SA: Big Plans Instore for The Rim - IKEA, 5-6 Hotels
 

Growth seen for The Rim

Web Posted: 10/11/2007 08:27 PM CDT

Melissa S. Monroe
Express-News Business Writer
http://www.mysanantonio.com/business...m.2bf36de.html

The developer of the massive The Rim shopping center in Northwest San Antonio plans to open five or even six hotels there within the next few years and is working to lure retailers such as Whole Foods and IKEA.

Stan Thomas, founder and CEO of Atlanta-based Thomas Enterprises Inc., said his company has been attracting retailers and companies that once were eyeing downtown or North Central San Antonio.

The Rim center will include two Marriott hotels and an upscale boutique hotel and spa called The Stanbury. The Stanbury, also going in at a Thomas Enterprises development in Atlanta, is a luxury hotel that combines residences with hotel rooms.

Other companies exploring locating at The Rim at Loop 1604 and Interstate 10 include Dick's Sporting Goods and Staples, Thomas said.

Thomas was in San Antonio on Thursday for the opening of a Chick-fil-A restaurant at The Rim, which drew hundreds of customers.

That area of the city needs more hotels, said Marco A. Barros, president and CEO of the San Antonio Area Tourism Council.

"The area around The Rim shopping center is one of the fastest-growing areas in San Antonio, and more hotel rooms are needed to serve the demand created by Six Flags Fiesta Texas, the Westin La Cantera Resort, UTSA and other corporate businesses," Barros said.

"I foresee that area growing all the way to Boerne and offering various hotel brand names" for visitors to San Antonio.

Kimberly S. Gatley, director of market research for REOC Partners, a local commercial real estate firm, said both developers and retailers are seeing the value of the Northwest market.

"As a national developer, Thomas Enterprises recognizes San Antonio as being underserved," she said.

"From the start of the project, it's been successful. The development we are seeing at The Rim and The Shops at La Cantera are basically meeting the pent-up demand for retailers and services. We will continue to see the residential growth and expansion of more retail services."

She added she has heard that Whole Foods wants to bring another store here, and IKEA has expressed interest as well.

Developer Thomas said his company, which has centers in Georgia, Florida and California, has worked with Whole Foods in the past, and he hopes the retailer picks The Rim for another store.

However, a Whole Foods spokesman reached late Thursday said the company doesn't have plans to open another store in San Antonio.

Thomas said his company also is in active conversations with IKEA, and getting it would add more regional appeal to the center. IKEA recently opened a store in Round Rock.

Thomas said the second phase of the project, called The Village, is already under way, and he envisions the center being the future of San Antonio.

"One of the great things about this site is it's like Main Street," he said. "It's convenient and visible. It has a regional draw to it with the retailers that are here — and it still feels local."

Some anchors of the 800-acre site are Bass Pro Shops Outdoor World, the Palladium theater, JCPenney, Best Buy and Target.

Thomas said both Bass Pro and the Palladium have been a regional attraction for shoppers, and the Palladium is considered the seventh-busiest theater in North America.

To complement the hotels, Thomas added that the center also is getting four restaurants new to the city that he chose not to identify.

His company also is working on convincing companies to locate their headquarters at the shopping center, which will combine residential units, upscale condos, an office complex and an auto dealership.

The only thing I genuinely dislike is their strong lobbying for HQ's to relocate to The Rim.

I'm not sure this needed it's own thread in addition to being posted in the suburban thread.:shrug:

I know, I know, very redundant and I apologize but their is a reason for this. I feel like the Suburban Update thread is for the locals who want to inquire on what's happening and that a single thread in the main Texas section would be to inform the masses who won't/don't access the Suburban thread. Hopefully that ok with everyone, if not, again I apologize.

sirkingwilliam-
I know, I know, very redundant and I apologize but their is a reason for this. I feel like the Suburban Update thread is for the locals who want to inquire on what's happening and that a single thread in the main Texas section would be to inform the masses who won't/don't access the Suburban thread. Hopefully that ok with everyone, if not, again I apologize.


No need to explain yourself sirkingwilliam. Thanks for the update.

After reading the article, i really am not convinenced by some of what it says. I really feel this is pulling away from the Urban Core. Specifically when stuff like this is said: "said his company has been attracting retailers and companies that once were eyeing downtown or North Central San Antonio."

