SAN ANTONIO | Urban Core Development Thread

[NBTX11]

The tower life spire is 541', and this building, whatever it is, is at least 50' taller, so I would put height at 600'

[KevinFromTexas]

Originally Posted by NBTX11

The tower life spire is 541', and this building, whatever it is, is at least 50' taller, so I would put height at 600'

Well, the "spire" atop the Tower Life Building isn't really a spire. It's an antenna. Spires are structures that the architect designs for a building, sometimes to gain an extra bit of height, or just for looks. But antennas are used for communication and not for decorative reasons like spires are. Spires serve no purpose other than for looks. Infact, the antenna atop the Tower Life Building wasn't added until many years after the building was completed.

Also, I don't think those drawings show the antenna at its correct height. It's actually taller than what is shown there. I'd say the antenna is about twice the height shown in those drawings.

[sirkingwilliam]

Originally Posted by NBTX11

The tower life spire is 541', and this building, whatever it is, is at least 50' taller, so I would put height at 600'

Yes, but in the picture the Tower Life building is further towards us which gives it a taller look. It's about 2,000 feet from the Frost Bank park site (blue building) so the prespective will make it look taller than it is.

[21bl0wed]

Originally Posted by sakyle04

From Andres Andujar, for your viewing and planning pleasure:

Why are they still including that building on the bottom of this pic thats been dead for over a year now?

Also from this pic the weston looks bigger than the blue building

[matttwentyeight]

you are right... but the the smaller tower of the two not the one furthest south west

[starvinggryphon]

Originally Posted by 21bl0wed

Why are they still including that building on the bottom of this pic thats been dead for over a year now?

Also from this pic the weston looks bigger than the blue building

^^^
Correct. The Weston Center is taller than this building. I counted 30 levels and the height is somewhere between 375' and 400'.

Also the tallest unknown tower in the rendering above seems to be located on the same street, just further down from the structure I would guess on the same block as the Alameda Theatre across from the Vistana. The height of this building is anywhere from 600' to 700'! I hope these aren't dead proposals like the building north of the Weston Centre.

[sirkingwilliam]

Where is Andres!? We need ya man. lol

[AndresAndujar]

I have to start with an apology for not checking in the last couple of days. Darn work gets in the way of blog fun! I'll try to respond to the various questions. If I miss one, please let me know.

Firstly, my post buddy SAKyle helped me get these up as we started to look at another blog referencing an effort by Austinites to build a Sketchup based model imposed on Google Earth. I wanted to let them see what we had done in San Antonio as I became concerned that too much building detail would crash their efforts. Things start going weird a six megs, and fenestration and texture add up fast.

We have developed this model in the last year, and now do all our downtown studies in it. The color scheme is light gray for existing structures, dark gray for structures we have been involved with and are completed, yellow/mustard as projects in planning, and there are some other colors related to two large study areas we have completed:

1. River North District (TIRZ created Dec 14.2006)
2. Market Square District (starting discussions)

The blue building is a complete speculation on my part as we began to study what might be as we look at district formation around market square. It is a 45 story, 750KSF office buidling on the Frost drive trough site. There is a 30 story, 500KSF building just north of Frost Bank. The "park" is private property of the bank, and I can assure you it will not be green forever. Between the two buildings we have a mega garage... We'll see how a potential development may unfold there, but from my studies I'm comfortable saying this is the site for some of our tallest buidlings in the next few years. Sadly, 45 stories would be really pushing the limits, but the San Antonio character has its beauty - although not the height...

Our market isn't demaning class A office downtown. We have ample vacany in existing stock. But I like to say we should stop celebrating AT&T's arrival to San Antonio - that is a decade old win. We now need a couple more catches, and hopefully not heavy industrial but rather creative types. I dream of a companly like Google headquartering here. Imagine the increase in downtown housing demand!

Incidentally, the straight red line height comparisson appears to be fairly accurate!

Regardign the "dead" project on Convent/River/St Mary's, i prefer to call it dormant. Something will happen there sooner or later!

