21-STORY HOTEL DEVELOPMENT GETS APPROVAL TO RAZE VACANT SOLO SERVE BUILDING (http://www.therivardreport.com/river-walk-hotel-gets-approval-to-demolish-solo-serve/)


http://cdn.therivardreport.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/scottball_vacantbuildings415-1.jpg



The Historic and Design Review Commission voted 5-2 in favor of allowing developers to proceed with plans for a 21-story, 252-room hotel on the River Walk. The project will essentially demolish and gut a majority of the blighted downtown city block on the southeast corner of Soledad and Houston streets.

The proposed AC Hotel by Marriott calls for demolition of the former Solo Serve building save for the River Walk-facing wall, and maintaining the facades of next-door structures collectively known as the Clegg Company Building along the 100 block of Soledad Street. The historic red-brick Book Building on East Houston Street that overlooks the San Antonio River would be “rehabilitated” to become the hotel’s main pedestrian entrance.

The hotel would include 12 levels of hotel rooms, eight levels of above-ground parking, and about 10,000 sq. ft. of street and river-level restaurant and retail space.

Phase II calls for a highrise residential building.


http://i.imgur.com/XFtTG2U.png

NORTHSIDE ISD BREAKS GROUND ON NEW HIGH SCHOOL ARENA (http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/high-school/article/Northside-ISD-breaks-ground-on-new-gym-6252077.php)

http://ww1.hdnux.com/photos/36/24/66/7949756/15/622x350.jpg


When Taylor Field House was built 42 years ago, only three Northside ISD high schools needed a court to play on.

When the district’s 11th high school opens up for the 2017-18 school year, NISD also will have another venue for its schools to use.

The district conducted a groundbreaking ceremony Friday at Farris Athletic Complex for the new Northside Sports Gym, an 88,400 square-foot venue that will be more than three times the size of Taylor.


LOCATION
http://i.imgur.com/igFezdJ.png

As you can see, theyre being built in a old single family housing neighborhood just east of downtown.

The homes are designed to be more urban compared to the other homes in the neighborhood.

That's pretty ironic.


Good thing I'm not pandering to just you. You know what this thread is about. Title shouldn't keep you from doing anything. But your maturity, as we've seen, isn't great to begin with.

The title is everything. I don't have time to just click on every thread "Gee what will I find here??" Apparently I'm not mature enough to know what the **** Deep In The Heart TM means.

Before this I clicked on a thread titled "Flatiron Building." I did so because I was pretty sure it would contain discussion about the Flatiron Building. I wasn't pleasantly surprised when it did.

That's pretty ironic.

The title is everything. I don't have time to just click on every thread "Gee what will I find here??" Apparently I'm not mature enough to know what the **** Deep In The Heart TM means.

Before this I clicked on a thread titled "Flatiron Building." I did so because I was pretty sure it would contain discussion about the Flatiron Building. I wasn't pleasantly surprised when it did.

I think one click on the thread and you could figure it out pretty quickly. I didn't know exactly what it was either, but I was pretty sure it wasn't going to be about open heart surgery in San Antonio or anything,

That's pretty ironic.

Not at all sure how that was pretty ironic. Maybe you don't know what the word ironic means. IDK.




The title is everything. I don't have time to just click on every thread "Gee what will I find here??" Apparently I'm not mature enough to know what the **** Deep In The Heart TM means.

Before this I clicked on a thread titled "Flatiron Building." I did so because I was pretty sure it would contain discussion about the Flatiron Building. I wasn't pleasantly surprised when it did.

You seriously still need a title to tell you what's going on in this thread? Seriously? Are you 14 or something?

New renderings for Confluence Park, a new park planned for the Mission Reach of the San Antonio River, just south of downtown and the urban core.



CONFLUENCE PARK RENDERINGS

http://i.imgur.com/DjM85Tz.jpg?1

http://i.imgur.com/gDW5Qmh.jpg?1

http://i.imgur.com/WdRBL3z.jpg?1

http://i.imgur.com/etLCSqb.jpg?1

http://i.imgur.com/pEtbrjF.jpg?1

MISSION REACH IMAGE
http://i.imgur.com/BDLUpjW.jpg?1


LOCATION
http://i.imgur.com/DXV1szp.png

So, I've been quite the busy person and neglected this thread. Well, I'm back with a few tidbits and updates.

SECURITY SERVICE HEADQUARTERS CAMPUS RENDERINGS

With ground breaking in March, a tower crane now makes its presence known at the southwest corner of 1604 and I-10 on the far northwest side.

A large scale corporate campus for Security Service Federal Credit Unit is under construction,

Here are some renderings of the first of many office buildings planned for the campus.


http://i.imgur.com/vQOkwb2.jpg?1

http://i.imgur.com/iS9tj0A.jpg?1

CAMPUS SITE PLAN
http://bexarwitness.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Screen-Shot-2014-12-15-at-10.36.55-PM.png

LOCATION
http://i.imgur.com/mJGaPm5.png

SAN ANTONIO IS FINALIST FOR NEARLY 1 BILLION DOLLAR ALCOA PLANT (http://www.bizjournals.com/sanantonio/news/2015/06/12/alcoa-eyeing-san-antonio-for-possible-750-million.html)

http://www.alcoa.com/global/en/about_alcoa/images/trademark_vertical_2013.png


San Antonio is one of five cities under consideration for $750 million manufacturing plant by Alcoa, the San Antonio Express-News reported Friday.

The newspaper quotes Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff and San Antonio Economic Development Foundation Mario Hernandez as saying the company could make a decision on where to locate within the next two to three months. No potential job count was available.

The Express-News reported that Alcoa already owns a 45-employee plant in Elmendorf in South Bexar County that manufactures an advanced, aluminum product used for the automotive and other industries.

“We are working with the company, but beyond that I cannot comment,” Hernandez is quoted as saying. “The community is working with them to make a decision to grow here. They have choices around the country.”

CITY COUNCIL APPROVES $166 MILLION, 7-STORY CONSOLIDATED RENTAL FACILITY (http://www.kens5.com/story/news/2015/04/08/airport-garage-demolition-expansion/25501529/)

http://i.imgur.com/frNsOdR.jpg?1


Right now, travelers that need a car have to take a ride to the outskirts of S.A. International.

"If it was right here with would be awesome because we'd still have the cart (to haul our luggage)," said traveler Vicki Higman.

Higman's wish will soon be a reality. This summer, the 3-decade-old hourly garage will be demolished. In its place will be a new 7-story facility called the Consolidated Rental Car Facility, or CONRAC.

"I see it as a drastic improvement," said Franccek.

Airport officials told Eyewitness News, the upper levels of CONRAC will house up to 12 rental car agencies and the lower levels will be for public parking. Officials expect the public parking portion to be complete in about 20 months and the rental portion should be complete eight months after.

"It makes things a lot easier," said Franccek.

Airport officials said while construction is going on travelers will be able to park in a designated parking area and be shuttled to and from their terminal.

CONRAC will be paid for by people renting a vehicle only at the airport. Airport officials want to stress that it will not be paid for by tax dollars or city funds.


http://i.imgur.com/RctxBNl.jpg?1

http://i.imgur.com/92kZMAb.jpg?1


LOCATION
http://i.imgur.com/jKD4ikW.png

JUNE 12TH ARTICLE


GERMAN BIO-SCIENCE COMPANY TO DEVELOP HIGH-WAGE JOBS IN SAN ANTONIO AS RESULT OF HEADQUARTERS RELOCATION (http://www.therivardreport.com/cytocentrics-wins-1-million-incentive-and-warm-welcome-to-san-antonio/)

http://i.imgur.com/wMnINaq.jpg?1


City Council made it official Thursday, voting unanimously to grant a $1 million incentive to Cytocentrics, a biotech and robotics company that is moving from Rostock, Germany to San Antonio where it will open a robotics assembly and biotech research facility that will employ more than 300 locally-trained people. The company will invest a minimum $15 million in establishing operations here over the next five years as part of the incentive agreement.

Assembly workers will earn $50,000 a year and laboratory technicians who will earn $70,000 a year, Cytocentrics CEO James Garvin said Thursday. The company will partner with UTSA, UTHSCSA and the Alamo Colleges. The decision by Cytocentrics to move here from Germany was first reported on the Rivard Report Tuesday.

JUNE 10TH ARTICLE


CYTOCENTRICS CEO: BIOTECH COMPANY PASSED UP BIGGER FINANCIAL OFFERS TO MOVE TO SAN ANTONIO (CYTOCENTRICS CEO: BIOTECH COMPANY PASSED UP BIGGER FINANCIAL OFFERS TO MOVE TO SAN ANTONIO)


The San Antonio’s City Council is not scheduled to vote on a $1 million incentive package to help lure Cytocentrics until Thursday. However, the biotech company’s CEO, James Garvin, said it has already decided to move its headquarters from Rostock, Germany, to the Alamo City.

Perhaps indicative of a larger leap of faith is the fact that Garvin said Cytocentrics passed on larger incentive offers from multiple cities before deciding to move here.

