of a landmark that has stood for nearly two centuries. Cymethia Rudolph, general manager of the St. James Hotel, said the hotel has anchored downtown Selma since 1837 and that guests step from the door into the city.
What the release does not carry
The October release carries no room rate, no occupancy figure, no revenue per available room, no restoration cost and no reopening date of its own. It names no day rate and no daytime product for the property.