Do you guys know of a way to get email alarms when there are new postings to a blog of your interest?

Again, sorry for the slow reply.

[KevinFromTexas]

Andres, when you reply to a topic, scroll down a bit and you'll see "Additional Options". They are: Show your signature, automatically parse links in texts, disable smilies in text. Then just below that there's a little scroll down feature under "Thread subscription". Click on the little scroll down menu. It always says "Do not subscribe". But if you click on it and scroll down you'll see "Subscribe". Click on that, and then make your post.

You can also do the same thing by editing the post you just made. Just click the "EDIT" button, then click on "Go Advanced". The options will appear in the same place as I mentioned above. After you subscribe, click "save changes". That will subscribe you to this thread and you'll be alerted by email of any more posts to it.

[texboy]

Andres...Any chance that Frost or AT&T will build a new headquarters downtown?

[kornbread]

Originally Posted by AndresAndujar

... Between the two buildings we have a mega garage... We'll see how a potential development may unfold there, but from my studies I'm comfortable saying this is the site for some of our tallest buidlings in the next few years. Sadly, 45 stories would be really pushing the limits, but the San Antonio character has its beauty - although not the height...

Our market isn't demaning class A office downtown. We have ample vacany in existing stock. But I like to say we should stop celebrating AT&T's arrival to San Antonio - that is a decade old win. We now need a couple more catches, and hopefully not heavy industrial but rather creative types. I dream of a companly like Google headquartering here. Imagine the increase in downtown housing demand!

Is the city interested in developing mega-garages? I've always thought one was needed in or near downtown specifically to help downtown businesses like hotels, restaurants & shops attract workers.

Certainly more catches would be good, but SBC (at&t) has certainly turned into a different beast with the fairly recent acquisitions of at&t and Bell South. As much as that is a good thing, there's always the risk of them changing headquarters to a more visible city. A major local investment on their part would certainly erase those thoughts. Of course, there has to be a need.

[AndresAndujar]

There is a chance a headquartered corporation like ATT and Frost will build heaquarters. Whether either is considering it is speculation. Other locals are also considering or in process of developing headquarters. Case in point, Rackspace. They expect to be up to over 5,000 employees in San Antonio in the next five years, and to prepare they have purchased Windsor Mall in the NE side of town. While i wish they were downtown, I can only imagine the effect this investment will make in the whole neighborhood.

Speaking of garages, the City is going thorugh a downtown parking master plan. i would not be surprised to see a couple of large garagesbeing recommended by this study. I read in a preliminary outline how we have 26,000 parking spaces downtown, as I recall. The problem is that most of these are in the "wrong" location. We need parking walking distance from our densest areas. And that is where dirt is most expensive...

[sakyle04]

Just one pic...from 06/19/07.

Taken from Durango and South Alamo....peeking over the trees of HemisFair Park.

[starvinggryphon]

^^^
It's looking quite impressive from 1-35 just south of downtown already surpassing the Marriott Riverwalk.

[KevinFromTexas]

Cool. God, I can't wait to come down to San Antonio next month. Trip to the Tower of the Americas, Alamo, Riverwalk, Mexican food , and of course lots of pics.

[JACKinBeantown]

Have fun Kevin. And please, yes, lots of pics.

[TXlifeguard]

A really dreat view of the cc hotel can be had from I-10 Westbound upper level on the west side of downtown. I've always admired the view from the upper level over about Alamo, and the new CC hotel fills in a great hole. I was driving back from Houston two weeks ago and was really suprised how cool it looked, filling in some space.

Now if only we could fill in some space from 281 southbound, coming from the airport...

[Texas Super]

Does anyone have any information about a new Marriott Resort proposed to start construction soon in San Antonio?

[texboy]

Um well there is a 1000 room JW Marriot going in at the PGA Village Resort...that could be it!