“We turned down two better offers,” Garvin told me Wednesday. “We had one for $3 million and one for $5 million — without many of the constraints" placed by San Antonio. Meanwhile, the company already has people in San Antonio, he said, having had a "soft landing with a couple of thousand square feet" of office space at Targeted Technology, a San Antonio-based venture capital group focused on early-stage investments in health care and bioscience companies.

Cytocentrics employs about 50 people internationally, including nine in San Antonio who are part of the company’s executive team and management group. CEO James Garvin expects the company to create a significant number of additional jobs in the Alamo City over the next several years.

Cytocentrics bills itself as a biotech company developing technology that enables researchers to better understand how human cells react to medicine.

“We do that in ways that have never been understood before and that are opening whole new horizons,” Garvin said.

Leaders at Targeted Technology helped sell Cytocentrics on moving to the Alamo City. Cytocentrics will initially house its San Antonio operations in some of Targeted Technology's office space in Stone Oak.

956-UNIT APARTMENT DEVELOPMENT GETS PLANNING COMMISSION APPROVAL (http://www.expressnews.com/business/article/Tobin-Estate-apartments-approved-despite-protests-6320011.php)

http://i.imgur.com/legGGsV.jpg?1


In a 7-1 vote, the Planning Commission approved a proposal for a 956-unit apartment project on the Northeast Side estate of Robert L.B. Tobin, the eccentric philanthropist who died in 2000.

Of the 74 people who signed up to speak, none supported the proposal by the Tobin Endowment, the charitable trust that controls Tobin’s assets.

Most of critics were residents of Oakwell Farms, the community that Tobin built in the early ’80s. They say the project is too dense: it is inconsistent with the existing residences and will create a traffic nightmare on the Harry Wurzbach Road corridor between Austin Highway and Loop 410.

They say traffic also will spill into the flanking neighborhoods — Oak Park/Northwood and Oakwell Farms — from motorists looking to bypass the congestion to access Loop 410.

“We would like to see a resolution that encompasses everyone in the community,” said Laddie Denton, an Oakwell Farms resident who served as Tobin’s project manager while the community was being built beginning in 1982. “This is just an intrusion that is totally unnecessary.”

The Tobin Endowment plans to sell the property to a developer, who then would build the apartments. Proceeds from the sale would benefit the endowment, which doles out gifts mostly to arts organizations in San Antonio.

The most notable contribution was a $15 million naming-rights grant to the Tobin Center for the Performing Arts.

According to a tax filing in 2013, the Tobin Endowment's assets total $77 million. In an interview earlier this week, Tobin Endowment trustee Bruce Bugg would not divulge the asking price for the 46 acres in question, but said the property is by far the most valuable of all of Tobin’s holdings.

Tobin’s original estate consisted of 500 acres, most of which was built out as Oakwell Farms. Of what remains, 43 acres would be set aside for the apartments, and the three acres surrounding Tobin’s home (the endowment’s offices) would remain untouched.

Denton said Tobin never intended for such a dense development in the neighborhood consisting of luxury homes, small-scale multifamily, offices and medical facilities.

But the Tobin Endowment said it has the right to build apartments — 33 units per acre — because the property was zoned commercial/multifamily in 1987. Denton handled that rezoning for Tobin.

At the time, he said, Tobin wanted the property mainly for a satellite location of the Cooper Clinic — an aerobics/wellness center in Dallas.

The economy tanked, and it never happened.

Before the apartments, the Tobin Endowment presented a plan to Oakwell Farms to build more than 400 detached townhouses on the property. The development would have required rezoning. But the neighborhood rejected the plan, calling it too dense. The endowment countered with 956 apartment units because, it says, that’s what the property is zoned for.

Oakwell Farms lawyer Ken Brown disagreed. In 2001, the city revamped its zoning code. That action, Brown told commissioners, wiped away multifamily as an allowed development on the property. John Jacks, an assistant director with the city’s Development Services Department, said a provision in the Unified Development Code (UDC) allows owners of those properties to retain multifamily as an option.

Brown also ripped the Tobin Estate’s planned unit development (PUD) plan for being too vague — not giving specifics on aspects such as where streets would go or what trees would be preserved.

But commission chairman Marcello D. Martinez said the board’s only charge was to find if any aspect of the plan violated the UDC.

“Right now we're operating under the fact that the base zoning is correct and to date we have not found any UDC violation,” Martinez said.

During the three-hour discussion, the commission twice retreated into the Tobin Room (presumably named after the philanthropist) at the Development and Business Services Center on South Alamo Street to deliberate. The first executive session came before the testimony began.

The lone nay vote was cast by commissioner Angela Rinehart, who declined to explain her vote when the meeting adjourned. The decision even drew the chairpeople of the Zoning Commission and Board of Adjustment — William Shaw III and Andrew Ozuna, respectively — who are allowed to vote on Planning Commission cases as ex-officio members, though they rarely do.

“Our hands are almost tied,” Shaw said just before the vote. “I hope this opens the eyes of the city and other developers so we can rectify the UDC and make sure this doesn't happen again.”

One of the most damning monologues came from Robert Hunt, an Oakwell Farms resident who also is vice president of local developer Embrey. Hunt’s company built the Brackenridge at Midtown apartments, which some residents of Mahncke Park have criticized for intruding on the neighborhood.

“I typically find myself on behalf of property rights, on behalf of well thought out and well designed development,” Hunt said. “In my 30-year professional career, this might be one of the worst plans I’ve ever seen. It has inadequate infrastructure to allow for the proper dispersion of traffic from the site.”

The plan is due to return to the Planning Commission at a later date to address its platting. District 10 Councilman Mike Gallagher has remained neutral, saying Oakwell Farms and the Tobin Endowment should come to a compromise.


LOCATION
http://i.imgur.com/U8G0rbZ.png

CPS ENERGY TO TRANSFORM ABANDONED SOUTHTOWN POWER PLANT INTO 'INNOVATION CENTER' (http://therivardreport.com/cps-energy-international-partners-unveil-epicenter/)

http://i.imgur.com/uhAURGM.jpg


Plans to develop a former CPS Energy power plant into an “epicenter” of energy education and technological innovation were officially unveiled Wednesday morning. The publicly owned utility’s CEO Doyle Beneby was joined by Councilmember Shirley Gonzales (D5) and a host of representatives from local energy and logistics companies that have been working with CPS Energy on its New Energy Economy initiative.

EPIcenter – the building and the forthcoming nonprofit organization that will manage the project and its programming – will take the development of renewable energy sources to a new level, Beneby said.



http://i.imgur.com/Vhpvfh0.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/2CEk8hn.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/dIiWzQr.jpg

LOCATION
http://i.imgur.com/LUNq0aF.png

Josh, why do you think SA is getting all these great developments where a lot of the country is not? I know Dallas, Austin and Houston have things popping up all the time. Is it the lack of income tax in the state?

Josh, why do you think SA is getting all these great developments where a lot of the country is not? I know Dallas, Austin and Houston have things popping up all the time. Is it the lack of income tax in the state?

Texas is just a hot market right now. Low cost of living plus lots of land plus jobs equals people moving here.

The Texas backwardness or "Texas" image that most outsiders have of Texas don't apply to the major cities of Texas but instead the small towns.

More people and jobs in Texas means more investment.

A slew of high rise buildings are set to be announced in San Antonio as well.

Also, San Antonio has a lot of natural bursts that the rest of Texas doesn't have including Dallas and Houston.

ALAMODOME RENOVATION RENDERINGS

The HDRC approved designs planned for the Alamodome renovation set to begin construction this year.



http://i.imgur.com/Z7sx87D.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/APju123.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/ur5bpTc.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/JuUyYui.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/uElzNZg.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/NUclyc0.jpg

W HOTEL PROPOSED FOR HEMISFAIR IN DOWNTOWN SAN ANTONIO

http://i.imgur.com/xaqea68.jpg

Congratulations to San Antonio! The Missions, and The Alamo are now a World Heritage Site


By Robert Rivard
July, 5th 2015

San Antonio’s four Spanish colonial Missions and the Alamo, a world-famous symbol of heroic sacrifice and former mission, were formally named a World Heritage site Sunday at the 39th Session of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee in Bonn, Germany, a triumphant conclusion to a multi-year effort that included restoration of the Missions churches and the Mission Reach of the San Antonio River, and expansion of San Antonio Missions National Historical Park.

The 21-country committee granted the designation Sunday at 6:02 am CST by acclamation following a 23-minute presentation and comments from 17 of the committee members.

San Antonio Missions & Alamo Now a World Heritage Site - The Rivard Report (http://www.therivardreport.com/san-antonio-missions-alamo-now-a-world-heritage-site/)

HIGH-RISE CANOPY HOTEL PLANNED FOR DOWNTOWN

http://i.imgur.com/Ur8aQXL.jpg

LOCATION
http://i.imgur.com/jWecXf1.png

http://i1.wp.com/www.intifada-palestine.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/breaking16.gif?resize=500%2C300

GOOGLE FIBER COMING TO SAN ANTONIO (http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local/article/Google-Fiber-coming-to-San-Antonio-6425372.php)

http://i.imgur.com/lHy613v.jpg




It’s done – San Antonio is going to become a Google Fiber city.