But what can you do.......... :shrug:

I was all excited for IKEA coming to SA when I realized that it hasn't actually happened.

It's just a matter of time. IKEA has been looking for the right location to select. They had it with Regal Hills until plans changed (now the much much better The Landmark). It seems they won't venture too, just across 1604.

Good location for IKEA. I never thought it to be a coincidence that they searched out the northern end of the Austin metro area for the new store (ended up in Round Rock), expecting an eventual store in San Antonio (and hence a reasonable distance buffer).

I believe IKEA either wanted to either build one between the metro areas or build one in each, but it seems they (IKEA) always preferred the latter of the two never really given much thought to the idea of just one store.

As you can see by the site plan for The Rim, the red cluster of large buildings on the far south side of The Rim that border 1604 would be the likely destination for the stores mentoned in the article.

http://img105.imageshack.us/img105/2...overallqt2.jpg

What is IKEA? And why is it such a big deal?

It's a swedish furniture store that provides ultra modern furniture for a very low price. It's a very popular store because of style of furniture they offer.

Ikea is cheap crap. You get what you pay for. I have no clue why everyone is so wild about it. They are building one in Ft. Lauderdale and everyone up in Broward is all excited. :koko:

For the same reason Krispy Kreme has camp outs for every grand opening. :koko:

That's fine. Also, if a project is announced that creates a lot of discussion about it, then it's perfectly fine to have a separate thread about it. This is so that the discussion can happen there, instead of jumbling up the update thread with 10s of replies. The update thread should be a compilation of projects. It'll be a great reference for people who only visit the forum about once a month or so and who want to keep up to date on projects, both new ones being announced, and construction progress.

Also, some developing events may grow into a lot of discussion clogging up the update thread. An example of this was in Austin when we had 3 controversial highrises that were planned near the river. The planning commission shot it down, well anyway, it created a lot of discussion from both sides, either for or against it. It went to 35 replies, so I moved those posts out of the update thread into their own thread where it could be talked about without clogging the update thread.
http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=139318

The fact that this guy was in town for the grand opening of a Chick-fil-a kind of puts this article in perspective. There are a lot of "maybes" about "so whats". It really doesn't say anything definate or new. With the exception of the Stanbury hotel (the former Talavera?).

But hey...there's a new chick-fil-a in town:banana:

^^^ Hey man, don't knock Chic-fil-a openings. The first 100 customers through the door get free Chic-fil-a for a year (really it's just 52 free meal coupons). I went to 4 opening in college - they helped me get through my junior year.

...sorry for the off topic post!

Aha, well good news for SA I guess.

Have you been to Ikea?

I've had plenty of rowdy sex on an ikea bed, and not a single screw has come loose. I have a battery operated LED lamp that I got for pennies and it hasn't even needed a replacement in months.

You fail to understand the simple economic concept, that's for sure-- but what's the real reason you hate Ikea?

Is it because you hate FREEDOM?

Yes you are correct. I do not Ikea because I hate "FREEDOM" :koko:

WTF!!! LMFAO!!! :lmao:

Ikea sucks and is one of the most overated trashy stores on the planet.
Here in Europe the stores are not even that cheap! In the States I am not sure other than a bookcase or some simple item why anyone would furnish a house or kitchen with it. But more power to you if you do.

Somewhere in Sweden a man is eating a meatball and laughing right now...

Ciao, and Hook 'em Horns,
Capt-AWACS, Pissing off forumers since 1999

Ikea is great, I think, it's not a place where you would go to furnish your entire house, but they have lots of creative little things that do the trick for the price. Also, Ikea's products vary in quality - they have more expensive offerings that are much better-made than their entry-level stuff.

Good to see San Antonio finally getting an IKEA. All the big, important cities in Texas have had one for awhile now.

SA would have had one a lot sooner if it weren't for certain back room dealings.

So you're implying that Austin or Round Rock used payola or something to influence IKEA?

:haha:

My comment had nothing to do with anyone outside of San Antonio. Are you trying to start something?

Well, your above statement was open with a lot of room for interpretation - maybe you can explain what it means?

I won't/can't, which is why I wrote it that way, but what the question to you is why would that be your assumption, seeing as how you think I left it open to a lot of interpretation. Maybe an inkblot test of sorts.

