SA Express News
Eric Killelea
Port San Antonio on Thursday unveiled plans for a futuristic wing-shaped office tower aimed at attracting new tenants and solidifying its status as the region’s largest technology center.
“This is a building that looks like nothing else on the planet and the final is going to look even cooler than this,” said Jim Perschbach, president and CEO of the Port. “We want it to be shorthand, not just for the Port, but for San Antonio.”
The Port’s 10-member Board of Directors approved a nearly $2 million agreement with Dallas-based real estate firm Trammell Crow Company to complete pre-development work for a new structure, which is expected to house DeLorean Motor Co. and other tenants at the main entrance of the former Kelly Air Force Base.
Over the next few months, the Port will negotiate an agreement with Trammell Crow and work with Pelli Clarke and Partners, a design architect in Connecticut, on the development’s final design.
Perschbach told the board that the tower could be from 12 to 15 stories and include at least 300,000 square feet of space for current and new tenants.
“Right now, we have the very enviable position of having more demand than we have space for,” he said. “We also wanted to continue to drive the real and perceived value of this campus.”
Displaying new renderings of the tower, he said it will serve as a symbol of the tech and science work being pursued at the Port, which now has more than 80 tenants and 17,000 employees. He said the goal is to replace the former Air Force base’s infrastructure “painted creech brown” with new buildings that are more reflective of its current workforce.
In an interview before the board meeting, Perschbach said the pre-development phase will determine the exact size and cost for what will become the first office tower in Southwest San Antonio.
“It will be in all likelihood on a per-square-foot basis the most expensive building in San Antonio on par with some of the nicest buildings being built in big cities across the country,” he said. “We don’t have a problem pushing toward what will be some of the highest rents in San Antonio, because we want to attract people who are willing to compensate people at a level commensurate with those rents.”
Perschbach acknowledged there is a possibility that the Port's board could decide the tower isn’t feasible during the pre-development phase.
“I would be shocked if that happens,” he added, describing how the board of directors would vote again after the pre-development period to determine whether they want to proceed.
Perschbach declined to name expected tenants other than DeLorean. An earlier iteration of the Port's plans included providing a space for the reborn automaker, which is establishing its new headquarters in San Antonio. Beyond DeLorean, he noted that “some of the usual suspects” in the aviation and technology industries could be at home in the tower, along with consulting, financial and law firms.
Rendering in the link below.
https://www.expressnews.com/business...edium=referral