The Internet giant’s blazing fast gigabit network is headed to the Alamo City, the Mountain View, California-based company will announce Wednesday, according to several City Hall sources.

The confirmation that San Antonio will join a short list of so-called “Fiber cities” is nearly 18 months in the making and comes after disappointment that it had been passed over in the first round of announcements.

More...


ExpressNews.com (http://www.expressnews.com/news/local/article/Google-Fiber-coming-to-San-Antonio-6425425.php)

San Antonio will be home to Google Fiber’s next expansion, officials from the city and the Internet giant are expected to announce Wednesday.

Sources with knowledge of the initiative told the San Antonio Express-News that California-based Google will roll out its sought-after fiber optic network here in the coming months.

Google Fiber offers Internet speeds for uploading and downloading at a gigabit per second, roughly 100 times faster than basic broadband service.

About 18 months ago, Google named San Antonio, along with several other urban areas, as potential expansion locations. San Antonio is the largest city that the company has considered — both in population and geographic size.

Google has been working for months in San Antonio, conducting due diligence to determine whether it’s a good fit for the city. The San Antonio Express-News recently wrote about contractors for Google filing their first round of paperwork for permits, which included detailed schematics outlining how traffice would be handled during construction, how conduit would be installed to carry the fiberoptic lines and other information.

In Kansas City, where the network was first installed, tech entrepreneurs reportedly flocked to the first neighborhood to get the service. In San Antonio, the mere prospect of expansion has pushed incumbent providers to lower prices and increase services. Time Warner Cable has upgraded Internet speeds and hardware without charging higher rates to its customers, for example. Local officials have predicted that competition in the marketplace will only get more fierce when Google Fiber arrives.

Meanwhile in San Antonio, Google has begun hiring a small staff. Its job postings have driven speculation in San Antonio that the rollout of the network is just a matter of time.

SAN ANTONIO RANKS FIRST IN THE COUNTRY IN MILLENNIAL GROWTH FROM 2010 TO 2013 (http://www.forbes.com/sites/joelkotkin/2014/08/04/millennial-boomtowns-where-the-generation-is-clustering-its-not-downtown/)

http://i.imgur.com/1mABkfo.png

SLIDESHOW (http://www.forbes.com/pictures/edgl45ghjk)


Much has been written about the supposed preference of millennials to live in hip urban settings where cars are not necessary. Surveys of best cities for millennials invariably features places like New York, San Francisco, Chicago and Boston, cities that often are also favorites of the authors.

Yet there has been precious little support for such assertions. I asked demographer Wendell Cox to do a precise, up-to-date analysis of where this huge generation born between 1983 and 2003 actually resides. Using Census American Community Survey data, Cox has drawn an intriguing picture of millennial America, one that is often at odds with the conventional wisdom of many of their elders.

Equally surprising are those cities that have seen the largest increases in their millennial population. It is dogma among greens, urban pundits, planners and developers that the under 30 crowd doesn’t like what Grist called “sprawling car dependent cities.” Too bad no one told most millennials. For the most part, looking at America’s largest metro areas (the 52 metropolitan statistical areas with populations over a million) the fastest growth in millennial populations tend to be in the Sun Belt and Intermountain West. Leading the way is, San Antonio, Texas, where the 20 to 29 population grew 9.2% from 2010-13, an increase of 28,600.

Right behind it, also in the Sun Belt, are Riverside-San Bernardino, Calif. (8.3%); Orlando, Fla. (8.1%); and Miami (7.7%).

According to this article (http://www.sacurrent.com/Blogs/archives/2015/09/15/new-home-for-pizza-classics), Pizza Classics on Broadway in Midtown is moving and a high-rise will be built its place.


http://i.imgur.com/vCWlYLR.png?1


After 29 years at its original location on Broadway, a local pizza chain is on the move.

Pizza Classics, now at 3440 N. St. Mary's St., relocated to its new location after the building they leased in was sold and will now be turned into a high-rise, according to PC owner Robert Constantine.

The St. Mary's location, which faces Pugels across Mulberry, is considerably bigger than the original and features dine-in seating. The menu has stayed the same, but the pizza joint will now include pizza by the slice for $3 with choice of pepperoni, all-meat, veggie, and pepperoni and sausage.

The eatery fits 48 comfortably, and patio seating is being added soon. Pizza Classics is open 10:30 a.m.-1:30 a.m. Sunday through Thursday and 10:30 a.m.-2:30 a.m. Friday and Saturday.




LOCATION
http://i.imgur.com/VqUzhF8.png

Two new cranes up on the near Westside.


http://static.panoramio.com/photos/original/123673558.jpg

Credit: Raul's Photography

INTERNATIONALLY RENOWNED ARCHITECTS SELECTED TO DESIGN DOWNTOWN FROST HEADQUARTERS (http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/internationally-renowned-architects-with-hometown-ties-selected-to-design-frost-tower-300144275.html)

http://i.imgur.com/yX01V2t.jpg?1


Weston Urban and KDC have announced the selection of internationally renowned architecture firm, Pelli Clarke Pelli, to lead the design of the Frost Tower, Frost Bank's new headquarters and San Antonio's first downtown office tower in three decades.

The design of the approximately 400,000-square-foot office tower will be orchestrated by the architecture firm, based out of New Haven, Conn. In addition to its expertise in modern, iconic towers, the firm's leadership has strong local ties to the San Antonio community. Members of the leadership team Fred Clarke and Bill Butler will lead the project. Clarke, a senior principal of Pelli Clarke Pelli, was born in El Campo and is a graduate of the University of Texas, and Butler, a principal of the firm, was born and raised in San Antonio and is a graduate of Rice University.

"We couldn't possibly be any more excited to announce the selection of Pelli Clarke Pelli to lead the design of the Frost Tower," said Weston Urban President Randy Smith. "Throughout the lengthy selection process, Fred and Bill have consistently wowed us with their firm's understanding that great design is, in large part, local design, all the while bringing their international experience to bear. Pairing with a firm of this caliber is representative of the entire team's ambition for the project."

"We are thrilled and honored to be chosen as architects for the new Frost Tower. This transformative project will extend the commercial district of Houston Street to the vibrant redevelopment of San Pedro Creek," said Senior Design Principal of Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects Fred Clarke. "As a Texas native, and with my business partner Bill Butler, a San Antonio native, we hope to embrace the Texan spirit, respond to the uniqueness of San Antonio and create a symbol for the city's tercentennial, as well as the one hundred fiftieth anniversary of Frost Bank."

Pelli Clarke Pelli has been a leader in environmentally sustainable design for over a decade. The firm's designs included sustainable strategies even before the U.S. Green Building Council established its Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program and its work includes the country's first residential tower to achieve LEED Platinum, the program's highest rating. The firm has designed and developed towers across the world from the World Financial Center in New York to the Petronas Towers in Malaysia.


THEIR OFFICE DESIGNS (http://pcparch.com/projects/headquarters-office-buildings)

MODERN ART MUSEUM PLANNED FOR SOUTHTOWN (http://www.mysanantonio.com/entertainment/arts-culture/article/Pace-Foundation-museum-is-a-dream-come-true-6509522.php)

http://i.imgur.com/34VIQDM.jpg?1


Linda Pace’s dream of Ruby City took a step closer to reality today when design plans and renderings for a long-anticipated [Southtown] museum to house the late arts patron’s 800-work contemporary art collection were released.

“It’s been a long time coming,” Linda Pace Foundation board member Kathryn Kanjo said. “Linda began thinking about a museum as early as 2000 and had a very clear vision of what the museum would be. It was the last great effort that she worked on, and now it’s coming to fruition.”

The two-story, $16 million structure will be integrated into the foundation campus at Camp and South Flores streets. It was designed by world-renowned British architect David Adjaye, who also designed the $500 million National Museum of African American History and Culture going up on the National Mall in Washington.

The museum’s name, Ruby City, is based on a dream Linda Pace had, which she sketched and shared with Adjaye during a visit he made to San Antonio in 2007. Pace died of cancer later that year.

The exterior will be faced with crimson-hued panels of precast concrete with glass aggregate, giving it a sparkling effect.

Oversize windows will have views of adjacent CHRISpark, built in 2005, a 1-acre public green space named in honor of Pace’s son, who died in 1997, and of the city skyline.

Visitors will enter Ruby City from the west, facing San Pedro Creek. Terraced banks leading to the creek will feature a new outdoor sculpture garden.

Largely rectangular, the building will have a dramatic rooftop of sloping angles and skylights that rise to varying heights and echo cutaway spaces at the building’s base. Inside the lobby, a grand staircase will lead up to a series of three gallery spaces with concrete floors and white walls and ceilings.

Totaling 14,000 square feet, Ruby City will feature 10,000 square feet of exhibition space, with the remaining spaces devoted to administrative offices and storage.

