SAN ANTONIO │ CPS Headquarters Redevelopment Thread | U/C
 

The story is behind a paywall, but here's the quote pertaining to the skyline.

http://www.expressnews.com/business/...le-4528587.php

*dead*

This needs to happen.:yes:

I can see this happening.

I'm hearing the city, including CPS, want it to be in the 600-700 ft range. There are whispers this could go near the Weston with Graham building residential next to or very near it.

Exciting times ahead my friends.

600-700ft?! That'd be amazing! I hope it's closer to 700. I hope the design is bad.

Care to elaborate on that?

As much as I'd love to see this actually get built, I'll believe it when I see it. I'm not getting my hopes up too high

Oh gosh. Got too excited, I meant ISN'T*

Is the idea for a mixed-use building with residential or hotel space in it? A 600 foot tower is a lot of space to dump in a downtown office market with a 30% vacancy rate.

I'd love to see it happen, but we have a lot of work to do to on those Geekdom startups to fill that much space.

Haha, I knew I was missing something.

I see the location is rumored to be near the Weston Center; does anyone have any guesses as to where, specifically, this building will end up? I know it's too early to know anything, but it's fun to speculate.

That's true. I forgot about the vacancy rate. I think your idea of a hotel on the first few floors might work. Especially for the businesses that might operate on the higher floors, or vice versa.

I think part of the problem with the vacancy rate, is just the sheer age of some of the existing space in downtown. I believe Weston is one of/if not the newest office tower in downtown and that was in 88 or 89? You have to wonder just how out of date some of the infrastructure in terms of data, electrical, water, sewer, conveying equipment etc. is in these buildings. When companies move into a space, they don't want to be dealing with outdated real estate that could hinder their ability to grow.

True enough, but if the demand were there, wouldn't the property owners pay to update the infrastructure? Or once a B always a B?

Maybe it pays to operate at a loss and keep it for "land holding" reasons (i.e. The Milam)? Heck, demand is not even there for crumbling buildings (eyesore on St. Mary's) to let people squat in it.

There is some demand for Class A space; One Riverwalk (caddy-corner to the eyesore) is only at 65% but I remember a while back they were upgrading and renovating the ground floor and "restaurant" at River level. Wouldn't have gone through renovation if they didn't feel demand would be there; even after the downturn in '07.

From Apr. 2012
http://www.bizjournals.com/sanantoni....html?page=all

Give it a bit of time. Once the market absorbs the residential that's popping up, I expect a bit of an uptick at least by this time next year. Who know's, perhaps Weston might buy out The Milam and convert them to aparments, knocking two birds out.

I thought that was meant as a jab at the HDRC. Honest.

Any idea of what this building will look like?

just to throw this out there....
 

Submitted for conversation...Wouldn't it be better to have two 400'ers than one 800'? Please don't get me wrong, things are finally starting to happen here and I don't want our downtown to look like OKC with a couple kinda tall buildings and one really tall. A more extreme example would be if that 800'er gets built in Midland. Just sticking my neck out there....:shrug:

Hey texastarkus, that's a great thought. I can see where you're coming from. Another example might be Dubai, where the Burj is massively taller than anything else around it.

However, I don't think that's what we'd be looking at here. According to Emporis, the Weston Centre is 557' at the top and the Tower is 622' at the architectural height or 730' at the tip of the antenna.

The CPS Energy building would fall somewhere in that 557'-730' range so it wouldn't be alone in that height range. It could look more like the Comcast Center in Philly, which looks like a natural growth in the skyline.

I think more important than height is the fact that there would just be a lot of empty space around it on the northwest end of downtown. Hopefully Weston Urban plans some taller apartments to go with the office building.

The 557 foot "tip" height for the Weston Centre is for the antennas. That number came from an antenna registration website. And I'm not even sure the antennas are that tall since they are clearly not taller than the flagpole on the Tower Life Building which is supposed to be around 100 feet. I do know the building is taller than the supposed 444 foot height that we'd always seen. The most accurate height I've been able to find for it is 466 feet. I was the main editor for San Antonio at Emporis for 10 years.

At this point, a 600'er would make an impact on the skyline and I would prefer (just a personal preference) to keep the Tower the tallest or at least not too much shorter than our (future) tallest. Would I prefer a 600'er or 2 300'ers? Well, it would depend on the design of the building. If it ended up "office park-like" then I would hate either one. Mixed-use maximizing the street would be the best with any height. I think I might squeak out the preference for a single tall only to take up less real estate and leave room for more residential.