Right...so what makes a city big and important is if they have an ikea? :rolleyes: please, im not sayin sa is big or important..cause its really neither of the two...but a city getting more credit than is due just because it has a furniture store? its ok keep that cheaply crafted shit out of my city..

Now how many big important texas cities have a gucci store? thats a more serious question to be asked :) I think more people care about that then a furniture store...or maybe its just the age difference. Who knows.

I don't think he was in any way saying that the cities that have IKEA's are important because they have IKEA, I think he was just saying that it's odd that all the big cities in TX (Houston, Austin and Dallas) have one and not San Antonio, being that it is the last big city in TX not to get one. I'm not speaking for him but thats what I got from that.

Well, unless I misread, you suggested that an IKEA wasn't built sooner in San Antonio because of back room dealings. This would indicate that there was something in San Antonio politics or real estate development that actively prohibited IKEA from entering a certain location or the market at all, or would indicate that there was some kind of influence that caused Austin to get one built sooner vs. San Antonio. It just seems like something that's kind of serious and that's why I remarked. If that kind of stuff actually happened, certainly we would want to know about it. But since you can't comment further, I don't know what the point of your comment was in the first place.

(Perhaps to allay the suggestion that San Antonio otherwise didn't have the demographics to warrant one, which had been bandied about before with other new stores?)

Don't worry about not having an IKEA. Big buildings should not be blue and yellow.

Anyway, I don't think it's demographics, there are IKEA's in Poland where the median income is like $12,000 a year. It's probably just a matter of being closer to a distribution center, a highway, or maybe they got the right price in Round Rock and couldn't find the right spot in SA yet. I definitely want San Antonio to get one, because that will reduce the amount of traffic from SA-metro area people driving out of their way to go to the Round Rock one.

Nope. And the demographics actually favor SA for a store so that's not the reason. SA was also getting a store, the timing like I said was hauled because of other reasons.

Good point. My cousin drove all the way to Houston to pick up a bed that he had ordered online from them before they opened the Round Rock store.

Well, since you can't say what the reasons are, I don't know why you brought it up to begin with. Unless you work for IKEA's new stores division, I doubt you really know what their reasoning was. Just like I don't know. Was Austin getting a Nordstrom's first due to "other reasons" too?

The reason I don't tell you what the reasons are is simple. 1) It's not as scandalous as you seem to want it to be. It's actually quite tame. 2) The person who informed me of what happened (someone who is in the know) is a frequent visitor of this forum (yet to register and post) and if that person feels the need to make public that information I will let them as I'm not sure how happy they would be if I were to post her companies private information on a public forum.

Keep in mind, I never used the word first I said sooner, as in they'd (IKEA) have begun construction and finished a lot sooner as opposed to still looking for a location. What your deal is with trying to pit both metros against one another is clearly unknown but does speak volumes to me.

dont know if the last pic on this pdf had been posted, but if you click on the link below it will download a pdf and on the last page it has a rendering of the hotel/condos and the offices/townhomes/apts that are to be built at the rim...

http://www.reatarealestate.com/prope...Renderings.pdf

Yep, in the Suburban Development thread.

http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=134407

That hotel you talked about at the bottom of that PDF file looks beautiful. I'd love to see more of that.

has anyone signed up yet
 

After reading all of this I have a question...has any hotel company or business signed up for this project or was Ikea named to just grab headlines?

I believe the Hotel is a Hotel Talavera and IKEA wasn't named to grab headlines.

I can't even believe IKEA started this. Yes, it’s an interesting place-more a destination for come reason. IMO it really is not all that special. My sister recently got a dresser there that’s nicer than I expected it to be. I didn’t expect much, but she really got a decent piece for a very good price.

I'm not sure what you're trying to get at, Trae. And furthermore, I can't believe That anyone who maintains their own forum would be trolling in such a way on another one.

Stay on topic please.

http://i96.photobucket.com/albums/l1...1/P2070003.jpg

http://i96.photobucket.com/albums/l1...1/P2070004.jpg

Looks something like the Elian.

With what's going on in the 10/1604 area, I am not scared to say that this area will contain some of the best if not the best shopping in Texas.

No. outside of La Cantera, everything else is typical suburban big box shopping.