At 88 Riberia Street sits the Solla-Carcaba Cigar Factory, also known as the Pamies-Arango Cigar Factory, the last of its kind in St. Augustine. This is the last standing historic cigar factory in the Lincolnville Historic District, a building that earned a place on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places on May 6, 1993. For years it has served as professional office space, and it even housed Historic City News, a local source for neighborhood information.
Today you can imagine the building at a hinge moment: current owners Vista Hotels VIII, Inc., and their principal, Kanti Patel, are converting it from offices into a Hilton-branded boutique hotel to be named "The Factory. That change links this layered past — a cigar factory, then offices, now hospitality — to the ongoing story of Lincolnville. Listen for the echoes of named histories in the walls and consider the address, 88 Riberia Street, as a marker of continuity.
Take your time here; note the National Register date, and feel how many lives this building has held. Picture cigar rollers here, then office workers, and soon guests of the planned Hilton boutique hotel called The Factory.