Groundbreaking is set for 2016, with a completion date in 2018. The museum will be paid for with foundation funds. Admission will be free.

“The museum will be exquisite for San Antonio in so many ways,” Kanjo said. “It will be a singular building, an important building by a very prominent architect, but it will be respectful of San Pedro Creek and integrated into the surrounding neighborhood. It won’t look as if it dropped from the sky.”

Foundation President Rick Moore called the museum “a beacon for San Antonio.”

“It’s a testament to the living legacy of Linda Pace’s vision and to San Antonio’s thriving contemporary art scene,” he said.

The foundation’s collection features more than 800 paintings, sculptures, installations and video works by international contemporary artists.

Recent acquisitions include works by Shahzia Sikander, Wangechi Mutu, Arturo Herrera, Dario Robleto and Chuck Ramirez.

“We will have the long-term installation of major works, but we’ll also develop a rhythm with changing shows or installations in certain sections of the museum to bring a sense of liveliness to the space,” Kanjo said.

Adjaye has said the vaulted, skylit gallery spaces were informed by the architecture of the San Antonio missions.

In a statement, he said: “When I visited San Antonio in 2007 and met with Linda, we sketched out ideas and together we envisioned a building that would resonate with her dream of the Ruby City. Like a city, the design offers an organic encounter with the foundation’s works, and my hope is that it will become a place where artists and the wider community can be inspired to realize their own dreams through a meaningful experience with contemporary art.”


http://i.imgur.com/t9xy0en.jpg?1

http://i.imgur.com/bpO6qSw.jpg?1

http://i.imgur.com/sLCFEQO.jpg?1

LOCATION
http://i.imgur.com/wfMhKEC.png

Quick question.

Are my posts visible?

Yes. Don't love the new museum, but the other designs are fantastic.

Yes. Don't love the new museum, but the other designs are fantastic.

It actually looks very similar to the central library in downtown San Antonio.



http://fanunnelly.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/San-Antonio-Public-Library---01.jpg

That museum looks a little too "modern", Josh. They'll be calling for the wrecking ball to get rid of the blight not long after it's built.
(Sarcasm, of course. What we went through with Stage Center was horrible.)

NEW RIVER NORTH RESIDENTIAL DEVELOPMENT
SIX-STORIES │ 305-UNITS │ RIVER ADJACENT

http://i.imgur.com/dI0f2Fs.png

http://i.imgur.com/MtwTmTW.png

SUBURBAN NEWS


LANDMARK CENTRE RENDERINGS
32-ACRE MIXED-USE DEVELOPMENT TO FEATURE RESIDENTIAL, OFFICE, RETAIL, HOTEL AND MEDICAL.


http://i.imgur.com/4bljtdR.jpg?1

http://i.imgur.com/8iTMdqu.jpg?1

http://i.imgur.com/FSnaJzr.jpg?1

http://i.imgur.com/gHbH98T.jpg?1

http://i.imgur.com/WknbvmT.jpg?1

http://i.imgur.com/yjokggU.jpg?1

LOCATION
http://i.imgur.com/FeVubsN.png



Construction is under way.

FYI:

Landmark Centre is one small part of a larger overall development at the southwest corner of 1604 and 10, called District North,. You can see some of the other developments under construction or built in the aerials above. Another project is the in the next post below.

SUBURBAN NEWS

This Class-A office building is going up about a quarter mile south of the Landmark Centre development.


http://i.imgur.com/0vHyQUR.jpg

LOCATION
http://i.imgur.com/eeTuQ67.png

I hope they make that interchange a five stack. That area seems like it pretty cool. Absolutely amazing what is going in SA. Can't wait to visit there soon and I know I keep saying that just hit hard times but will be exciting when I finally do!!

210 Development Group Breaks Ground on Second West Side Urban Development

http://bexarwitness.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/BW-vitre.jpg


By Bexar Witness Staff
September 30 2015

The 210 Development Group broke ground Sept. 29 on the Vitré Apartments at Cattleman Square, with designs to bring more living space to the western edge of downtown San Antonio. This will be a 20-month, $28 million construction project involving 242 apartments and more than 5,000-square-feet of retail space. It’s a featured project emphasized by the San Antonio Department of Center City Development and Operations.

San Antonio Development News - Page 33 - SkyscraperCity (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?p=127647846#post127647846)

I hope they make that interchange a five stack. That area seems like it pretty cool. Absolutely amazing what is going in SA. Can't wait to visit there soon and I know I keep saying that just hit hard times but will be exciting when I finally do!!

Yes, the I10/1604 Interchange will become a five stack interchange. Right now, it's looking like it'll be a tolled five stack interchange with the current cloverleaf interchange remaining in place and remaining free. So, there'd be two different interchanges in one spot.

CENTRO SAN ANTONIO READY TO TAKE A SWING AT NEW DOWNTOWN STADIUM (http://www.bizjournals.com/sanantonio/news/2015/10/09/centro-san-antonio-ready-to-take-a-swing-at-new.html)

http://i.imgur.com/p9dlr8a.jpg


After years of chatter among local business and political leaders about the merits of a new baseball stadium in the center city, Centro San Antonio has stepped up to the plate to help move such a project closer to reality. Centro has reached out to national stadium consultant Brailsford & Dunlavey to provide expertise on where such a ballpark should be developed, how it could be funded and what San Antonio can expect with regard to economic impact opportunities.

“We are ready to embark on a study for a downtown ballpark. We are in the process of finalizing the contract with the consultant,” Centro San Antonio President and CEO Pat DiGiovanni said.

Centro will fund the new study, which stadium supporters hope will trigger more serious discussions about the need for a venue that could accommodate a Triple-A team. Currently, San Antonio is home to the Missions, the Double-A affiliate of the San Diego Padres.

“We are starting to have a real conversation about a downtown stadium,” DiGiovanni said. “This study is an important element in how we proceed.”

Securing funding for a downtown ballpark will be one of the bigger challenges local leaders will face. Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff, for whom the Mission’s stadium is named, has been most vocal about the need for a new downtown ballpark. However, the county may be somewhat hamstrung in its ability to help fund such a project because of a contract it signed more than 15 years ago with the San Antonio Spurs. That arena operating agreement for what is now the AT&T Center includes a “No Competing Facilities” clause, which states in part that, during the term of the agreement, the county shall not directly or indirectly “own, manage, operate, control, finance, sponsor (or) develop” any indoor or outdoor sports venue with a capacity of 5,000 to 30,000 seats.

That may be one reason why San Antonio Mayor Ivy Taylor has become more involved in discussions about a new ballpark.

One option the city could explore is using future bond money to help finance a downtown stadium.

Taylor points to Charlotte, North Carolina, as an example of the level of economic activity a downtown ballpark can ignite. That city invested $54 million to develop a new home for the Triple-A Knights, BB&T Ballpark, which opened in 2013 in an urban area that needed a jolt.

BB&T Ballpark is expected to attract roughly $700 million worth of new development to the surrounding area, according to a 2014 Charlotte Observer report. Already, previously neglected blocks of real estate in the nearby Third Ward are filling up with new apartment buildings, restaurants and retail establishments as entrepreneurs look to grab some of the hundreds of thousands of baseball fans on their way into and out of the new stadium.

DiGiovanni said Brailsford & Dunlavey, which is based in Washington, D.C., has worked on a number of newer minor league ballpark projects, including Spirit Communications Park in Columbia, South Carolina. That roughly 8,500-seat stadium will anchor a larger Bull Street project, a public-private redevelopment of the former South Carolina State Hospital site.

The goal, said DiGiovanni, is to have Brailsford & Dunlavey launch its San Antonio study this month and compete its work by the end of the year.

“I think we have a team that can do the analysis and do it relatively quickly so that we can be in a position for the city’s bond cycle, if that becomes a funding source.”

SUBURBAN NEWS

Speaking of the I10/1604 area.


380-UNIT APARTMENT DEVELOPMENT BREAKS GROUND AT THE RIM


http://i.imgur.com/hYN2izq.jpg

This project, The Rim Apartments, actually broke ground last month, but it wasn't posted then so I thought I'd post it now.

Residential development is on fire at The Rim with three large developments currently under construction.

Right now, the 308-unit Aura at The Rim (http://i.imgur.com/Ew8HOKe.jpg?1) is currently under construction and will actually be located almost directly across the street from The Rim Apartments. A little south from these two, near Top Golf, the 427-unit Villas at The Rim are under construction.


LOCATION
http://i.imgur.com/YcdYX17.png

SUBURBAN NEWS

More I-10/1604 area news.


427-UNIT - VILLAS AT THE RIM - BREAKS GROUND (http://www.bizjournals.com/sanantonio/news/2015/09/18/california-based-trust-starts-luxury-residential.html)


http://i.imgur.com/lfbXyT6.jpg?1

This project, along with The Rim Apartments, broke ground last month.

Bringing the total number of residential units currently under construction at The Rim to 1,115.


