Posted Aug 5, 2021, 1:28 AM
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Join Date: Jan 2021
Posts: 45
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Worth noting, but HDRC gave the greenlight.
https://www.bizjournals.com/sananton...-approval.html
Quote:
A city board granted its first approval to a proposed high-rise hotel and condo tower set to incorporate portions of an existing former television studio, which was also once a car dealership.
The San Antonio Historic and Design Review Commission in its Aug. 4 meeting gave conceptual approval without discussion to the construction of a proposed 29-story tower at the former WOAI-TV studio at 1031 Navarro St. The project team will need to return for conceptual approval of the project's design.
Miguel Saldana, senior associate for local firm B&A Architects, submitted site plans and massing renderings on July 16. The Business Journal previously reported that the project was 30 stories, but later documents clarify that the tower is exactly 29 stories.
Under the submitted plans, the first two floors of the building with elements of the current structure on site would be common areas and back-of-house space for the hotel. The third through fifth levels would house an automated parking garage, one of the first downtown after the automated garage at the 16-story Floodgate tower being constructed at 139 E. Commerce St.
Condominiums would take up levels 6 to 10, with floors 11 to 28 being both hotel and condo units. The 29th floor would include a roof deck and hotel space. The top floors of the tower would include common spaces, an amenity deck and equipment penthouses.
The project would include restoring the north and west facades of the existing two-story building, "repairing the historic fabric with like materials," according to a conceptual project description submitted to the Office of Historic Preservation. It also would include demolishing a portion of the building as well as a secondary building at the property's east boundary and the broadcast antenna.
The former television studio building was built in 1920 originally as one of the city's first car dealerships, Embelton Motor Co., according to Conservation Society of San Antonio records.
Reports from an HDRC design committee meeting describe that Saldana initially requested demolition of the building, which is registered as historic with the city. Commission members in that meeting reportedly discouraged complete demolition, noting that the project team would need to prove that they are facing economic hardship and that the building has lost significance.
Attempts to reach the architect were unsuccessful. No developer was named in any documents submitted to the OHP.
The property is still owned by an affiliate of the Maryland-based Sinclair Broadcast Group — owner of WOAI-TV, the local NBC affiliate — according to the Bexar County Appraisal District. The station moved its operations to a facility near the intersection of Babcock Road and Loop 410 in 2013 when it merged operations with KABB, also owned by Sinclair, the Express-News reported at the time.
Though 10 stories taller, the hotel/condo combination bears similarities to the Thompson Hotel and The Arts Residences, a 20-story tower at 101 Lexington Ave. recently completed by Houston firm DC Partners.
That project's 59 luxury condo units — initially seen as a gamble by the developer — quickly attracted many local buyers interested in downsizing to a home with low maintenance, or in a second property. The units were originally advertised with prices from the mid-$400,000s to more than $4 million.
"This sort of hotel/condo combo, which is very popular all over the country, even all over the world, I think will be will be a big win for future projects," said J Kuper, principal broker for The Arts' listing brokerage Kuper Sotheby's International Realty, back in January. "I can project that there will be more of those coming forward, because we're still a hospitality-driven economy in San Antonio."
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