{SA} 300 Houston - Downtown Mixed-Use

sirkingwilliam · #1 Posted **Apr 9, 2008, 4:57 AM**

300 Houston

Located in the center of San Antonio's historic Houston Street Corridor, 300 Houston is a 54,000 s.f. , mixed-use development for Federal Realty Investment Trust. The newly designed project seeks to enhance the streetscape and improve the marketability of the property by providing a new, modern structure with intricate brick detailing that complements the surrounding buildings. The design allows for flexible lease space capabilities as well as much needed downtown parking.

http://www.douglasarchitects.net/ind...s/300__Houston

http://www.mysanantonio.com/business...8.2ec0dca.html

Quote:

Downtown demolition to clear path for new project

Web Posted: 04/08/2008 08:16 PM CDT

Creighton A. Welch
Express-News Business Writer

Demolition crews began making way for a new mixed-use project downtown Tuesday morning, demolishing the building that previously housed the defunct Mando's seafood restaurant -- known for its shrimp tacos -- at the corner of Navarro and College streets.

Crews will work their way along Navarro toward Houston Street, eventually demolishing the former Walgreens and Stuarts buildings in a clearing process expected to last six weeks.

But by the end of 2008, a new 54,000-square-foot building called 300 Houston Street will open on the site. It again will house a Walgreens in a 16,500-square-foot space, about twice as much space as its former site. The nearby Nix Medical Center will occupy the second floor with administrative offices, and there will be 1,600 square feet available for a retailer along Houston Street at the former Stuarts location.

By mid afternoon Tuesday, a yellow Caterpillar backhoe perched atop the small mountain of concrete and shredded timber left over from the demolition job. The only sign that a seafood eatery once stood there was a faded red lobster painted on the single narrow sliver of wall still standing.

Louis Medina, a bellman at the nearby Hilton Palacio del Rio hotel, said he was saddened by the destruction. During his 25 years with the hotel, he'd become accustomed to seeing the old building.

"It's been around so many years -- generations, decades," he said.

But the project's architect says it's a development whose time has come.

"300 Houston Street will bring new energy to Houston Street as a quality redevelopment that will complement the existing streetscape while providing some much-needed modern retail and office space," said architect Andrew Douglas, principal at Douglas Architects.

The developer of the project, Federal Realty Investment Trust, owns the land under the name Street Retail San Antonio LP and owns several other properties along Houston Street, including Hotel Valencia.

"This project sets the gold standard for downtown development, and it sends the message that not only is downtown San Antonio open for business, it is thriving," said Bebb Francis, a development adviser for Street Retail San Antonio.

Of the buildings set to be demolished, it seems the old Walgreens building, with its retro signage and tiled exterior, is the one San Antonians are most nostalgic about.

"It's been amazing how many people stop us on the street and say they miss the Walgreens," Francis said.

As a concession to that nostalgia, developers chose to keep the original Walgreens sign, which was hung in 1936, on the new building.

"In interviewing people about the importance of Walgreens downtown, we learned that the one feature people remembered was the Walgreens sign," Francis said. "Everybody remembered coming downtown and seeing that sign."

One downtown worker, Daisun Derijk, said he shopped at the old Walgreens all the time, but was ambivalent about its impending demolition -- partly because he knew Walgreens would be coming back as a tenant.

"I suppose we have to become a real city at some point," he said.

The new structure will be two stories -- the same height as other buildings along that stretch of Houston Street.

"The design in this urban context of Houston Street, unlike a suburban big-box retail center, is derived from the character of the street and the pedestrian experience," Douglas said.

Though the new site will have one building, the façade will be designed to look like two, to help give the retail space along Houston Street its own identity.

Douglas said the retail space will have 18-foot ceilings, an open floor plan and large glass windows along Houston Street, what modern retailers are looking for.

Francis says he expects that in the next six months, there will be more redevelopment activity along Houston Street, and not just from the 300 Houston Street project.

Demolition of Mando's Restaurant. Corner of Navarro and College Streets. Pictures taken from the Nix Medical Building by Joan Korte with an iphone. Submitted April 8, 2008