SAN ANTONIO | Projects and Construction

[texboy]

I know that this may not have a WHOLE lot of relevance to this thread, but since this has become a popular thread I decided to post it on here anyway....

Robert Rivard: One team, one city: Our Spurs speak for more than sports fans
Web Posted: 06/26/2005 12:00 AM CDT

San Antonio Express-News

The players come from everywhere: the United States, Europe, South America and the Caribbean. We know them by their first names, even their boss, whose gruff countenance fails to mask what we admire: Pop, Tim, Manu, Tony, Bruce, Big Shot Rob, Brent, Nazr, even UTSA's very own Devin.

Somehow, not as individuals but as a team, these Spurs have come to speak for an entire city and our aspirations, fears of failure and of late, more than ever, our sublime moments of triumph.

A franchise that has always been admired has become something more: A reflection of San Antonio and all its possibilities.

You don't have to be a season-ticket holder. You don't have to park in the middle of Broadway and dance in the street or attend a Saturday parade.

This moment is about more than sports. It's confirmation that there is more that unites us than divides us in this city. This win is something each of us claims as our own.

We can savor and share the words: world champions.

Not everyone will agree, but everyone deserves to be heard.

Many voters opposed the use of tax dollars to build the SBC Center. Only corporations and the well-to-do can afford the steep price of tickets down low.

It was impossible Thursday night, leaving the arena in the glow of victory, to miss the cheering East Side residents, many of them black, who are shut out, yet remain loyal front-porch fans.

The players — even marginal players — make seven-figure salaries and live cosseted lives that detach them from reality, and only a few give back as much as we wish they would.

But the realities of professional sports compare in many ways to the complexities found in every other corner of life: politics, business, society, even organized religion. The world isn't perfect.

But it felt pretty close to perfect Thursday night as the buzzer sounded, confetti rained down on spectators and the outstretched hands of teammates reached to touch the gold trophy that represents the ultimate measure of sacrifice and achievement. Wasn't that a metaphor for a city that dreams of rising to the next level?

A Friday headline obscured by victory announced the all-but-official certainty that Seattle-based Washington Mutual has chosen San Antonio over Dallas as the home for its new regional center that will employ thousands. A second deal of similar size involving World Savings is nearing completion.

Toyota and its suppliers will employ thousands of others, as will the National Security Agency. The Pentagon's planned expansion of Fort Sam Houston itself could set off a boom even as Brooks City-Base faces the risk of closure.

Just 15 years ago, this city and its people didn't think they were good enough.

Not good enough to attract big companies. Not good enough to nurture new industries. Not good enough to attract good-paying jobs. Not good enough to build a strong public university. Not good enough to be world champions.

Even city leaders, among themselves, voiced such limitations back then.

Not any more. A new mayor is in a hurry to change the status quo, and voters are behind him. Many predict that one good turn will lead to another, and then to the next one.

Of late, I have had reason to spend considerable time in various institutions and facilities in our fast-growing Medical Center.

It is an extraordinary place, brimming with extraordinary people engaged in the pursuit of cutting-edge science, medicine and healing. You don't know it until you need it.

Even as the city grows and finds itself beset with problems common to other fast-growing metropolitan areas, it remains unlike anywhere else.

We cheer for athletes whom we know by first name and who, we believe, belong to a team that cares as much about San Antonio. That's really what this city seems to be celebrating.

[texboy]

North east district is adding a highschool in 2007.....

High school building boom
Web Posted: 06/28/2005 12:00 AM CDT

Jenny LaCoste-Caputo
Express-News Staff Writer

When Bexar County students head back to school in August, some of them will walk through the doors of the three biggest, most expensive examples of the phenomenal growth on the North Side.

Opening new schools has become commonplace in districts like Northside and North East where student population is growing by thousands each year. But this school year, three new high schools, built for a combined price of $162 million, will open in North Bexar County.
Education officials say that's almost unheard of and likely a first for San Antonio.

"I can't think of a time when we've had three new high schools opening in one year, all in Bexar County," said Pascual Gonzalez, spokesman for Northside School District. "I don't think it's ever happened before."

