SAN ANTONIO | Urban Core Development Thread

[Paul in S.A TX]

Originally Posted by WorldTexas

I'm too young to remember, but that's not the official word on their website. It keeps everything very Dallas-focused.

http://www.southwest.com/html/about-...ER-ABOUT-ABOUT

On a related note - Interjet Airlines, which is based out of Mexico, is looking at making San Antonio a mini-hub for its flights between the two countries. We're already their largest destination outside Mexico and rumor has it they just moved the head of U.S. expansion to SA. Could our best chance of growing the airport be through a foreign airline?

I wasn't around either, I found that info on their website years ago. I guess it was removed. The same with Lay's it was founded in San Antonio but not much documented on that, either.

[adtobias]

Any new high rise building in downtown being planned?

[UrbanTrance]

These were proposed for Alamo Heights.
http://www.woai.com/news/local/story...3bV4xYJYw.cspx

It's too bad those apartments did not come to fruition as suggested by this article:
http://www.mysanantonio.com/communit...id-4373847.php

I was wondering, though, if maybe the developer would consider building in Midtown/River North area? I don't see that as being too far fetched at all and those apartments could do nicely down there.

[Keep-SA-Lame]

I got a rendering of that project in an email forward. It was going to be 6 stories at the intersection of Broadway and Austin Hwy. Part of the issue is that the developer wanted the city to close a street and give it to them for free. The NIMBY factor was also strong.

[WorldTexas]

http://www.woai.com/news/local/story...3bV4xYJYw.cspx

The building is not bad, and I really enjoy the small plaza and fountain on the corner for some reason. If the ground floor includes retails, this would be a very nice addition to AH. For being one of the city's wealthier areas, the Broadway corridor through AH is very ratty looking.

Originally Posted by Alice93

I was wondering, though, if maybe the developer would consider building in Midtown/River North area? I don't see that as being too far fetched at all and those apartments could do nicely down there.

If it doesn't work in Alamo Heights, I hope they do look south on Broadway. Somethng like this would be great in River North or next to ... Embrey's project.

[miaht82]

Originally Posted by Keep-SA-Lame

Part of the issue is that the developer wanted the city to close a street and give it to them for free. The NIMBY factor was also strong.

So Alamo Heights wanted to keep Ausway, an ~250 ft. ROW that the city (taxpayers) has to pay to maintain so that people can have a shortcut? How much is maintenance costing the city?

Just by looking at the affected properties on BCAD, the total value is $666,910 and the total taxes paid out were $15,165.73 of which AH gets about 2/3 of.

So AH wants the privilege of maintaining a small street, and lose out on possibly hundreds of thousands of dollars; around 30-40 times what that land is currently giving the city, reducing other residents' tax liability by around $300-$400 per household, just to keep a tall building from going where the only place a tall building should go, if it were ever to be built anywhere in AH?

AH should have paid them to take the street from them.

[jaga185]

Preach Miah, you should have emailed WOAI. It bothers me so much when people get upset over things like this. It's only six stories and it's a beautiful building.

[Keep-SA-Lame]

Originally Posted by miaht82

So Alamo Heights wanted to keep Ausway, an ~250 ft. ROW that the city (taxpayers) has to pay to maintain so that people can have a shortcut? How much is maintenance costing the city?

Just by looking at the affected properties on BCAD, the total value is $666,910 and the total taxes paid out were $15,165.73 of which AH gets about 2/3 of.

So AH wants the privilege of maintaining a small street, and lose out on possibly hundreds of thousands of dollars; around 30-40 times what that land is currently giving the city, reducing other residents' tax liability by around $300-$400 per household, just to keep a tall building from going where the only place a tall building should go, if it were ever to be built anywhere in AH?

AH should have paid them to take the street from them.

I know. I agree with you. You just need to understand that people in AH do not get along with developers, so even the closing of a small ROW can become a huge deal.

[sirkingwilliam]

Why is a alamo heights development being posted in the downtown thread? Shouldn't this be posted in the sub/metro thread?

[UrbanTrance]

^ I posted it because I had a suggestion at the end of my post that pertained to the downtown area. It's not like the project is happening anyways.

