Developer keeps history at the forefront of River Walk condo project
Web Posted: 04/06/2007 12:57 AM CDT
Rachel Stone
Express-News Business Writer
Architect Larry Raba likes to keep an eye on the downtown property that he envisions as the jewel of his career.
His family-run companies leased offices on the seventh floor of an adjacent building so employees and clients could overlook the site of their main project — Piazza San Lorenzo.
Raba, who heads up Raba Design Group and RTK Development Inc., can talk all day about the mixed-use project, which involves restoring, renovating and demolishing old buildings to create luxury condos as well as shops, restaurants, offices and what the company describes as the "west entrance to the River Walk."
But before he gets down to sticks and bricks, the third-generation San Antonio native talks about the site's history.
It currently has five buildings: the Book Building, three Clegg Co. buildings and one Solo Serve Corp. building. Raba acquired them two years ago for $10 million.
The buildings are on the site that used to be the Veramendi Palace, which was home to Texas and Coahuila governor Juan Martín de Veramendi. It was here that Jim Bowie married a wealthy merchant's daughter in 1831 and where Texas revolutionary Ben Milam dropped dead from a sniper's bullet in 1835.
The palace was demolished in 1910.
The doors of the palace are on display at the Alamo. But on Soledad, "there are no physical remnants," Raba said.
So Piazza San Lorenzo will include Veramendi Court, with artwork to commemorate the Veramendi family and the Texas Revolution.
Raba and his staff drew from designer Robert H. H. Hugman's original plans for the River Walk. Hugman had envisioned a street-level retail complex centering on a maze of tranquil courtyards.
His original plans were never put in place, and flooding issues prevented development of the river level on that portion of the River Walk — near Mexican Manhattan restaurant — until a flood-control tunnel was built about 10 years ago.
Now Raba would like to create Hugman's complex idea on the river.
"We're basically doing the same thing, but at river level," Raba said. "The concept goes back to 1929."
A wall made in the 1950s from stone rubble collected from buildings demolished on the site will be re-used as sections of the project's façade.
"We're not going to clean them. We want to preserve all that patina," Raba said. "We want it to look like it's been there for 100 years."
The company is negotiating with banks now for constructions loans and expects to close on one soon. If construction starts in August as planned, the project will be completed in the fall of 2009.
The plan calls for demolishing the old Solo Serve building and most of the Clegg buildings — two of the Clegg's Soledad-facing facades will be restored. The Book Building at 140 E. Houston will get an exterior restoration and interior renovation — it will become a street-level restaurant space with offices above.
In all, the complex will include three restaurants, 28 for-sale condos and 41 upscale timeshare units, which the company calls a private residence club.
All that will center on the 16,000-square-foot courtyard — the Piazza San Lorenzo — with steps leading to the River Walk. The courtyard, with its illuminated obelisk of Mexican onyx, will stay open to the public until 11 p.m., and it will be available two days a month for public events such as charity fundraisers.
The development's buildings will range from two stories to 11 stories.
Prices for the full-ownership condos start at $630,000 for a two-bedroom, one-and-a-half bathroom unit comprising 1,375 square feet with a 287-square-foot terrace. The high end starts at more than $2 million for three bedrooms and three and a half baths. And at $7.1 million, the three-story penthouse could be one of the city's most expensive residences ever, with 6,700 square feet of living space and a 1,400-square-foot terrace.
Raba expects the project to cost $80 million to build, though, which means that even with such hefty price tags for the condos, the funding still would fall short.
So Raba came up with the idea of selling 10 percent shares to 41 "residence club" condos, or timeshares.
The residence club units start at $152,500 for two bedrooms and top out at $294,000 for a four-bedroom. Buyers also pay annual assessments of $6,500, $7,500 and $9,000, depending on the unit, which pay for property taxes, insurance, maintenance, housekeeping and other services.
All together, the company could sell 410 shares.
Buyers of the timeshares could use the property every day of the year, subject to availability. But they can book up to two weeks solid every six months.
Raba expects that at least 40 percent of the residence club buyers will come from Mexico, but they've had calls from Sacramento to Singapore.
They're wealthy buyers who want a vacation home but don't want the hassle of caring for it, Raba said.
Perks included in the timeshare fees — and available a la carte for full-time residents — run the gamut from valet parking, an onsite gym, and even the use of a personal chef for dinner parties and call-ahead refrigerator stocking.
The staff even will put out personal belongings, including family photos, before owners arrive.
"We've got our hearts and souls in it," Raba said.