SAN ANTONIO | Urban Core Development Thread

[JACKinBeantown]

Fantastic! That's a beautiful old building. Glad it will be taken care of properly and will continue the renaissance of the neighborhood.

[Spoiler]

Watch out. Reyes Bar is next

[JACKinBeantown]

Originally Posted by Spoiler

Watch out. Reyes Bar is next

Noooooooooooooooo!

[AwesomeSAView]

Originally Posted by Fryguy

What some of you were hoping for (I think it was Jack) actually happened.

https://saheron.com/weston-urban-add...own-portfolio/

These people know what they are doing!!
They have a long goal plan!!

[sirkingwilliam]

San Antonio is lucky to have Silver Ventures, Weston Urban and Graystreet Partners. These three companies are all doing great things for the urban core.

[AwesomeSAView]

Originally Posted by sirkingwilliam

San Antonio is lucky to have Silver Ventures, Weston Urban and Graystreet Partners. These three companies are all doing great things for the urban core.

ABSOLUTELY!!!
I TOTALLY AGREE!!!!

[Spoiler]

Originally Posted by sirkingwilliam

San Antonio is lucky to have Silver Ventures, Weston Urban and Graystreet Partners. These three companies are all doing great things for the urban core.

David Adelman's company is doing great things as well. James Lifshutz is also noticeable for doing things. Those five entities are probably responsible for all of the really cool private development going on.

[sirkingwilliam]

Originally Posted by Spoiler

David Adelman's company is doing great things as well. James Lifshutz is also noticeable for doing things. Those five entities are probably responsible for all of the really cool private development going on.

I mean, I meant it more in terms of large companies versus developers who have been in the downtown/urban core development game for decades.

Silver, Weston and GrayStreet are all fairly recent entities that have come on board in the last 5-10 years and have put hundreds upon hundreds of millions into new urban development. James and David and the like have been around doing their thing on a small scale for a long while now. But they didn’t make even make a dent in urban development compared to the three companies I’m talking about.

[Spoiler]

They've made dents. Adelman just finished restoring the Maverick building and has several other projects. Lifshutz created the template for commercial adaptive reuse in SA decades ago and still is deeply involved (Hot Wells is a good current example). Both of them are making an impact on downtown that shouldn't be underestimated and both of which surpass GrayStreet's contribution so far, although that's due to change soon.

[sirkingwilliam]

Originally Posted by Spoiler

They've made dents. Adelman just finished restoring the Maverick building and has several other projects. Lifshutz created the template for commercial adaptive reuse in SA decades ago and still is deeply involved (Hot Wells is a good current example). Both of them are making an impact on downtown that shouldn't be underestimated and both of which surpass GrayStreet's contribution so far, although that's due to change soon.

Again, I am not denying anything they’ve done, but realistically, it’s all been on a small scale. Nothing Silver, Weston and what GrayStreet has in their pipeline has been small scale. Imagine if none of them came into the picture in the last five to ten years. Imagine no Pearl, no Geekdom, no Frost HQ, nontech district, no millions of dollars of property acquisition on Houston St and on Broadway/Government Hill with incredible plans planned for those properties.

Would David (AREA) and James made that same impact these three companies have?

My point wasn’t to dismiss other developers, only simply to acknowledge how lucky we are to have these three great companies that have been a GREAT force in the urban redevelopment of San Antonio is past decade and into the future.

[Fryguy]

Originally Posted by sirkingwilliam

Again, I am not denying anything they’ve done, but realistically, it’s all been on a small scale. Nothing Silver, Weston and what GrayStreet has in their pipeline has been small scale. Imagine if none of them came into the picture in the last five to ten years. Imagine no Pearl, no Geekdom, no Frost HQ, nontech district, no millions of dollars of property acquisition on Houston St and on Broadway/Government Hill with incredible plans planned for those properties.

Would David (AREA) and James made that same impact these three companies have?

My point wasn’t to dismiss other developers, only simply to acknowledge how lucky we are to have these three great companies that have been a GREAT force in the urban redevelopment of San Antonio is past decade and into the future.

True. I mean, before the Pearl, 1221 Broadway Lofts was the dump apts that never got its footing. For years, those apts were the shit stain of downtown. I still don't see them as anything special, but because of the Pearl, many residential units have become available in and around downtown.

[Txdev]

I think the earlier developments were a reflection of the city at that time. Downtown development wasn’t really on the radar. There were no city development incentives for residential.

There were some federal incentives (empowerment zones, etc) for projects that created jobs, which aided some hotel development (hotels create jobs, apartments don’t).

Blue Star, Cadillac Lofts, and Andalucía created real options for downtown living and helped proved the market, although it wasn’t a high end market.

As far as catalysts go, I would also point to Linda Pace and Camp Street as a huge turning point for downtown housing. That proved that there was a market for higher end product, and that people would pay for it.

Vistana was also way ahead of its time for proving that there was demand.

And without Blue Star and Camp Street, there would be no Cevallos Lofts, which in my memory, was the first of the large apartment projects that are now popping up everywhere.

Of course, Pearl is in its own category in terms of vision and execution.

But you’re right, we are lucky to have all of these groups working in SA.

[sirkingwilliam]

The Burns building will get some street side upgrades as it is redeveloped into a tech space.

HOW IT LOOKS NOW

[UltraDanPrime]

👍looks cool

[JACKinBeantown]

Originally Posted by sirkingwilliam

The Burns building will get some street side upgrades as it is redeveloped into a tech space.

Definitely an improvement. Those beveled benches look kinda uncomfortable, but the people who will sit in them will apparently have excellent posture.

[Keep-SA-Lame]

Originally Posted by JACKinBeantown

Definitely an improvement. Those beveled benches look kinda uncomfortable, but the people who will sit in them will apparently have excellent posture.

There ought to be a blog to showcase architectural renderings that are bizarre/divorced from reality. Or maybe it's just designed for people with very unique rear ends. Regardless, very happy to see the Burns building revived, I'm sure it'll be great.

[JACKinBeantown]

(delete)

[aggie2008]

HDRC gave final approval to the parklets as well as granting them the ability of the project to work with staff on adding more substantial trees. Interestingly, someone argued against the parklets because it would remove downtown parking and slow down vehicles.............

[sirkingwilliam]

Originally Posted by aggie2008

HDRC gave final approval to the parklets as well as granting them the ability of the project to work with staff on adding more substantial trees. Interestingly, someone argued against the parklets because it would remove downtown parking and slow down vehicles.............

Who argued that?

[micahinsa]

Originally Posted by sirkingwilliam

Who argued that?

I, too, would love to know which of our world-class leaders in our progressive, world-class city argued that we need more space for cars and less space for trees.