In Northside, the new Stevens High School will temporarily relieve crowding at Jay, Taft and Warren high schools. The Judson and Schertz-Cibolo-Universal City school districts also are opening high schools. Both districts have been one-high school communities for decades.

Stevens, Northside's ninth high school, is almost complete and will be ready for students by August. Located at Ellison Drive and Potranco Road, the massive school, which looks more like an upscale mall or a community college, cost about $66 million to build, about $7 million less than the district budgeted.

Northside is the county's largest district and the sixth largest in the state. Stevens is the third high school the district has built in the past seven years.

"The need for additional classrooms is well documented," Gonzalez said. "We are projected to top 100,000 students within the next 10 years and we're growing by about 3,000 students a year."

Stevens Principal Harold Maldonado has set up shop in a trailer until construction crews release the building to the district. He's itching to move into the shiny new school.

"I've never seen anything like this. It looks more like a mall than a school," Maldonado said, looking down the central hallway of the new school.

The corridors are wide and open to the second story. Banks of skylights allow sunlight to stream into the building. The main hallway is so vast, it's difficult to see from one end to the other.

"We'll have six minutes between classes to give the students time to get where they need to be," Maldonado said.

He's also been handing out school maps to students, especially incoming freshman, so they can get acclimated as soon as possible.

Stevens is the largest and most expensive of the three new high schools opening this year. It was built to hold 2,900 students, though it will open with only 1,800 this year.

There will not be a senior class for the first year, and juniors were given a choice to come to the new school or stay at their old school, regardless of where they live.

Maldonado doesn't expect the school to feel roomy for long. According to district projections, the school likely will serve 3,500 kids by 2010, which means portable classrooms soon will crowd the new campus.

"It's growing so fast out here," Maldonado said, pointing out the spot near the football fields where Pope John Paul II led 300,000 people in worship during his historic visit in 1987. "Back then that was all ranch land."

The scene is similar in Cibolo, where Steele High School is scheduled to open its doors to 800 ninth through 11th-graders in August.

The horizon beyond the new athletic complex and football field is still tranquil, miles of rolling hills and grassy meadows.

But Principal Mary Pevoto doesn't expect that to last.

"When I first moved my office out here, that was the view from the library windows, too. Now look," she said, motioning across the street from the school, where saws buzz and hammers knock at no less than three new subdivisions.

The school was built to hold 1,800 students and Pevoto expects to hit that mark in four years. The district's only other high school, Clemens, ended last school year with 2,300 kids.

Steele High School is an architect's dream, with contemporary lines, redbrick walls both inside and out, walls of windows and steel-railed balconies and staircases. Where the interior walls aren't brick, they're painted bold shades of green, purple and orange.

But the school doesn't just look good. District officials say, at less than $100 per square foot, it's also a bargain.

"It cost $38 million to build," Pevoto said. "To build the same school now would cost close to $80 million."

In Judson School District, the decision to build a new school was a tough one. But finally, when student enrollment at the legendary Judson High School reached close to 5,000 — 2,000 more than the school was built for — voters agreed it was time for a second school and approved a bond to get it done.

Like many one-high-school districts, Judson High is the heart of the community and the school's championship-winning football teams and other highly competitive programs are a huge source of pride.

"You have a tradition here of programs that have excelled and people want their children to be a part of that," said Sean Hoffmann, spokesman for the district. "Over the years we've had bond elections with high schools on the ballot and they have failed. We say around here that hell finally froze over and the community felt the need for a second high school."

Hoffmann said parents and students are starting to realize the positives of a new high school: more opportunity for participation in athletics, drama and other extracurricular activities; smaller class sizes; and more individual attention.

Natalia Gutierrez, who will be a junior at Wagner when school begins, said the decision to leave Judson was wrenching, but Wagner is giving her the chance to fulfill a lifelong dream.

"I made the cheerleading squad at Wagner," said Natalia, 16. "It's something I've always wanted to do."

Hoffmann said everything about the $58 million state-of-the-art facility was carefully planned to appeal to the community.

The school will even have a student-run banking program, complete with an automated teller machine onsite, and a student-operated child care facility for faculty and staff members' preschool children.

Because Judson High bears the community's name, the new school — Wagner High — was named after an alum of Judson to instill a sense of pride and community. U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Karen Wagner graduated from Judson in 1979. She was killed in the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks while serving in the Pentagon.

