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Shopping center makeovers
Web Posted: 05/27/2005 12:00 AM CDT

Adolfo Pesquera
Express-News Business Writer

Boarded-up retail strip centers don't stay empty as long as they used to.

With more demanding development rules on new commercial projects, land developers are finding abandoned urban anchors like Kmarts and obsolete Wal-Marts more attractive.

San Antonio code requirements add significant costs to new projects on raw land. It makes developers wonder whether they wouldn't be better off investing in older neighborhoods.

"You can landscape far below what is required on a new site," said Mark Neville, the architect for retail center Mission Crossing. "There is no need for a retention pond to offset storm waters."

At Mission Crossing, at Goliad Road and Southeast Military Drive, there is more parking space and more entrances than Neville could build into a new center. It has six entrance-exit curb cuts, where a newer project would have only two. Some are closer to the main intersection.

Chris Cox, Mission Crossing's owner and developer, is pleased with the project's success. Even after cutting 14 feet off an old Kmart store to allow for future development of a Walgreen's pharmacy, he has 167,000 square feet of leaseable space.

And after dividing the building for multiple tenants, he's leased all but one space in less than a year. The neighboring Brooks Corner and City-Base Landing shopping centers still are under construction.

With Anna's Linens, Big Lots, Goodwill Store and a Chinese buffet as major tenants, the site had encouraged neighbors who were chagrined over Kmart's departure.

"We've been very excited about how well it's been received," Cox said. "Several neighbors have dropped by and told us how excited they were that we were doing something positive at that location."

Cox believes in the intersection, despite news that Brooks City-Base may lose its Air Force missions. The coming of Toyota and the prospects for a Texas A&M campus and other corporate moves to Brooks bode well for the area.

Mission Crossing is Cox's second project in collaboration with Neville. He first hired Neville on the renovation of a former H-E-B grocery at Harry Wurzbach and Austin Highway.

When selecting an old retail center for acquisition and renovation, Cox said he looks first at the synergy around the intersection. Both of these sites were blessed with a nearby mix of an H-E-B, Lowe's and Wal-Mart.

"The main thing I look for is other major players that will generate additional traffic," he said.

Neville, a principal with Villa Park Architecture, specializes in renovations. He also does new developments — he was the architect on Boardwalk, a new retail/office center opposite The Dominion — but returned after a job stint in Chicago to his native San Antonio with plenty of ideas.

"This kind of renovation work is a lot more prevalent there," he said. "There are a lot more old buildings."

As older strip centers age, there is increasing pressure to give them a face-lift to keep up with the new competition. And stricter codes on new projects provide an incentive to owners.

Neville returned to San Antonio in 1999, and his first renovation was Southwest Junction at Flores Street and Military Drive. He has returned to the intersection to work with the owners of the empty Kmart opposite Southwest Junction.

The owners who bought it in 2004 also own the Melrose women's fashion stores. Neville anticipates it will be one of the tenants in what will be known as Military Plaza Southwest.

"We're working on preliminary pricing of some of the design concepts," he said.

Architects have their artistic streak, and Neville finds this another reason to gravitate toward renovations. It's a chance, he says, to take a drab facade and jazz it up.

And the absence of harsher code restrictions can leave more money in a developer's budget for visual extras.

"The budget is always a big deal," he said.