With three pools, lighted courts and a 20,000-square-foot amenity facility, Frankel Family Trust is looking to raise San Antonio's residential bar with its latest multifamily development, this time at the Rim.

The California-based trust has broken ground on Villas at The Rim, a 427-unit Class A+ complex directly north of Top Golf in the northeast quadrant of the Loop 1604 and I-10 intersection. Using fee-developer Legacy Alliance, the complex will include a mix of one-, two- and three-bedroom as well as an entry-level parking garage.

Over the next couple of years, FFT will be doing even more to change the city's multifamily market. The trust went under contract Thursday for a property in Stone Oak, which will be the site of its next residential development.

Construction for the Villas at The Rim is expected to take about 26 months, with preleasing set to begin in about a year. DeYoung said that rents have yet to be established.



LOCATION
http://i.imgur.com/7ktPwdC.png

That's just The Rim. There's tons more residential development planned at La Cantera (http://lacantera.com/map.html), District North, Landmark, etc. All in that immediate i-10/1604 area.

Yes, the I10/1604 Interchange will become a five stack interchange. Right now, it's looking like it'll be a tolled five stack interchange with the current cloverleaf interchange remaining in place and remaining free. So, there'd be two different interchanges in one spot.That's awesome!

I found this rendering of Hemisfair and the future Civic Park online.


http://i.imgur.com/3Rij7Rf.jpg

10-STORY PARKING GARAGE PLANNED FOR DOWNTOWN SAN ANTONIO

A surface parking lot is being replaced with a 10-story parking garage that will feature street level retail.


http://i.imgur.com/j0EZmNu.png

http://i.imgur.com/ziHAx7E.png

http://i.imgur.com/F42EXAw.png

http://i.imgur.com/qEkPtVg.png

510 SPACE TOBIN CENTER PARKING GARAGE SET TO BREAK GROUND

The Tobin Center for the Performing Arts is set to break ground on a 510 space parking garage with 3,000 square feet of retail space.


http://i.imgur.com/tGg0SfP.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/KXoNxpb.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/8hZRUWk.jpg

AMAZON PRIME NOW EXPANDS TO SAN ANTONIO (http://www.bizjournals.com/sanantonio/blog/morning-edition/2015/10/amazon-offering-one-hour-delivery-on-groceries.html)

https://recodetech.files.wordpress.com/2015/09/20150929-amazon-flex-delivery.jpg?quality=80&strip=info&w=640


Amazon.com Inc.’s Prime Now one-hour delivery service has expanded to San Antonio. For customers using the Prime Now mobile app, customers will be able to order literally their choice of tens of thousands of items including household merchandise like paper towels, food products like milk, ice cream and even electronics like televisions and Kindles.

“With Prime Now, you can skip a trip to the store and get the items you need delivered right to your door in under an hour,” said Stephenie Landry, director of Amazon’s Prime Now service. “We’re excited to expand in Texas, bringing the convenience of Prime Now to San Antonio.”

File photo of a worker preparing an order at the Amazon Fulfillment Center in Schertz. Amazon Prime Now has expanded to San Antonio.

In San Antonio, Prime Now is available from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., seven days a week. Two-hour delivery is free while one-hour delivery is available for $7.99.

The Rivard Report held a Place Changing event at Alamo Beer Brewery in Dignowity Hill to discuss the changing landscape of Dignowity Hill, a currently gentrifying neighborhood on the near East Side of San Antonio. Here's a really cool video. Please watch.



https://vimeo.com/143281561

CITY TO COMPLETELY REDESIGN RIVERWALK BARGES (http://www.expressnews.com/business/local/article/River-barge-process-rebooted-new-design-in-the-6587671.php)

http://i.imgur.com/iZ7uvE4.jpg?1


The city of San Antonio is changing the way it manages the River Walk barges in an effort to attract more bids for their operation while updating the boats’ circa-1995 design.

On Friday, the city launched an international design competition for a new fleet of electric-powered barges offering an “innovative, visionary approach to the 21st Century watercraft experience on the San Antonio River.”

City officials want the new design to support tourists and residents, especially those who might live along the Museum Reach segment of the San Antonio River — the parklike River Walk extension where about 2,000 apartments have sprouted since 2011.

“We also want to make sure this is a viable transportation option,” Assistant City Manager Lori Houston said.

The new electric fleet would contain 50 to 60 barges, replacing the current, gas-powered 44-board fleet.

A winner will be announced Feb. 10. Then, the city will issue two requests for proposals: one for manufacturing the new fleet, another for its operation.

The city would issue debt to pay for the fleet — about $35,000 to $65,000 per electric barge compared to the approximate $40,000 cost for a current boat. The city would then lease the barges to the operator, and the operator’s lease payment would be used to pay off the debt.

“We’re just passing the cost of the barges on to the operator,” Houston said. “This saves us from having to get that upfront capital right away.”

In 2014, the city began this solicitation process — but the RFP required all potential operators to purchase their own boats.

District 1 City Councilman Roberto Treviño said he expects more responses to the new RFP now that the city is “taking on the responsibility” of owning the fleet.

“We weren’t going to get what we hoped for, and so the council exercised its right to start over,” Treviño said. “The city deserves as many options as possible.”

The new setup will give the city an opportunity to refresh the way the barges look and operate, Treviño said.

“We need to be looking at our city past all the kitschy and cliché things people are used to,” he said. “This has nothing to do with the current operator. This has more to do with the city wanting to move forward with how it sees itself.”

The existing 44-boat fleet is owned and operated by Rio San Antonio Cruises, which has collected about $100 million in revenue since first winning the concession contract in 2004. The company was the only one left standing this year after a couple of rounds of solicitation.

A second bidder, Rio Way — a company operated by VIA Board of Trustees chair Hope Andrade, tourism businessman Ed Torres and restauranteur Lisa Wong — pulled out late in the process. Andrade declined late Friday to give a reason for why her group stepped away. She said the RFP restart was news to her, and that she and her partners had no plans as of Friday to submit another proposal.

Both Treviño and Houston said the RFP process wasn’t restarted because the city was unhappy with Rio San Antonio Cruises. Houston said the city will likely extend the current contract to Rio San Antonio Cruises to early 2017, around the same time the contract for the new operator — if it’s not Rio San Antonio Cruises — begins.

JoAnn Boone, CEO and president of Rio San Antonio Cruises, did not return a request for an interview.

The design competition, which the city is holding in partnership with the local chapter of the American Institute of Architects, begins Friday. The top three entries, chosen by a nine-member jury, will receive cash prizes, as well as $7,500 to develop their designs, and $2,500 travel stipends.

The public will get a chance to weigh in on the three finalists’ designs on the AIA website and in a Nov. 8 open house.

It finally seems things are getting underway at the Lone Star Brewery site. After years of talk and potential buyers who were interested in the site but ultimately did nothing, there seems to be a developer willing to revitalize the long abandoned Southtown brewery.

If all goes as planned, the urban core could be book-ended by the Pearl to the north and the Lone Star to the south.

Could the Lone Star be as game changing for the urban core as the Pearl has been?

The developer is talking about bringing back Lone Star to brew on the site in some way, adding a Texas Music Hall of Fame as well as an outdoor music venue. That plus, housing, retail and other commercial options, could lend this development to be a true gem for the urban core and Southtown.


A LOOK AT AQUALAND'S BIG PLANS FOR LONE STAR BREWERY SITE (http://www.bizjournals.com/sanantonio/news/2015/11/13/exclusive-a-look-at-aqualand-s-big-plans-for-lone.html)


http://i.imgur.com/IVHwnv1.jpg?1


Roughly half a year after buying 36 acres at the former Lone Star Brewery site south of downtown San Antonio, Aqualand Development’s vision for what the long-neglected area can become is taking shape. And those plans will focus on elements that helped keep the once popular destination afloat decades ago — beer and entertainment.

“We have started work on our redevelopment plans and started to clean up the site so we can bring this place back to life,” Aqualand Development founder and CEO Mark Smith said.

San Marcos-based Aqualand Development has acquired the Historic Lone Star Beer Brewery site south of downtown San Antonio and plans to transform the area into a mixed-use destination for locals and tourists.

Over the next six months, the San Marcos, Texas-based company plans to lock up the balance of the 65 acres and firm up plans for the existing buildings. Meanwhile, what is already clear as the water from the artesian wells beneath the former brewery is that Aqualand officials want to tap into as much of the area’s history as possible.


http://i.imgur.com/AIpxqZJ.jpg?1

That starts with beer. And one of the more intriguing elements of Aqualand’s redevelopment plan is to return Lone Star Beer to the brewery it abandoned years ago.

“One of our main focus is to bring Lone Star Beer back. We’ve been in very high level talks with them,” Smith said.

“They are going to have a presence here. It’s just a matter of how far they want to take it,” Aqualand Vice President Mark Evans said.

Preliminary plans also call for other microbrewery establishments, as well as a new beer garden that would further reinforce the connection between the area and its brewing heritage.


http://i.imgur.com/iRV2Wbf.jpg?1

Other complementary economic developments are also in the works. Among the venues Aqualand is attempting to bring to Lone Star are a Texas Music Hall of Fame and a 1,200-seat live music hall.