"It's a fitting tribute, and it's helped people become excited about the school," Hoffman said.

[texboy]

The Shops at La Cantera's website is up and I have to say its pretty nice!

http://www.theshopsatlacantera.com/

[texboy]

UPDATED: Washington Mutual makes S.A. center official
Web Posted: 06/29/2005 03:15 PM CDT

William Pack
Express-News Business Writer

The new Washington Mutual regional operations center in North San Antonio will employ as many as 4,200 people over the next seven years, company officials said at an event this morning announcing the facility.

"Washington Mutual is thrilled to announce today that San Antonio will be the home of our new regional operations center," said Benson Porter, Washington Mutual's chief administrative officer.

Today's announcement -- which has been rumored for months --creates more jobs than any other corporate project announced this year, said Gov. Rick Perry.

"San Antonio has brought home another national title," the governor said in reference to the NBA crown won by the San Antonio Spurs last week.

Porter playfully listed the NBA championship as one of the reasons San Antonio was selected as the home for the banking center.

"We want to be with a winner," Porter said.

The city's growth, high quality of life and central location in the nation were other factors in the decision, the executive said.

Officials did not specify which kinds of operations would take place at the center. It will the the first of its kind for Washington Mutual. The first hirings, Porter said, will be for a call center to support Washington Mutual's financial operations nationwide.

Washington Mutual, the country's largest savings and loan, purchased the 75-acre site at 20855 Stone Oak Parkway from MCI. Officials didn't disclose a sales price.

Mayor Phil Hardberger said Washington Mutual will be a good corporate citizen for San Antonio. Hardberger called the company's financial operations a clean industry and said the facility would fit in well with San Antonio's environment and commitment to education.

San Antonio Economic Development Director Ramiro Cavazos and Mario Hernandez, president of the San Antonio Economic Development Foundation, have said the center is the largest single jobs producer ever courted in San Antonio. It would exceed the employment total promised by Toyota's truck plant in the first phase.

"It really will have a big impact here," Wolff said.

The jobs are expected to be highly paid, between $30,000 and $40,000 a year, which is why elected officials have been eager to support the proposal. The state approved a $15 million grant for Washington Mutual after it narrowed its search to Texas. The city and county approved $3.6 million in training assistance and tax breaks.

Porter said the "vast majority" of the center's workers would be hired locally, but he provided few details on how people could apply or when the jobs would be available.

The hiring process will start in the next 60-90 day, said Porter. He urged potential applicants to check the company's Web site -- for hiring details. Job fairs for some positions could be scheduled later.

San Antonio and Irving were identified as the finalists for the project, but San Antonio for more than a month has been considered the front-runner. Officials worried about possible sticking points in Washington Mutual's negotiations with MCI, particularly after the financial services company agreed to purchase the competing site in Irving this month.

[JACKinBeantown]

Good news.

[texboy]

Toyota is cruising along: Buildings all but finished, manufacturing equipment just a few months away
Web Posted: 06/29/2005 12:00 AM CDT

Sean M. Wood
Express-News Business Writer

Construction of the $800 million Toyota truck plant buildings in South San Antonio is nearly complete.



(Edward A. Ornelas/Express-News)

Toyota Motor Manufacturing Texas is scheduled to move its offices from KellyUSA to the South Side plant later this summer.

Now the facility is just a few months away from the installation of the equipment that will crank out 150,000 Tundras a year.

More than 1,200 people are working on the construction site. Toyota Project Leader Paul Street said work is nearly complete with the buildings' enclosure. The roofs are on, the lights are on and the roads and underground utilities are all going in.

Street said the next big step is the installation of things such as fans, pumps and the heating, air conditioning and ventilation for the 1.8 million-square-foot plant. Soon afterward the manufacturing equipment will be installed.

"The building portion gets a lot of the early and completely undeserved praise," Street said. "The real moneymakers in this process are the equipment folks. The different shops will begin at different times in the coming months."

Street said installation of paint and assembly equipment will start in September. The plastics shop installation will start in October and the welding shop equipment will follow in November.