[texboy]

Just thought this was a fun article...didn't really want to open a new thread for it. San Antonio (if my eyes aren't failing me) is the only Texas city listed and its listed TWICE! Anyway just thought it was an interesting list.


Priceline.com Releases Its Annual Top 50
Destinations List for July Fourth 2007
NORWALK, Conn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Internet travel service priceline.com (Nasdaq: PCLN) today released the results of its 4th annual survey of the 50 most-popular destinations for the upcoming Independence Day week. The survey is based on more than 30,000 hotel room booking requests made by priceline.com customers for check-in between June 29 and July 4. Because the survey is based on actual booking activity, and not on consumer preference polls or votes, Priceline.com believes the annual survey is one of the more accurate predictors of July 4th travel trends.

Priceline.com also said it still has hotel rooms, airline tickets, vacation packages, rental cars and cruises available for the big week, often at significant discounts over other online travel reservation services.

Consistent with last year, Chicago, Las Vegas, and New York City are the most popular spots for the July 4th week, making up the top seven destinations in the list. Chicago's Millennium Park area has made the #1 spot on the list for the second year running, and the Las Vegas Strip has moved up from spot #5 in 2006 to spot #2 this year. New York neighborhoods took 4 of the top 10 spots, which is consistent with last year's findings.

Internationally, London grew in popularity this year, taking three spots on the list (#12, #31, #32), compared to only one spot (#35) in 2006. This may be due to the holiday falling mid-week, prompting vacationers to extend their vacations, rather than taking just a long weekend.

One surprise on this year's list was the first-time appearance of Milwaukee in the #38 spot. This may be due to Summerfest 2007, an 11-day music festival on the shores of Lake Michigan. Also new to the list, appearing at #45, is Williamsburg, a great family destination with the Busch Gardens and Colonial Williamsburg attractions. The Meadowlands/Jersey City area also made its way to #11 on the list. The New Jersey destination now has appeared on several priceline.com Top 50 lists thanks to New York visitors who want the excitement of nearby Manhattan without paying big city hotel prices.

For the beach lovers, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, Virginia Beach, Myrtle Beach, Hilton Head Island and Key West also round out the list.

The Priceline Top 50 Destinations List for July 4th 2007

1 Chicago, Millennium Park
2 Las Vegas, Strip Vicinity
3 New York City, Upper Midtown
4 Chicago, North Michigan Ave.
5 New York City, SoHo
6 New York City, Midtown East
7 New York City, Midtown West
8 Vancouver
9 San Diego, Coastal
10 Seattle, Downtown
11 Newark, Meadowlands
12 London, Regents Park
13 Oahu, Waikiki Beach
14 Montreal
15 Washington DC, White House/Downtown
16 Niagara Falls, St. Catharines
17 Boston, Downtown/Charlestown
18 Orange County, Disneyland Area
19 Boston, Copley
20 Orlando, Universal Studios/Sea World
21 Las Vegas, Convention Center
22 San Antonio, Downtown/Riverwalk
23 San Francisco, Union Square West
24 San Diego, Downtown/Harbor Island
25 San Francisco, Union Square East
26 San Diego, Point Loma/Shelter Island/Old Town
27 Philadelphia, Downtown
28 Oahu, Waikiki Marina Area
29 Orlando, Disney World Vicinity
30 San Antonio, Medical Center
31 London, Bloomsbury/Marble Arch
32 London, Mayfair/Soho
33 Toronto, Markham
34 San Francisco, Fisherman's Wharf
35 Puerto Rico, San Juan
36 Los Angeles, Central/Hollywood
37 Virginia Beach
38 Milwaukee, Downtown
39 Myrtle Beach
40 Seattle, Airport Area
41 Hilton Head Island
42 Orange County, Costa Mesa/Irvine
43 Toronto, Downtown
44 San Diego, East County
45 Williamsburg, Williamsburg Historic/Busch Gardens
46 Seattle, Lake Union
47 Key West
48 Las Vegas, West of Strip
49 San Diego, Coronado
50 Los Angeles, LAX Area