“There is no Texas Music Hall of Fame,” Smith said. “We want to bring one to San Antonio.”

Aqualand officials have already begun to reach out to industry leaders about the development of a new museum tied to a brewery that has long had ties to country music in the region.

Aqualand officials also have their sites on other entertainment venues, including a dine-in movie theater complex.

While the total redevelopment of Lone Star Brewery could cost more than $300 million, according to Smith, the investment could be far more astronomical were it not for the existing infrastructure, which will be renovated and repurposed.


http://i.imgur.com/SrdpsYj.jpg?1

“We’ve spent the last six months figuring out where we are with the buildings. We didn’t know,” Evans said. “We used local engineering firms who have inspected the buildings individually. There is nothing that we want to do with the mixed-use plans that can’t be supported by the buildings.”

“This is like an open canvas. This property hasn’t been touched in years,” Smith said. “This is the biggest project in the history of our company. But we believe in this. We put our money into Lone Star because we can see what it can be.”



LOCATION
INCLUDING THE PEARL
http://i.imgur.com/iMhEgWR.png

So, it seems Sea World could be making San Antonio their flagship park. This (http://behindthethrills.com/2015/10/rumor-mill-seaworld-san-antonio-could-become-crown-jewel-in-seaworld-parks-family/) was reported in October, while this (http://www.expressnews.com/business/local/article/SeaWorld-sets-out-to-repair-image-beef-up-parks-6620822.php#photo-8929612) was reported two weeks later.

I'll post the first link.


Keep in mind that these are just rumors, and that they are not guaranteed to be accurate, or even correct. Until the park officially announces it, it’s not happening, and is pure speculation.

SeaWorld San Antonio is nestled deep in the heart of Texas, and sits on a massive amount of unused land. The park is absolutely the largest park in the SeaWorld chain, and the best part is, they own every last bit of the land that it sits on. 2016 will mark the start of a new era at SeaWorld San Antonio, with the addition of Discovery Point. This is going to be an all new attraction that will take guests into the realm of dolphins, and allow you to get up close and personal with them, as you swim with the dolphins. Currently you can only do that at Discovery Cove, but it will be an all new experience at SeaWorld San Antonio.

If you’ve never been to SeaWorld San Antonio, the front entrance has kind of a weird layout. You go in through the arches, and get your ticket scanned, then you have the option of going extreme left to the dolphin and shark encounter areas, directly ahead to the Aquatica entrance, or to the right to the rest of SeaWorld San Antonio. It’s a unique set up to say the least. That will all change.

Currently, you have to have a SeaWorld San Antonio ticket to gain access to Aquatica San Antonio. That makes it a little more expensive for anyone who wants to visit the waterpark, without visiting the rest of the park. That will also change in 2016.

The way that it’s rumored to go in 2016, the iconic archway will stay where it is, and will act as a central hub for the three different parts of the SeaWorld San Anotnio Resort…bear with me here.

As reported on other sites, you will no longer need a SeaWorld San Antonio ticket to gain access to Aquatica. They will be separate gates, all together. The entry gates will allegedly be moved up for Aquatica, and the entry gates for SeaWorld San Antonio will be pushed back, past the fountains. The ticketing areas will stay the same. There will be a third gate added, and this will be for Discovery Point. It’s not known if you will need a ticket for SeaWorld San Antonio to access Discovery Point or not at this time, but if you do have a SeaWorld San Antonio ticket, you will be granted access to Discovery Point, and shark encounter. That’s a pretty big deal and change for SeaWorld in 2016. But it’s just the beginning.

According to our sources, the park will be adding several new attractions between 2017, and 2019. A few months back, SeaWorld copyrighted the name “Reef Hunter” which could play a part in the new coaster that is allegedly being planned for SeaWorld San Antonio in 2017. Then between the opening of the new coaster, and 2019 there will be several other family rides, animal attractions and shows added to the park, as the park aggressively expands. Then in 2019, the park will open (what could very well be the first) Blue World Project, with an expanded Killer Whale habitat, and new show.

Somewhere in there, it’s expected that an all new, on-site resort could possibly open. It makes perfect sense, as the park not only has the land, but is also competing with nearby Schlitterbahn which not only has onsite cabins, but a huge treehouse in which guests can just swim out of their front door. The market and interest is definitely there in San Antonio.

When will we hear about any, or all of this? We expect to hear the first bits of information on November 9th, as SeaWorld announces their third quarter results, and announces the new direction of the park. Where will Orlando and San Diego play into all of this? We’re curious about that ourselves, but we’re pretty confident that we’ll see huge things announced for most of the parks in the coming years.


Now, the information from the second link.


http://i.imgur.com/yX5ltgN.jpg?1


SeaWorld Entertainment plans to shake off its troubles by overhauling its public image and building up its parks, including the one on the West Side, where attendance has declined in recent months.

Company executives Monday unveiled a road map to “stabilize and grow” the company by, among other things, developing resorts in San Antonio and the other two cities where it has water parks.

The road map also targets SeaWorld’s public image, which was tarnished in 2013 when the “Blackfish” documentary criticized its treatment of killer whales. The company also suffered from negative publicity during a recent legal battle in California over its ability to breed whales.

On Monday, SeaWorld said that in response to customer feedback, it is ending its theatrical orca show in San Diego next year. Instead, it will showcase the orcas in “natural settings” and displaying “natural behaviors” with a strong conservation message, executives said. There are no changes in store for orca shows in San Antonio and Orlando, Florida.

In a webcast to investors, CEO and President Joel Manby said he wants SeaWorld to be thought of as a “brand with a purpose,” such as Whole Foods Market and Tom’s Shoes, which donates a pair of shoes to a needy child for every purchase a customer makes.

“I don’t see any reason why SeaWorld can’t be one of those brands,” Manby said. “I know we aren’t there today. I know we have a ways to go.”

The company will be more aggressive in touting its animal rescue programs and will make more of an effort to educate visitors about the plight of animals such as cheetahs and sharks, Manby said.

It will turn its parks “inside out” to give visitors a look at employees taking care of animals.

Park employees soon will be known as “animal ambassadors” and will wear name tags with statements such as “I protect penguins,” executives said. They will sometimes lead holders of season passes on volunteer excursions such as rescue operations.

The Humane Society responded to SeaWorld’s announcement by criticizing the company for not ending the orca shows in San Antonio and Orlando.

“We urge SeaWorld to make its pledge more explicit and to phase out orca acts at all of its facilities, to end its breeding program and to work with us on a plan to put the orcas in suitable environments,” the nonprofit said in a news release.

During SeaWorld’s webcast announcing the changes to its San Diego orca show and its resort plan, Manby showed a map highlighting two potential resort sites on its San Antonio property.

“It’s a very proven model in the industry,” Manby said of the resort plan. “You don’t have to grow attendance to get the additional (earnings). You’re really just increasing the wallet share of guests who are already coming to your park.”

SeaWorld also intends to make capital investments such as new rides more often at its parks: once a year in Orlando and about two out of every three years in San Antonio and San Diego, Manby said. It will make an investment in San Antonio in 2017, and within the next few years it plans to build a new roller coaster concept called SeaWorld Rescue — which will simulate the rescue of animals — either here or in San Diego, where attendance also dropped recently.

“We’ll make that announcement when we’re ready,” said Manby, who came to SeaWorld in April from Herschend Enterprises, another theme park company.

Manby touted resorts as a good growth area for SeaWorld, saying consumers are willing to pay premium rates to stay in areas that are connected to amusement parks. The resorts will give the company more control over visitors’ experiences, he said.

SeaWorld already has formed a partnership with another company, the Evans Hotel Group, to build a resort in San Diego, Manby said.

One of the potential resort sites at SeaWorld San Antonio is wedged between Military Drive and Ellison Drive and covers 37 acres.

The other tract is next to the park’s parking lot and covers 17 acres.

Manby suggested that the company also would look at new land for development in San Antonio.

“It’s big there in San Antonio. It’s Texas,” Manby said with a chuckle.

There are more than a half-dozen hotels and resorts within 2 miles of SeaWorld San Antonio, including the 500-room Hyatt Regency Hill County Resort, the 227-room Hilton San Antonio Hill Country Hotel & Spa and a 191-room Holiday Inn. Another hotel, a four-story Marriott TownePlace Suites, is about to be built nearby.

“I think it’s a positive move for SeaWorld to explore new avenues of hospitality,” said John Clamp, executive director of the San Antonio Hotel & Lodging Association. “It may be challenging though because the Hyatt Hill Country resort is there.”

In addition, SeaWorld’s ticketing strategy will be revamped, with an emphasis on long-term passes over single-day tickets.

Last week, executives said they planned to switch to an “advance purchase philosophy” with heavy marketing in the fall after rainy weather in May and June discouraged the purchase of season tickets in San Antonio.

That contributed to the park’s attendance drop in the third quarter, they said.