[Schertz1]

It is a nice looking complex, but does not really provide much impact for its proposed location. The corner of Broadway and Austin Hwy deserves more than the same old same old.

True it’s better than what is there, but I would rather not see a common complex occupy an uncommon location. Only problem, based on the opposition, is the corner will not soon see anything better.

[Spoiler]

I think it just needs to be scaled back a bit. It is out of proportion to its surroundings.

[KevinFromTexas]

Can anyone tell me what year this hotel was built?

http://goo.gl/maps/Ud1My

http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Rev...nio_Texas.html

Apparently I have the date and floor count wrong. I got this one mixed up with the Drury Inn at 1604 & Interstate 10. This hotel is 10 floors, while that other one has 12.

[miaht82]

Originally Posted by KevinFromTexas

Can anyone tell me what year this hotel was built?

http://goo.gl/maps/Ud1My

http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Rev...nio_Texas.html

Apparently I have the date and floor count wrong. I got this one mixed up with the Drury Inn at 1604 & Interstate 10. This hotel is 10 floors, while that other one has 12.

You don't have it wrong. It is 12. It also depends on how you qualify a "floor" as a "floor". From the south view, it appears to be 10 floors, but it has a floor below ground, but if you are on Sigma Dr., it appears to be 11 floors. The lobby/entrance is on the 2nd floor, and has a 5 story parking garage on top, and 5 floors of rooms above that. Don't take my word for it, thats how it appears in SABizJournal:

Case in point: The new Drury Plaza at Loop 1604 and Sigma will feature 5,200 square feet of meeting space -- more than double the 2,000 square feet available now at the existing Drury Inn, Stevens says.

The layout of the Drury Plaza calls for general surface parking at the street level. The lobby and check-in area will be on the second floor.

Above the lobby, there will be a five-story parking garage. Above the garage, there will be five floors of hotel rooms.

But back to your first question; it was "open" in the Summer of 2010. The other one opened in 2009. I took some photos of it topping out in Aug. 2009 and the final permits for the fire alarm/sprinkler system were in June of 2010.



This was an older permit, but it has the floor count at 12.

[KevinFromTexas]

Thanks. I'll go with those dates and list it as 11 floors. When I saw that the Google aerial images hadn't updated to after it had been completed, I figured the streetview images wouldn't be either. Only the 1604 images show it.

I'm trying to get a complete building height list for San Antonio. I'm up to 99 buildings so far, and I know there are many many more to list. I feel like I've been visiting San Antonio the last few days since I've been using Google maps to find them.

[The Model]

That Hotel was built very shortly after the IH 10/1604 one was built.

[sirkingwilliam]

Graham Weston bought the Rand Building, plans to make it the permanent home for Geekdom.

Weston Urban LLC has bought the Rand Building from Frost Bank with plans to establish a permanent home for San Antonio’s Geekdom program.

The purchase price was not disclosed.

The Rand Building is a historic, eight-story building located at 100 E. Houston St. near the corner of Soledad. Frost Bank will lease back all but two floors of the building from Weston Urban for two years before vacating it completely in the spring of 2015.

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

[JACKinBeantown]

The Rand Building is the building that made me truly appreciate good architecture. The year was 1983. My great aunt was visiting us and we were driving through downtown SA. I pointed it out and said that I wished someone would tear it down and put up a modern glass building. She kindly and wisely told me that it's buildings like that that have character... that once great old buildings like that are gone, they're gone forever. I'm glad the Rand Building is still looking great and that someone is going to do something great with it.

[kornbread]

Originally Posted by sirkingwilliam

Graham Weston bought the Rand Building, plans to make it the permanent home for Geekdom.

An interesting development for sure. Now we know where his investment activity will be centered. The building next to the garage was lost to fire and as far as I know, no plans yet for that corner. The block across Soledad next to the river has a lot of potential.

Unfortunately, Frost Bank is moving some of its employees out of downtown to a campus they own in Westover Hills according to the Express-News. It could be that it just makes sense to move these particular employees there. Still, 300 workers moving out of downtown kind of sucks.

[Keep-SA-Lame]

http://www.bizjournals.com/sanantoni...could-get.html