Toyota Motor Manufacturing Texas is even scheduled to move its offices from KellyUSA to the plant later this summer, spokesman Aaron Seaman said.
The plant isn't the only construction project at the site. There will be 18 suppliers on the property as well. Each is charged with building its own facility, though one or two might find a home inside the plant.

Max Navarro, owner of Operational Technologies Corp., which is a partner in Toyota supplier Vutex, said Toyota is handling all the scheduling. "The sooner, the better," Navarro said. "We look forward to supporting Toyota."

HERO Assemblers is one of the companies that may be inside the plant. A partnership of Valiente International Ventures and TAI, the company puts tires on wheels.

Valiente's Frank Herrera said if HERO has to build its own facility, it will have to be done quickly. Either way, Herrera is eager for the plant to swing into operation. He compared it with Kelly AFB in terms of elevating people to the middle class in San Antonio and getting kids interested in staying in town rather than moving away.

"It will be a renaissance period for San Antonio," Herrera said. "We've had a brain drain in this area. Hopefully with this opportunity, our brains will come home."

On the east side of the site, work has started on a 58-acre marshalling yard where Tundra pickups fresh from the assembly line will be shipped to dealers across North America.

The facility will be owned by Toyota Logistics Services and cost about $40 million. There will also be a 93-acre rail yard to ship vehicles out and bring supplies in.

"We're finishing up the grading and have the drainage in," said John Daly, project manager for Logistics Services. "We're putting in the gravel for the rail bed. We'll put the rail and begin building the track in July, and then we'll have that finished by summer '06."



San Antonio Fact Sheet
Plant site: 2,000 acres
Current Investment*: $800 million
Employment*: approx. 2000
Products: Tundra full-size pickup trucks
Operations: Stamping, body weld, paint, plastics, and assembly
Production
Start-up: Fall 2006
Annual Production Capacity: 150,000 Tundra full-size pickup trucks
* Projected
Source: www.toyota.com

[texboy]

Census: San Antonio ranks among top-growing cities in U.S.
San Antonio is the third-fastest growing city in America and the fastest growing city in Texas, according to figures released Thursday by the U.S. Census Bureau.

From July 1, 2003 to July 1, 2004, San Antonio gained 22,095 new residents, an increase of 1.8 percent.

The Alamo City's estimated population as of 2004 stands at nearly 1.24 million. In the official 2000 census, San Antonio had a population of 1.14 million, making it the eighth largest city in America.

Among the fastest-growing cities, however, only Phoenix and Los Angeles gained more new residents than San Antonio. Phoenix gained 29,826 new people, while L.A. gained 26,128 additional people.

Rounding out the top five were Las Vegas with 17,923 and Fort Worth with 17,872 people. Elsewhere in Texas, El Paso gained 10,012 people and Austin gained 8,386. The two Texas cities ranked 13th and 22nd on the list, respectively.

To compile the list, the U.S. Census Bureau examined cities with populations in excess of 100,000 and ranked them according to the number of new residents.

[JACKinBeantown]

Time for a rail transit system in SA, don't you think?

[texboy]

um.........YEA!

[SayTownboy]

Originally Posted by JACKinNYC

Time for a rail transit system in SA, don't you think?

Hardberger has said that is one of his top agendas his first term. But look for it to really take off his second term if he's re-elected.

[texboy]

NEW: San Antonio grows on pace to top San Diego
Web Posted: 06/30/2005 12:40 PM CDT

Lisa Marie Gómez
Express-News Staff Writer

If San Antonio continues to grow at the same rate it has been going since 2000, the city will leapfrog over San Diego by 2010, according to new Census data released today.

San Antonio had the third largest numerical increase in the nation when more than 22,000 people moved to San Antonio from July 1, 2003, to July 1, 2004, which has been a steady average since 2000.

“In a real sense, San Antonio is the fastest-growing big city in Texas,” said Steve Murdock, director of the Institute for Demographic and Socioeconomic Research and the Texas State Data Center, both at UTSA.

If the trend continues, that's when San Antonio is expected to be the seventh largest city in the nation, pushing San Diego to eighth on the list.

Just last year, Census numbers moved San Antonio from ninth to eighth on the list when it bypassed Dallas.