The company also will eliminate some of its ticket products, as research showed that consumers are overwhelmed by the number of options, executives said Monday.




LOCATION
http://i.imgur.com/prFkuuS.png

TWO SOUTHTOWN RESIDENTIAL DEVELOPMENTS BROKE GROUND LAST WEEK


The Sunglo Urban Homes, being built on the site of a former Sunglo gas station, will consist of 10 townhomes and the Lotus Urban Homes will have 17 units. Both developments are next to each other.



SUNGLO URBAN HOMES

http://i.imgur.com/eowTIw6.png

http://i.imgur.com/SagzVhC.jpg?1

http://ww2.hdnux.com/photos/42/00/65/8916320/5/1024x1024.jpg


LOTUS URBAN HOMES

http://i.imgur.com/doh0zHX.png

http://i.imgur.com/Uh9C4ij.jpg?1

http://i.imgur.com/mlzJfKl.png

http://i.imgur.com/js0XMyF.png


LOCATION
http://i.imgur.com/W4urOs3.png

NEW RENDERINGS OF HIGHRISE CANOPY HOTEL

http://i.imgur.com/VJkMzzZ.jpg?1

PICTURES: GOTHAM CITY VIBES IN DOWNTOWN SAN ANTONIO

http://i.imgur.com/qu9edmi.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/cegTedP.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/46cUYKY.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/MVsnS7I.jpg

SAN PEDRO CREEK DESIGN CHANGES PRAISED (http://www.therivardreport.com/san-pedro-creek-design-changes-praised-but-pose-timeline-and-budget-challenges/)

http://therivardreport.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/rendering_sanpedrocreek_munoz_landscape_sara_spc_1 2-4-20158.png
The “floating island” in a widened San Pedro Creek with the removal of the Dollar Store on West Commerce Street.


The revised designs of the San Pedro Creek Improvements Project won unanimous approval and praise Friday from members of the SPC Subcommittee, made up of property owners, downtown stakeholders and other citizens with a vested interest in the major project slated for completion of its first phase by May 2018, the city’s 300th anniversary.

It took two hours for the three-person presentation team to explain in detail to committee members and members of the public the many changes in the design and engineering and, ultimately, the impact on the $97.8 million budget for phases one and two. The first phase of the project begins at the Tunnel Inlet at IH-35 and West Quincy Street near Fox Tech High School and extends south to César Chavez Boulevard. Phase two extends the project to Guadalupe Street.

The entire project, originally budgeted at $175 million by Bexar County, will result in the restoration of two miles of San Pedro Creek all the way to its confluence with the Alazan and Apache Creeks at IH-35 near the former Stockyards. It also will serve as a catalyst for major redevelopment and cultural revival of the western sector of downtown. The San Antonio River Authority is serving as the project manager for the County Commissioners. Jeff Mitchell, with HDR Inc., led Friday’s presentation of the design revisions, and afterwards, also discussed the significant ramifications for a changed design and construction timeline and ultimately, the budget implications.


http://cdn.therivardreport.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/rendering_sanpedrocreek_munoz_landscape_sara_spc_1 2-4-20152.png


In sum, the design has evolved significantly in response to feedback from the various stakeholders, but the May 2018 deadline means some of the changes will require additional funding even after other “value engineering” cuts resulted in $30 million in cost-cutting. Mitchell also said the project team now would now recommend to County Commissioners that they alter the original plan of completing all design work by April to extending that timeline to November, while moving forward in April with the selection and hiring of a general contractor in what is called Construction Manager at Risk (CMAR) contract. Under the recommended approach the County and River Authority would contract directly with the designer and the builder and retain control of both entities. Construction would start on select pockets of the project before design work is completed for the entire creekway.

The AT&T Center and Tobin Center for the Performing Arts, two major projects completed by the County on tight deadlines, were done under CMAR contracts. A follow-up article in the Rivard Report will explore the timeline and financial implications in greater detail.

Friday’s presentation was mostly about design. It gave Subcommittee members their first full appreciation of the collaboration between the architects at Muñoz & Co. led by Principal Steve Tillotson, and landscape architects at the Mexico City firm Grupo de Diseño Urbano led by Principal and Landscape Architect Mario Schjetnan.


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The collaborative effort has led to a major realignment of the project’s key features, a greater emphasis on moving water, native plantings, “strong trees,” and deeper integration of the creek with pathways, benches and other pedestrian features. That is what Schjetnan and his team have brought to the project. At the same time, the Muñoz influence is seen in the use of exuberant color in a more contained way, and with the weaving in of mythic, historic and folkloric design elements on the walls that separate the creek from the streetscape. Cork as a medium to reflect culture also emboldens wayfinding signage, historical narrative elements, and vibrant tile work that will appear at key junctures along the way. Linear benches now line many stretches of the creek, and discreetly follow its curves downstream. The benches evoke the color of Ricardo Legorreta’s Central Library, and near the northern reach, form an inviting keyhole-shaped refuge that bridges the creek.

Friday morning belonged mostly to Schjetnan, who at times with his passionate voice, shock of white hair and expressive arm movements, resembled a symphony conductor. People listened as he brought the site maps and renderings to life, and invited subcommittee and audience members to pass around delicate scale models. It was a lesson in masterful presentation. Simply stated, people loved what they saw and heard Friday morning. Stakeholders have watched the design evolve from the original renderings first presented months ago to what will be now be presented to Bexar County Commissioners on Tuesday.


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“We want to play more with water, we want people to interact more with water, we want children to play; this is a linear park, more so than the River Walk, more community oriented, something that goes right through your downtown, which is fantastic!” Schjetnan said.

Even if Subcommittee members didn’t say so in their many words of affirmation, people seemed to see something uniquely San Antonio in the new renderings and site plans –a creek that carries the city’s 300-year European influenced history with it and what Schjetnan described as 8,000 years of earlier indigenous occupation. The result is a design that is like the city and its people, deeply influenced by its Mexican roots, its Mexican-American history and culture, and its spare Southwestern landscape of stone, earth, trees, native grasses, and precious water.


http://www.therivardreport.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/scottball_sanpedrocreek_sara_meeting_munoz_12-4-2015-9.jpg?w=651


The changes to the design start right at the Tunnel Inlet and the so-called Vila Lagunilla reach lined with cypress trees. The Tunnel Inlet has been sheathed in sturdy, yet delicately crafted worked metal with a Tree of Life inspired motif. The metalwork leads to a vertical wall of falling water as it descends into the creekway, enters a wetland and courses through the keyhole-shaped benchwork and then through a series of limestone arms embracing the passing water and slowing it into standing pools.

“It’s going to be more lush than you see in the rendering, there are going to more plants,” Schjetnan said. “People are going to be able to get into the pool.”

To the east, Camaron Street poses both opportunity and challenge not previously addressed in this project or in any urban renewal conversations. Yet the street originally named for the freshwater shrimp that once thrived in San Pedro Creek is one of the few extant historic streets in the city, and deserves to be reimagined with the creek project, Tillotson said. To not do so will be seen later as a tragic oversight and missed opportunity.

“It ought to be given new life all the way to Five Points,” Tillotson said after the formal presentation, suggesting an even deeper reconnection of the near-Westside with the heart of downtown and the waterway.


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One of the most dramatic design changes is dependent on the County successfully negotiating the purchase of the Dollar Store from the Penner family that now sits on the eastern edge of the creek on West Commerce Street. The building is slated for demolition in the plan, which has not been subjected to review by the City’s Historic and Design Review Commission. If approved, the cleared property would allow widening of the creek and construction of a “floating island” accessible to pedestrians south of the amphitheater and the Alameda Theater. West Commerce Street pedestrians walking along the newly-designated Cultural Corridor would have a visual and physical entryway into San Pedro Creek.

Friday was a day for imagining a restored San Pedro Creek in harmony with the city and its culture, but much will depend on the funding and the timeline. Inclusion of the project in the City’s 2017 bond as a citywide project now seems critical to determining whether the project is one that will be lauded as world-class or one that is forced to be completed on an inadequate budget.

“If we do it right, years from now, people from San Antonio and all over the world will look at San Pedro Creek and marvel, they won’t talk about the budget,” Schjetnan said. “We have to be realistic, but we also have an obligation to make this something truly special that changes the city.”

MICROSOFT BUYS 160 ACRES OF LAND FOR MASSIVE DATA CENTER COMPLEX (http://www.bizjournals.com/sanantonio/news/2015/12/10/exclusive-microsoft-buys-nearly-160-acres-in-far.html)
http://www.microsoftscan.com/log.png


This land is located about 20 miles west of downtown.


Microsoft Corp. has bought 158 acres of Texas Research Park real estate controlled by the Texas Research & Technology Foundation. TRTF officials said the company plans to develop one of the largest data centers in the country at the far West San Antonio site.

TRTF President York Duncan, who confirmed closing the deal with Microsoft, characterized the value of the transaction as “substantial."

Duncan said Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft plans to break ground in January 2016 on an eight-building data center development encompassing roughly 1.2 to 1.3 million square feet. Construction will consist of four phases stretched out over a five-year period. Work is expected to create as many as 900 construction jobs.



