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Old Posted Apr 16, 2008, 11:21 PM
SAguy SAguy is offline
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Unfinished project seeking a new start

Creighton A. Welch
Express-News Business Writer

It's hard not to notice the hulking, half-finished red brick, concrete and steel structures on Broadway. Their boarded windows loom over the street and jut high enough to catch the eye of drivers on the Interstate 35/Interstate 37 exchange.
The complex, once called the Villaje del Rio, with development begun by George Geis, has sat vacant since 2004.

But a meeting today could clear the way for work to begin again at the site. New plans are being presented to San Antonio's Historic and Design Review Commission for the mixed-use project of apartments and offices, now called 1221 Broadway.

If approved, 1221 Broadway would be the second project announced in a month as part of the River North redevelopment plan for the area just north of downtown.

At this point, any progress at the site would be welcome, the project's designer said.

"We're excited for the city to be able to change it," said Mickey Conrad, principal at OCO Architects Inc. and the lead architect of the project. "Every cab that comes from the airport to downtown drives by there and people go, 'What is that?'"

The new design maintains the original intent of the site with offices and apartments. But the new plans will add a fifth floor to the office building and a fifth floor to each of the 21 apartment buildings.

"We're essentially going to demolish the office building back down to the original concrete and start over with new walls and glass, overhangs and shadings," Conrad said. "We feel it's going to have kind of an upbeat look to it."

The structures long have sat as a kind of eyesore landmark in that part of town.

As reported in a 2006 San Antonio Express-News article, construction stopped in October 2004, and Geis sued his general contractor, claiming it had been overpaid by more than $2.5 million.

After Geis defaulted on the $26.7 million loan, lender Deutsche Bank Berkshire turned it over to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, which had insured the loan.

Geis sued HUD after it tried to put the incomplete project up for bids, claiming the government had wrongfully taken management of the 4.5-acre property.

But HUD sold the debt to Colina Del Rio LP, a San Antonio-based company, before Geis could get a court order to stop it. He filed for bankruptcy protection a day before Colina Del Rio was set to foreclose.

The Colina Del Rio partnership includes Ed Cross and David Adelman, president and vice president, respectively, of Cross & Co.

Adelman wouldn't discuss more details of the project because Geis and Colina Del Rio are still in litigation over the title claim for the site.

"We are excited about the prospect of getting the project going again and bringing it to completion," Adelman said.

It would be the second project announced as part of River North to revitalize the area into a dense, urban environment.

"It has been a visual blight so I think it says a lot about the whole impetus behind the need for residential development," said Ben Brewer, president of The Downtown Alliance. "I consider the fact that it's moving forward again a positive sign for downtown and the area we consider River North."

In early April, developer Tim Sanford revealed plans for a mixed-use project at St. Mary's and Ninth streets called Embarcadero that would include 24 condos, a Scouzzi Italian Grill and a 126-room hotel.

"The 1221 Broadway project is a key project of (River North) because it almost connects to the River Walk, and there's going to be a major pedestrian access point there," Conrad said. "The access these tenants are going to have to the river is going to add a lot of life not only from the street to the river, but the river to the street."

As part of the new plans, the office space will be in the building closest to Broadway, and the apartments are set back to the west, closer to the river.

There also will be a five-story parking structure. There will be 300 apartments and about 75,000 square feet of office space.

"We're talking a lot of living units," said Lisa Schmidt, a real estate agent with The Phyllis Browning Co. "Right now, that area does not have a product like that — new apartment living. Think about all of those folks who may want to live closer to where they work."

If the HDRC approves the design, which the commission staff recommends, Conrad said the office construction would begin in June and work on the apartments would begin in September.

"It's going to be neat for that corner of the city to come to life again," Schmidt said. "That will be a contribution for the city to go from what it's able to offer now to what it will be able to offer when it's finished."

Last edited by SAguy; Apr 17, 2008 at 12:39 AM.
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