SAN ANTONIO │ Frost Bank Headquarters │ 386 FEET | 23 FLOORS │ Complete
 

Graham Weston and his Weston Urban real estate group have proposed to build a new downtown mixed-use skyscraper that will house Frost Bank's new headquarters, as well as 300 residential units.

Construction cam link:

https://app.oxblue.com/open/kdc/frostbank

Where are you getting 50 stories? All I've seen is "in the 40 story range" and in sa that's a lot more likely to mean 30-35 stories. I desperately want to be proven wrong but just basing it off the city's history. Link to said 50 stories quote thanks!

Holy goodness. Finally! Can this be expedited, please?

WOAI news cast just reported it's stats as:

400k sq foot office space
300 residential units
700 parking spaces.


Will be interesting to see how this pans out. According to the news repoet the public will have a large say in how the development works out, so that makes me uneasy.

I created these gifs to show what type of impact on the skyline this building will make.

The public input wouldn't be for the design, it would be for the P-3 review of the partnership between Frost and Weston and whether or not it's a good deal for the city.

It about time. Come on and build this San Antonio.

Holy crap! That will be some tower! 300 residential units could bump up the square footage by about 200,000 to 300,000. So possibly 6 or 700,000sq building, easily the city's tallest. Or maybe two separate buildings, one office - one residential. That would be great too (I guess:(). And I think the public will be just fine with the exchange, except maybe the San Fernando Gym(maybe some grumblings there). Graham Weston is a cool guy, he's not gonna knock those buildings down or build anything ugly.

I love the spot. Going to have this on one end tower on the other. Works out well for the typical signature skyline style pics of cities

I may be the only one reading it this way, but I think that the office development and residential units are not one in the same. With that being said, Bank of America Plaza (28 floors) is 530k sq. ft. and has 870 parking spaces. It is possible, but I think that Weston's contribution to residential will be mostly in conversion of old office into residential (as was previously thrown around at the Metro Health bldg) and possibly new construction on those skinny lots between Main and Soledad.

One thing that I will say about this, seeing as that Frost will lease the space and not own the building, is that I hope that there is retail space on the ground floor. That is one sure way to get more feet on the street.

Either way, a most welcome addition.

This is great! Where does the 40-50 floors figure come from?

Who knows. Everything from news releases says "in the 40 story range" 50 is hyper optimistic IMO

http://static.panoramio.com/photos/o...l/66466994.jpg

The location of the new tower!

It's one of the most tree-lined blocks in downtown SA. Maybe they'll find a way to build a great building while keeping the trees. My hopes are high considering the Frost Tower in Austin.

https://maps.google.com/maps?q=san+a...gl=us&t=k&z=18

Another gif I created.

Excellent! I've only been here for a week or so, but I'm really enjoying the city. Downtown is really nice and has lot's of potential. This new tower will be a great addition.

Isn't frost building a large corporate office in the westover hills area?

Great news indeed. Hopefully this actually goes through. I really like planned location, That side of downtown could use some love. That being said and seeing how this is SA, I wont get my hopes up for this project.

Yes, to house the workers that work at the Rand building. Graham Weston bought that building and now houses Geekdom there.

Don't be cynical. A project that has the back of the Mayor, Graham Weston and Frost is getting built. :tup:

:haha: What do you expect? We've had it rough in the high rise development area compared to the rest of the state. HDRC shoots down pretty much everything. When something does get approved, you can bet they are going to have numerous problems with the design. I'm still bitter as hell about the proposed Joske's Tower project. That was by far my favorite proposal of the past two decades and perfect for SA. Should have been approved and could have went on to be a great model to follow for any future high rise developments downtown.

I'll never forget when the Frost Bank Tower Austin project was announced, giving Austin its first true signature tower. While knowing they were headquartered in San Antonio and the bland building they called home. So yeah that's the only reason I'm holding out any hope. Maybe Frost will finally give its hometown the signature tower it deserves. :tup:

San Antonio gives the HDRC more credit (or disrespect) than it deserves. Correct me if I'm wrong, but they only have oversight if one of three conditions is met 1) the building is designated historic or in a historic district; 2) it's owned by the City; or 3) it sits in the Rio Overlay area along the river. It seems like they have more power than they do because well, so far all the development downtown has been clustered around the river, been a reuse of an old building, or been City-owned. The UHS expansion, HEB store, and developments along South Flores like 1010 didn't have to be approved by them. Considering the new tower's site and it's private owner, my guess is the HDRC won't be involved.

As for the Joske's tower, it was a beautiful proposal for a bad location. I agreed with the proposal until the National Parks Service and UNESCO team said the tower could jeopardize a World Heritage designation for the Alamo and the missions. IMO that designation and the attention it will bring our city is more important than the tower. But it was a really good design and in a perfect world they'd build that sucker in another part of downtown.

You give the HDRC too much credit. Too much. You can't use hyperbole like "they shoot down pretty much everything.", which is completely untrue. I see the HDRC getting way too much hate on here for reasons that shouldn't attributted to them.

The GH wasn't redesigned because.of the HDRC. It was redesigned because the builder who was also the designer went with the least expensive design.

The HDRC doesn't shoot down pretty much everything. A 350 ft high rise was approved at Navarro and Commerce in 2008. The developer never built it but it was approved.