LOCATION
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The first residential development planned for the Hemisfair redevelopment in downtown San Antonio was recently revealed. It will be an 8-story mid-rise and cost 25 million,

http://i.imgur.com/debfuDU.png


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Andres Andujar, CEO of the Hemisfair Redevelopment Corporation, was quoted in the Rivard Report (http://www.therivardreport.com/hemisfair-selects-area-real-estate-as-its-residential-developer/) that: “We expect the AREA Real Estate development, at a cost of $25 million, to be the smallest project we do at Hemisfair.”

WEST ELM OPENING LOCATION ACROSS FROM THE PEARL

http://i.imgur.com/phF2dn6.jpg

This is big news for the urban core. The Pearl certainly helped but GreyStreet no doubt showed West Elm their plans for Broadway as well.


West Elm has closed on its lease to return to the San Antonio market, and its choice of will make it one of the first large-scale national retailers to invest in the city's strengthening urban revitalization.

The modern furniture retailer has signed a lease for 11,000 square feet at 201 E. Grayson St., an adaptive reuse project directly across the street from the Il Sogno entrance to Pearl.

REATA partner Don Thomas brokered the deal on behalf of the landlord, local investment firm GrayStreet Partners.

The 10-year lease is significant for several factors, but most importantly in its ability to build momentum for retail activity in downtown San Antonio, which has struggled despite the increasing residential development throughout the area.

The Williams Sonoma Inc. offspring company previously leased an 11,000-square-foot site at the Quarry Village, but closed the store several years ago when the economy took a nosedive. The space is now occupied by Trader Joe's.

In September, when I reported that West Elm was considering the Grayson Street site, GrayStreet Partner Managing Partner Kevin Covey said the tenant for the property would "be pioneering, and it was hard to convince them to come to a place without national retailers. They should be able to knock it out of the park down here."

Covey went on to tell me that Graystreet is expecting to finish construction and deliver the space in January 2016, with the tenant set to open in spring 2016.

And considering the amount of residential growth in the downtown, Pearl and Southtown areas, when West Elm does get ready to open its doors to San Antonio customers once again, it will have a crowd waiting.



LOCATION
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Josh - I stumbled across something called Witte Stair here (Other Work - Michael G. Imber, Architects : Michael G. Imber, Architects (http://www.michaelgimber.com/other-work/)). What's the story on that? Was it just the renderings to drum up interest?

Also, they had some fancy renderings up of Hemisfair Park. Is this firm designing any of the park?

A bit of an update on the development I heard about. It's now official news.




GROUP PLANS 320 MILLION DOLLAR MIXED-USE DEVELOPMENT FOR FAR NORTHWEST SIDE (http://www.expressnews.com/real-estate/article/Northwest-Side-land-finally-sold-300M-6730366.php)

http://i.imgur.com/SScWtLQ.jpg


After being caught up in bankruptcy litigation for years, a 114-acre tract of land along the thriving Interstate 10 corridor finally has a new owner.

An entity backed by California developer Robert J. Schumacher closed on the property Wednesday, and now can proceed with plans to construct roughly $320 million worth of multifamily, office and retail development, according to preliminary figures.

The sales price was $20.3 million, the amount that Schumacher bid at a bankruptcy court auction in April.

“If you look at the aerial view of San Antonio, it’s the only undeveloped piece that’s left in what’s the fastest growing part of San Antonio,” Scott Sanders, an Austin-based managing partner with the venture, said Thursday.

The group has yet to complete the land’s master plan — the property still needs to be rezoned — but Sanders said there is potential on the giant piece for 800 to 1,100 residential units, 500,000 square feet of office space and 100,000 square feet of retail.

Of the 114 acres, about 85 acres will be developed, with the remaining 30 acres or so left as green space.

Sanders expects construction to take five years. He envisions a series of joint partnerships with local developers to complete the various phases.

Sanders said the land’s proximity to the Security Service Federal Credit Union’s new $120 million headquarters campus, the University of Texas at San Antonio, and other corporate and retail anchors along the booming I-10 corridor around Loop 1604 bodes well for the development.

“It isn’t UTSA in and of itself, it’s everything that’s happening at I-10 and Loop 1604,” Sanders said. “So, yeah, we love that area. How could you not?”

The property had been tied up in litigation for years, most recently involved in a lengthy bankruptcy court battle that had the previous owners — Francis “Pete” Rozelle and his mother, Clarita Sommers Johnson — filing for bankruptcy to prevent the lender, a Dallas-based Stratford Land Fund partnership, from foreclosing on the property.

In April, Schumacher won a bankruptcy court auction on the property with the $20.3 million bid, but the Chapter 11 trustee overseeing the sale said an insurer wasn’t willing to grant title insurance because of the potential cost of defending further litigation from Rozelle and Johnson.

But on Monday, Rozelle and Johnson capitulated and withdrew their appeals.

The sale also means a win for the Northside Independent School District and other public entities. On Wednesday, the Bexar County Tax Assessor’s Office collected $1.5 million in back taxes from the property, taken from the transaction.

“After years of wading through protracted bankruptcy proceedings, we are pleased to report the tax obligation has been completely satisfied,” Albert Uresti, Bexar County tax assessor-collector, said in a news release.


LOCATION
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RECENT PHOTOS OF SAN ANTONIO



DOWNTOWN FROM HIGH UP
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SAN ANTONIO RIVERWALK (MUSEUM REACH (https://www.google.com/search?q=MUSEUM+REACH&oq=MUSEUM+REACH&aqs=chrome..69i57j69i59l3j69i60&sourceid=chrome&es_sm=122&ie=UTF-8)) SEGMENT DURING CHRISTMAS
http://i.imgur.com/lOjVSUR.jpg

DOWNTOWN FROM ALAMO BEER BREWERY
http://i.imgur.com/fFl917U.jpg

NEW SOUTHTOWN RESIDENTIAL NEARING COMPLETION
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SOUTHTOWN RESIDENTIAL DEVELOPMENT OFF SAN ANTONIO RIVER (MISSION REACH)
http://i.imgur.com/hngViTc.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/zu4m27S.jpg

DOWNTOWN FROM THE WEST SIDE
http://i.imgur.com/wl4bXHk.jpg

OLD SCHOOL COOL SAN ANTONIO
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24-STORY HILTON CANOPY HOTEL RECEIVES FINAL APPROVAL (http://www.mysanantonio.com/real-estate/article/HDRC-gives-conditional-approval-for-Hilton-on-6804945.php)
WILL BEGIN CONSTRUCTION SOON

http://i.imgur.com/VJkMzzZ.jpg?1


Plans for a 24-story Hilton hotel along the downtown River Walk won conditional approval from the Historic and Design Review Commission on Wednesday.

The 197-room, 138,000 square-foot hotel will replace the 1950’s era Sullivan Bank building at the intersection of St. Mary’s and Commerce Streets, while integrating the Civil War-era Alamo Fish Market into its design. It will be a franchise of Hilton’s new Canopy line of urban boutique hotels.

The HDRC approved the design but required developers to return for final approval of plans for landscaping, the restoration of the Fish Market facade and other details.

HDRC documents say the hotel will have 24 levels, but only 20 will include hotel rooms and guest facilities, developer Chris Hill said. The building will have a restaurant along the River Walk, a cantilever section jutting out toward the river and a pool on its roof.

The building is estimated to cost between $55 million and $60 million, Hill said. Construction is set to begin within six months and last for about 20 months.


LOCATION
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30-STORY RESIDENTIAL TOWER PLANNED FOR SOUTH END OF DOWNTOWN (http://www.mysanantonio.com/business/local/article/Downtown-high-rise-6820676.php#photo-9376851)
WILL BREAK GROUND THIS SUMMER

http://i.imgur.com/eCjz6bc.jpg
Site of planned 30-story residential tower


Dallas-based JMJ Development LLC plans to break ground this summer on a 30-story luxury apartment tower along the River Walk in downtown San Antonio.

The tower, named JMJ Towers River Walk, will have 201 luxury apartments and upscale restaurant and retail space, according to a news release from the developer. It will be at 120 Villita Street, across from the Riverwalk Plaza Hotel & Suites.

The apartments will be a mix of studio, one-bedroom and two-bedroom units, with top floor penthouse suites, a fitness area and swimming pool, according to the release.

News of the apartment tower comes a week after the Historic and Design Review Commission approved plans for a 24-story boutique Hilton hotel also along the River Walk.

“The city’s rapid growth via an increasingly sophisticated and often international clientele has created a strong demand for luxury living on the highly sought-after River Walk,” said Tim Barton, chief executive of JMJ Development, in the release. “We intend to meet this demand by infusing luxury living with amazing technology and amenities that simply have not been available before in this thriving market. Think ‘the Jetsons come to the River Walk!’”


LOCATION (https://www.google.com/search?q=120+Villita+Street&oq=120+Villita+Street&aqs=chrome..69i57&sourceid=chrome&es_sm=0&ie=UTF-8)
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