I say go for the tall one.
http://en.wikiarquitectura.com/image...tate_Nuves.jpg
http://en.wikiarquitectura.com/image...tate_Nuves.jpg

I second this. lol

I say anything that will look good as coming up from the south or goin down from the north:notacrook:.

And of course something in that 950 range.Jk 550 or 600 would be nice though.:rolleyes:

But it will most likely be 400 to 450 at best.:uhh:

Why don't builders try to build up northwest of downtown instead of the convention center/Hemisphere area.

San Antonio | CPS Headquarters | N/A FLOORS | Proposed
 

Oh gosh, the gears are turning.

Can't wait to hear more. Hopefully it's a good design.

I cant wait to see this!

Excited!!! Go San Antonio! :cheers:

Here's to hoping for something decent. That being said this is San Antonio, so I'm prepared to be let down yet again.

Because developers find the largest margins near the river and hotels! The achilles heal to downtown SA is the river. Nobody wants tone too far from it. The city of San Antonio will have to be creative in finding ways to coax developers away from the river/tourist areas to other parts of downtown in an attempt to spur new, large-scale development.

BTW, I guess there is no new news on this particular project since last May, huh? Mothballed? Dead? If it were in development, we would have heard something by now...it's been, what, nine months?!?

There's a dedicated thread for this development. I should have merged the two threads. I will be doing that now.

CPS hires national real estate firm to help it with headquarters relocation
http://www.bizjournals.com/sanantoni...o-help-it.html

"considering buying or leasing another downtown space"
It looks like the key words here are: buying, leasing, space.

I'm not saying this would prevent them from building, but it seems like there would be some urgency to get them to vacate if they have prospective buyer. If they don't, then it certainly sounds like relocating to an existing building is not out of the question. The article stated this process would take 12 to 18 months.

Well in this article, they do express preference for a new building, so hopefully the group will take note.

CPS committed to staying downtown
http://www.expressnews.com/business/...wn-5308657.php

Here are some more quotes from the article Alice posted.

Thanks for posting the other article.

There were some interesting comments made. Why the east side? And the comments about some other company moving to the core; why would you make a generalization like that unless they have some knowledge of that being a possibility?

The other comment was the 4 choices: don't relocate, move into an existing building, build your own, or lease a new building. It feels like they are looking for the last option.

That comment was made by Lou Miller, who is on the advisory committee and who is also a member of the African American Chamber of Commerce of San Antonio. Which would explain his desire for the HQ to be in east downtown.

Doyle Beneby (CPS president) is black. With what the other poster said, and hell even throw in promise zone incentives it may go on the eastside. Hopefully not deep in but near downtown just around vidorra. There's just too much speculation with stuff like this unless someone here is directly involved with the development

I did think of the whole economic generator for the east side approach. I was more curious about city owned property; possible sites.

You are right about the speculation. That is all it is at this time since option 1 was "we don't move". So there's not even a proposal (maybe in 12months).

I thought there was some property that Zachry was hot to develop at one time on the near east side?

That's just speculation:notacrook:

Staying put isn't option 1, it's one of the four options. Whatever order they're placed in in an article is irrelevant. I can firmly tell you their preference is to remain downtown in a new HQ building they would lease.

Sure, as I stated earlier "It feels like they are looking for the last option".

By "Option 1" I meant the first he listed, not their first choice. It's obvious they want new digs.

CPS Energy secures Cassidy Turley to help identify new HQ site
 

W. Scott Bailey
Reporter/Project Coordinator- San Antonio Business Journal
Jul 1, 2014, 2:43pm CDT Updated: Jul 2, 2014, 9:16am CDT

http://www.bizjournals.com/sanantoni...-identify.html

That's very encouraging for the prospect of a new building downtown.

On a related noted, the photo they show has the Tower Life Building in it. It's still one of my favorites of all time.

Having trouble making it link, but here it is.
media.bizj.us/view/img/1667571/6-cps-energy-building-12-20sahubsnfp122013*600xx1500-1000-0-250.jpg

CPS new headquarters
 

Anyone have any new info on this proposed project?:???:

What's the latest? Anyone?