The Joske's tower, which isn't dead, was/is a very unique case. It's being built atop a historic structure and very close to the Alamo. Proper attention was needed and is still needed.

Imo, had the developer used the second design initially, the hubbub that was created by the likes of the San Antonio Conservation Society wouldn't have been as loud or even have occurred. The first design was awful and that is what sparked the outrage.

Is the HdRc perfect? No. But they aren't the boogieman you seem to think they are.

How tall do you think this will be. The Austin frost tower is like 525 ft and its only 33 stories. Could this building, at 40+ stories, be over 600 feet tall.

I can see it being between 550 and 700 feet. Depending on the design. Also, the residential units (300) will be part of the building.

Also, don't be surprised to see a second tower next to or near this one as Weston Urban is very interested in developing the CPS tower.

Where have you read that the 300 units will be part of the building that Frost is going to occupy?

Sources.

I've heard the rumblings about this deal for a while now. The reason it came out a few days ago is because Castro is leaving for Washington D.C.

They sped everything up once he decided he wanted to seek higher power.

The CPS tower has a lot of interest from developers, including Weston, and CPS will go with the best proposal. The CEO really wants an iconic tower for downtown as well. So this will be very interesting.

Graham's vision with the Frost tower is to use it not only to bring new class A office space for downtown but to use it to house tech companies. Either those coming out of Geekdom or by attracting tech jobs from out of state.

He then wants to build housing for those employees.

Good times ahead.

Just think about it. We have Goldbury developing The Pearl, Graham developing downtown and Lifshutz helping to develop Southtown.

If Weston does develop both properties, I wonder if the towers will complement each other.

If they are different, I wonder if the developers will be competing in a race of sorts for the tallest, most iconic tower.

A San Antonio version of the Chrysler Building Vs the Empire State Building battle "be it on a much smaller scale" would be awesome :haha:

More than likely though, I'm sure they will compliment one another. Which will get no complaints from me.

Complement

http://www.news4sanantonio.com/news/...88-13087.shtml

"Under the current proposal, the multi-purpose tower would include more than 300 housing units, more than 700 parking spaces and 400,000 square feet of office space."

I am excited about the Frost and CPS proposed towers and hope a truly iconic style(timeless) is chosen for at least one of them. To me, iconic, would be something like this clock tower or one of the other ornate towers shown in this photo of Chicago. The Tower Life would be another example. Not that I don't welcome the various styles of modern architecture, I just think it would be cooler to see a soaring clock tower with perhaps the Frost emblem outlining the clock. I just hope these structures get off the ground soon regardless of the style of architecture that is picked, I am sure the towers will be tasteful nonetheless.

Please don't come out blue, purple, orange, or yellow. I will take a plane jane glass tower over one that tries to incorporate san antonio's rich historical past.

Ha! I'd prefer neither. How about something with a good design?

Great news for SA! I would expect this tower to be designed as a thiner one than most office structures (since it may be a residential component). Office projects are usually much thicker than residential ones...since you cannot have "interior" residential units.

Does anyone else think that roughly 700 parking spaces seem a bit light?

Yes.

Here in Raleigh, we have an office/residential combo; it has only 275k sq. ft. of office and 139 condo units (32 floors, 538 ft.). It has 357 spots built-in to the building and 1,050 across the street and includes public parking.

http://uzuncase.com/2013/wp-content/...aza822x432.jpg

So yes it seems light, and no it doesn't seem like enough if the city also wanted some public parking in the building on top of that which is provided for the offices and residents.

Ready for some really exciting news? I'm hearing that this (mixed-use) tower will very likely be over 700 feet.

Wow! Very exciting news!

SA will definitely look like the seventh largest city in the nation!
:cheers:

Who are your sources for this?

Hell yea! I can't wait to see what will come to fruition

Little birdies. :)

I would believe him! sirkingwilliam has been saying get ready for skyscraper announcements for over a year now. haha

But, 700ft!?!? Oh my gosh, this is exciting! Again, what if CPS tries to compete with the height?! I mean, it could happen.

Now that would be awesome. Not to mention beyond all my expectations. Something around 725 would be a dream come true. Would also be more than enough to give us our spot back for tallest building in Texas outside of Dallas/Houston.:tup:

Man, after so many decades of stagnation downtown, 700ft would be insane. :cheers:

While not the powerful force it once was around here, the good folks of COGSADCAJA can still bring the wet blanket. Ha.

I think the "let's not get too far ahead of ourselves" vibe is a good one. There is a reason we haven't had anything happening of this type in 25 years.

Let's hope something gets built. Then, we can all start pulling for anything that isn't primarily BROWN. Then we can raise the bar and hope for 400, be thrilled with 500, or blow our minds with 600 or 700.

I understand what you are saying, but I don't think that we have to completely lower our expectations. We deserve a tower with a beautiful design as much as any other city.

That's great news!

I'm really hoping you guys get something nice and big with this one. I'll be happy, too. I'm actually going to be in San Antonio on Thursday and plan to head downtown for some photos. Maybe next time I'm in town this baby will be under construction. While the construction boom in Austin has been fascinating to watch, educational and oh so very cool, I have to admit I've missed going to San Antonio to see taller buildings. I pretty much never visit Dallas and I'm rarely ever in Houston, but I get to San Antonio a few times a year every year. It'll be sweet to see something big get built in San Antonio.