SAN ANTONIO | Urban Core Development Thread

[forward looking]

Hot, I know, right? -The vendors would not even have to roast the weiners for the Coney Island hot dogs, just lay them out on some tin foil wrap them up and voila'! Don't the Astros have a domed stadium? I remember the Astrodome was in bad shape when the victims from Katrina were put up in there. No HVAC etc.
A sombrero would be a good idea for a ball game around here.

Originally Posted by JACKinBeantown

I sure hope it's a domed stadium. Because San Antonio... in the summer.


https://media.giphy.com/media/v1.Y2l...rZa8/giphy.gif

[Spoiler]

I was just scrolling through the HDRC cases and apparently the parking garage at La Villita needs its own surface parking lot where there's currently a pedestrian plaza:

https://sanantonio.primegov.com/Port...=202675&type=2

[JACKinBeantown]

Originally Posted by Spoiler

I was just scrolling through the HDRC cases and apparently the parking garage at La Villita needs its own surface parking lot where there's currently a pedestrian plaza:

https://sanantonio.primegov.com/Port...=202675&type=2

Um... huh?

[starvinggryphon]

Originally Posted by Spoiler

I was just scrolling through the HDRC cases and apparently the parking garage at La Villita needs its own surface parking lot where there's currently a pedestrian plaza:

https://sanantonio.primegov.com/Port...=202675&type=2

If they approve this there should be an uproar of righteous indignation! This are literally hundreds of parking spaces in lots surrounding this block, not to mention in the massive parking garage itself.

[JACKinBeantown]

• Video Link

[CWalk99]

https://www.bizjournals.com/sananton...n-parcels.html

Bill Miller finally sold their lots next to the Weston Centre - always thought this was one of the prime spots for new high-rise. Given the amount of river frontage it will be interesting to see who ends up acquiring these.

"The company has placed land it owns at 501 N. St. Mary's St. and 120 E. Martin St. on the market for an undisclosed asking price. The two tracts have a combined assessed value of $8.3 million, according to 2023 valuations from the Bexar Appraisal District...Both properties hold a "D" zoning designation, which allows for a multitude of uses including office, multifamily and hospitality."

[jaga185]

I really hope Weston Urban buys this up and makes another highrise. A new tallest could easily go there and close the gap between the W. Centre and BoA building.

They could even make a space for greyhound to move there temporarily and then tear down the current greyhound station to allow more development to push east. Then develop the land currently on the greyhound lot to have the buses face the fans on the street in front of the BoA building.

I have too many ideas and not enough money.

[wwmiv]

Originally Posted by jaga185

I really hope Weston Urban buys this up and makes another highrise. A new tallest could easily go there and close the gap between the W. Centre and BoA building.

They could even make a space for greyhound to move there temporarily and then tear down the current greyhound station to allow more development to push east. Then develop the land currently on the greyhound lot to have the buses face the fans on the street in front of the BoA building.

I have too many ideas and not enough money.

Greyhound needs to move adjacent to VIA Centro.

[Keep-SA-Lame]

Originally Posted by wwmiv

Greyhound needs to move adjacent to VIA Centro.

SA desperately needs a central bus station for all carriers. There's like a dozen bus companies and they're spread out over the entire city, it makes no sense.

[wwmiv]

Originally Posted by Keep-SA-Lame

SA desperately needs a central bus station for all carriers. There's like a dozen bus companies and they're spread out over the entire city, it makes no sense.

Agreed on all counts.

I have floated this idea to a (formerly) good friend at city hall numerous times. My suggestion was for the city to pursue a P3 with a private developer to build a facility adjacent to VIA Centro where they can then rent out (at discounted rates) ticket booths, time slots, and bays to any carrier without non-compete clauses. All you need is one carrier to pull the plug on and relocate their existing operation and the rest will follow to stay competitive (ease of transfer on to the public system is a BIG selling point to a rider). It has, of course, gone nowhere. And that is sad… because my friend is in a position to actually make it happen.

It is part of my frustration with Democrats and liberals altogether—they don’t get shit done and spend too much of their time coalition building for other needless political purposes.

Of course, neither party wants to listen to common sense anymore. They’re all caught up in racial animosities, feuds, resentments, redirection of hatred toward some other group (currently the homeless and trans folks), laying blame on others without being introspective enough to realize THEY ARE PART OF THE PROBLEM and the pursuit of power for narrow personal ends to bother getting ANYTHING done for ALL of the people. They view their loyalty to themselves first, their race or ethnicity second, the city third, and the people last. Literally the exact opposite order of what it should be.