Phoenix, with an increase of almost 30,000 people, came in first on the list and Los Angeles, with a little more than 26,000 people, came in second.

Las Vegas was fourth on the list with a 17,923 increase, and Fort Worth was a close fifth with 17,872.

Lt. Col. Kurt Pfitzner and his wife, Leigh, who just moved to San Antonio Saturday, see why people would want to live here.

“It's a very nice place from the job perspective,” said Kurt, as he took a break from unpacking dozens of boxes at his new home in a new neighborhood called Iron Mountain on the North Side. “It's a great place to live.”

His wife quickly pointed out how much cheaper everything is here compared to Montgomery, Ala., from which they moved.

“I had my cash register receipt from Montgomery and my receipt from San Antonio and everything is cheaper here,” said Leigh as she handed over an ice cold beer to her husband to help him stay cool.

And they couldn't believe how inexpensive their new house was.

“I bought our house in Montgomery for $105 per square foot and sold it at $110 (per square foot), and here I bought this one at $83 a square foot,” Kurt said. “I couldn't believe it.”

While cities like San Antonio, Fort Worth, El Paso and Austin seem to keep growing, several others are going the opposite direction.

Places such as Boston, Chicago, Minneapolis and San Francisco are all shrinking.

In 2001, Chicago's population was 2,896,304, but by last year, its population dropped a little more than 34,000 people.

And San Jose, Calif., bumped Detroit off the Top 10 Biggest Cities list. San Jose has been steadily climbing in population from 898,069 in 2000 to 904,522 in 2004, while Detroit's population numbers fell from 947,859 in 2000 to 900,189 in 2004.

[Chicago3rd]

How many people did San Antonio annex this past year?

[texboy]

not many.

[Chicago3rd]

It would be cool to see. Anyone have the Bexar County Current Census?

Just saw that SA has increased its landsize by 88 sq miles since 2000. So did 22,000 people actually move into San Antonio last year or did some already live there in Bexar County and got annexed?

Cool Maps showing annexation:

http://www.sanantonio.gov/planning/p...o/0412GG18.pdf

[SayTownboy]

Originally Posted by Chicago3rd

How many people did San Antonio annex this past year?

SA hasn't annexed any land since 2000, and even then that only gave the city about 400 people.

And the population growth the articles are talking about, is coming from the city. The 2000 annex was in outer SA, the metro area.

[texboy]

I find it kind of hard to believe though, that San Antonio could have annexed over 100,000 people between 2000-2005. I wouldn't be surprised if many of those people had moved in, bc traffic is GOD AWEFUL in some areas.

[SayTownboy]

Originally Posted by Chicago3rd

It would be cool to see. Anyone have the Bexar County Current Census?

Just saw that SA has increased its landsize by 88 sq miles since 2000. So did 22,000 people actually move into San Antonio last year or did some already live there in Bexar County and got annexed?

Cool Maps showing annexation:

http://www.sanantonio.gov/planning/p...o/0412GG18.pdf

Most/majority of the land annexed was in far South San Antonio. About 400 people lived on the annexed land. The rest is rural farm land which is currently being developed into a new urbanism project called City South which will be home to Toyota and a A&M University.

I also think a small section of northwest Bexar county was annexed but that probably gave the city 20 people max, if that. It was more for perserving the land for future wildlife.

[SayTownboy]

Originally Posted by texboy

I find it kind of hard to believe though, that San Antonio could have annexed over 100,000 people between 2000-2005. I wouldn't be surprised if many of those people had moved in, bc traffic is GOD AWEFUL in some areas.

They couldn't annex 100,000 in. People just love to give SA's growth a hard time because of past annexations.

And as the article states, the Census came about the final figure for people "moving into" the cities.

[SayTownboy]

2000 to 2005 annexed land:



City South land:



And there's that little piece of land in Northwest Bexar, which had almost nothing on it and is land for future expansion of a wildlife rescue org.

[davinSA]

There was not much growth coming from annexation. It was from people coming into the city that caused San Antonio to be the third fastest growing city in the nation, behind Phoenix and Los Angeles. People moving in from Montgomery, Omaha, St. Louis, Detroit, and Chicago. Census indicates that these cities are losing people instead of gaining.