1970’s

In the late 1970s Marriott Hotels built a 30-story 500 room hotel where the boat ramp was originally located next to the Marina Parking Garage. As with the Hilton hotel on Alamo St. the new Marriott Riverwalk Hotel offers “across the street access” to the convention center complex.

1980’s

In the late 1980s a new extension was added where the decade old Marriott Riverwalk Hotel is located that led into the new Rivercenter Mall lagoon. Also included in the new extension was the 38-story 1,000 room Marriott Rivercenter Hotel. With this addition the shape of the original extension built for HemisFair ’68 was changed from an “L” shape into a “Y” shape.

2000’s

During the latest expansion/renovation of the convention center in the early 2000s, the original layout of the convention center lagoon was renovated to include a sky bridge (located approximately where the original lagoon ended) and the San Antonio River was extended further into the complex. The project also included a pedestrian walkway accented with water features that runs underneath the complex, thus restoring river level access to the fair grounds (now HemisFair Park)

In spring 2008 Hyatt Hotels opened the Grand Hyatt San Antonio Hotel located on the edge of the convention center lagoon. Built around the convention center theater (now Lila Cockrell Theater) the Hyatt features 1,000 guest rooms on the first 24 floors and condos on floors 25 through 32. Rooms on the south side have the view overlooking the Tower of the Americas as well as the remains of the main section of the fair grounds (now HemisFair Park).