Pioneering cigar company progresses on Ybor hotel conversion project

Project details

Located directly across the street from J.C. Newman Cigar Co., one of Ybor City’s last remaining original cigar factories, the two-story Sanchez y Haya Hotel was built in 1910. That makes it one of the oldest commercial buildings not just in Tampa, but all of Florida. It originally opened as a small hotel for cigar factory workers, with an on-site coffee shop and restaurant. But it became a target of federal agents during the Prohibition area, when owner Maximo Gonzalez and several co-conspirators were arrested for their role in an illegal alcohol smuggling operation.