[jaga185]

Originally Posted by wwmiv

Greyhound needs to move adjacent to VIA Centro.

I stand corrected. Absolutely.

[wwmiv]

Originally Posted by jaga185

I stand corrected. Absolutely.

Frankly, I have a laundry list of transit and housing/zoning reforms that need to be done, but have given up getting listened to.

Political leaders have lost touch with how to do their jobs. Sometimes it isn’t about just listening to the people, sometimes it is about selling the needed stuff to the people and convincing them it is necessary for the public good. The problem is that most of the current elected officials don’t know how to do either.

There are days when I wonder if we wouldn’t be better off (temporarily) under a benevolent dictator. Maybe housing wouldn’t be a crunch. Maybe transit would function. Maybe we’d have the adequate parkland necessary to support the population. Maybe there wouldn’t be homeless. Maybe there wouldn’t be the drugs on the streets and the violent crime. Of course, that’s a stupid unrealistic fantasy.

[Keep-SA-Lame]

Originally Posted by wwmiv

Frankly, I have a laundry list of transit and housing/zoning reforms that need to be done, but have given up getting listened to.

Political leaders have lost touch with how to do their jobs. Sometimes it isn’t about just listening to the people, sometimes it is about selling the needed stuff to the people and convincing them it is necessary for the public good. The problem is that most of the current elected officials don’t know how to do either.

There are days when I wonder if we wouldn’t be better off (temporarily) under a benevolent dictator. Maybe housing wouldn’t be a crunch. Maybe transit would function. Maybe we’d have the adequate parkland necessary to support the population. Maybe there wouldn’t be homeless. Maybe there wouldn’t be the drugs on the streets and the violent crime. Of course, that’s a stupid unrealistic fantasy.

Which is of course why people are fleeing American or European cities and clamoring to live in Chinese or Russian cities.

[bosshaa5]

Originally Posted by wwmiv

Frankly, I have a laundry list of transit and housing/zoning reforms that need to be done, but have given up getting listened to.

Political leaders have lost touch with how to do their jobs. Sometimes it isn’t about just listening to the people, sometimes it is about selling the needed stuff to the people and convincing them it is necessary for the public good. The problem is that most of the current elected officials don’t know how to do either.

There are days when I wonder if we wouldn’t be better off (temporarily) under a benevolent dictator. Maybe housing wouldn’t be a crunch. Maybe transit would function. Maybe we’d have the adequate parkland necessary to support the population. Maybe there wouldn’t be homeless. Maybe there wouldn’t be the drugs on the streets and the violent crime. Of course, that’s a stupid unrealistic fantasy.

Development is slow by design. This country, and especially this state has a lot of protections and systems in place to protect private property and businesses in particular. This leads to changes happening very slow.

Seems like you're a little defeated and perhaps somewhat jaded. I can speak from experience that things like this take a lot of time. Good ideas are only implemented with persistence, teamwork, and a little luck (preparedness & opportunity).

Although national politics tend to dominate conversations and seemingly permeate everything, local government is much more sensible and the party-lines tend to blur a great deal.

[SpiritofSeguin]

If Greyhound was to relocate (which I doubt is ever gonna move anytime soon) it should at least stay in the boundaries of our great downtown, along Martin or Broadway somewhere. Omnibus moved out a while ago across from Herwecks, maybe Greyhound could adopt their space, although I think the square footage is smaller...When I take the Greyhound to Houston it's a literal powerwalk race to hop on the Metro rail and speed into downtown because every single time (third time for me) as soon as you walk out the door you got bums tryna sell you an Uber. Only when you enter the downtown district do things look nice with the flowerbeds and ambassadors and such. At least they recognized the McDonalds next door was an actual biohazard and razed it to the ground.

Sticking Greyhound, arguably the busiest bus carrier on a day to day (more so than Megabus or Flixbus) in the worst area of the city next to DT with the skyline in the distance is...not putting our best face forward. Entering a new city (or coming home) should be an interesting and safe experience. If Greyhound moved to Broadway and Third the Alamo Plaza/Rivercenter Mall are only a few blocks away. A person gets off the bus, sees the Alamo for the first time and can walk to a store and buy food before getting on with their business. Put Greyhound across from Centro Plaza and, uh...well there's a PikNik store with an average of five drug addicts sleeping outside per day around the corner. And Haven for Hope. Train tracks. A jail. And so much graffiti it makes Austin blush.

Welcome to SA?

[SAguy]

From SABJ:

Zoning Commission approves Government Hill hotel project from GrayStreet Partners

A hotel project from a local developer — planned for the fast-growing Government Hill neighborhood — received the Zoning Commission's stamp of approval this week.

