After the death of the Baron and the Baroness, their son Antônio Clemente Pinto Filho, the Count of São Clemente, sold the property in 1889, shortly before the Proclamation of the Republic of Brazil, to an investors group, who founded the "Companhia Grande Hotel Internacional" (Grande Hotel Internacional Company). This development, however, did not succeed in turning the palace into a luxury hotel. Due to the economic crisis in the late 1880s and early 1890s (The "Encilhamento"), the venture went bankrupt, and its titles acquired by counselor Francisco de Paula Mayrink. Five years later, Mayrink paid off debts to the Bank of Brazil.