St. James Hotel

---

The restoration of an historic property into a branded hotel to support Selma’s growing civil rights tourism industry

Community facts*

• Census Tract: 01047956500
• Poverty Rate: 53.9%
• Unemployment Rate: 31.7%
• Median Family Income: $22,237 (40.18% of area average)
• Located in one of the country’s 431 “persistent poverty counties”

*at time of investment

Project impact*

• Restores an historic asset central to a rural community’s rich history
• Supports Selma’s growing civil rights tourism industry
• Anchors Selma’s downtown revitalization effort
• Creates about 45 permanent living wage jobs with training, health insurance and other benefits, about 42 are accessible to low income individuals, and 50 temporary construction jobs

*all impacts projected as of project closing date

The St. James Hotel in Selma, Alabama converted a long-shuttered asset that is central to this rural community’s rich history into a 55-key, Hilton™ Tapestry, full-service hotel to support Selma’s growing civil rights tourism industry and help revitalize the local economy.

The hotel, the last pre-Civil War riverfront hotel in the Southeast, is a block from the Edmund Pettus Bridge, a National Historic Landmark, scene of “Bloody Sunday” where, in 1965, civil rights activists were attacked by law enforcement at the start of a planned march from Selma to Montgomery, an effort that ultimately led to passage of the Voting Rights Act. The bridge is now one of the most well-known landmarks of the civil rights movement and attracts tourists from around the world. The hotel is also nearby other civil rights attractions including the National Park Service’s Selma Interpretative Center and the National Voting Rights Museum and Institute. Previously, Selma had no downtown hotel or any other business hotel that catered to the city’s large employers or tourists.

The reopening of the hotel is helping revitalize the downtown of this long economically distressed small city. The project created about 45 permanent living wage jobs with training, health insurance and other benefits, about 42 of which are accessible to low-income individuals. The development’s financing included federal and state historic tax credits.

---