GrayStreet Partners had submitted an application to rezone 500 E. Grayson St., one of five parcels it owns at the corner of East Grayson Street and North Alamo Street. The new IDZ-3 designation allows the firm to construct a hotel taller than 35 feet.

Unlikely, but crossing fingers for 10+ stories

[theOGalexd]

Originally Posted by SAguy

From SABJ:

Zoning Commission approves Government Hill hotel project from GrayStreet Partners

A hotel project from a local developer — planned for the fast-growing Government Hill neighborhood — received the Zoning Commission's stamp of approval this week.

GrayStreet Partners had submitted an application to rezone 500 E. Grayson St., one of five parcels it owns at the corner of East Grayson Street and North Alamo Street. The new IDZ-3 designation allows the firm to construct a hotel taller than 35 feet.

Unlikely, but crossing fingers for 10+ stories

Hard to get my hopes up with them, but hopefully it's a little taller than that. It looks like a pretty small plot. 15-20 stories would be nice to break up the plateau they have going on in that area. Maybe they're trying to give the W another shot without the mixed use portion?

[jaga185]

GrayStreet Partners, Fulcrum release vision for Broadway East development

Local developers GrayStreet Partners and Fulcrum Development are teaming up to create a 15-acre mixed-use project in the Government Hill neighborhood.

Marketing materials recently made public by Shop Companies show that the team is looking to build what it calls the "BESA District" out of the Broadway East land that GrayStreet sold to Fulcrum in 2021. The marketing materials indicate that the development will be built in two phases, with the first seeing 175,000 square feet of retail development while the second phase will include additional retail as well as mixed-use, office, hospitality and apartments.

Design renderings show the western side of the 15 acres fronting Broadway would be geared toward retail, with residential, hotel and additional retail uses lining the land going farther into the Government Hill neighborhood. The project also calls for extending Pearl Parkway across Broadway to North Hackberry Street.

Shop Companies' Brittney Austin, Rand Horowitz and Linda Rubiola are marketing the development to retailers. A "merchandising vision" section of the flyer shows that the team is hoping to attract retailers like Louis Vuitton, Lucchese, Gucci, Rolex and CB2.

Keep up with the latest San Antonio headlines by signing up here for SABJ newsletters.

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The design calls for extending Pearl Parkway into Government Hill.
SHOP COMPANIES
Designs for the retail centers have yet to be finalized. The flyer shows three styles that outline "Texas," "New American City" and "Scandinavian" design styles. Renderings show a number of retail buildings with geometric shapes on the roof.

Phase 1 is expected to break ground in Q3 2024 and deliver in Q1 2026. There is no timeline as of yet for the second phase.

The project renderings show that the recent land that GrayStreet had rezoned for hotel use at the corner of East Grayson Street and North Alamo Street would be part of Phase 2.

Local architect Ford, Powell and Carson and New York-based Kohn Pederson Fox are on the design team.

In 2021, Graystreet sold the 15-acre site to Fulcrum. At the time, Fulcrum partner Benjamin Dreszer told the Business Journal that the land would be used for a "long-term development."

When reached, GrayStreet Director of Development Peter French directed questions about the project to Managing Partner Kevin Covey. Covey, Fulcrum and Shop Companies did not respond to requests for comment by publication time.

More information on the Flyer

[Keep-SA-Lame]

https://www.crexi.com/lease/properti...dway-east-besa

Found some more photos here, though I think it's mostly in the flyer you posted

I have so many thoughts. Why they would put the high rises on the neighborhood side of the development and not on Broadway. Second, what the fuck is with that roof line? They had a pretty solid plan before, why change it? I have to applaud the focus on retail though, I think that's a really smart move. Though it doesn't look like any of the floor plates will be big enough to accommodate anything I would personally find most useful, like a Target or a grocery store for example.

[jaga185]

Originally Posted by Keep-SA-Lame

https://www.crexi.com/lease/properti...dway-east-besa

Found some more photos here, though I think it's mostly in the flyer you posted

I have so many thoughts. Why they would put the high rises on the neighborhood side of the development and not on Broadway. Second, what the fuck is with that roof line? They had a pretty solid plan before, why change it? I have to applaud the focus on retail though, I think that's a really smart move. Though it doesn't look like any of the floor plates will be big enough to accommodate anything I would personally find most useful, like a Target or a grocery store for example.

That last part, right there. If we want downtown to thrive, we need devs to build bigger spaces for big box stores in an urban environment. DT residents, such as myself, would love not to have to go far for Target or even PetSmart.