San Antonio | Deep In The Heart.

[josh]

Huge gaming and convention news!

PAX South in San Antonio announced for January 23-25, 2015

Penny Arcade is expanding PAX to Texas with PAX South in San Antonio, co-founders Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins announced today during their "Make A Strip" panel at PAX East 2014.

The inaugural PAX South will take place from Jan. 23-25, 2015; a press release from Penny Arcade did not mention a specific venue. Robert Khoo, Penny Arcade's president, teased a new PAX earlier this month on Twitter.

Prior to today's announcement, Penny Arcade ran three PAX conventions around the world: PAX Prime in Seattle, which began in 2004; PAX East in Boston, which began in 2010; and PAX Australia in Melbourne, which began in 2013. The organization also holds the developer-only event PAX Dev in Seattle just before PAX Prime.

[Snowman]

Given the size most of their other events are, it seems pretty likely it will be the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center

[josh]

Yes, definitely HB Convention Center. That just seemed to be left out of the official press release. It has since been confirmed.

[josh]

Microsoft partners with UTSA on three-year research pact

The University of Texas at San Antonio took a big step forward into the world of advanced energy research Wednesday morning as it joined with tech giant Microsoft to announce the establishment of a “three-year agreement to research and develop sustainable technologies to make data centers more energy efficient and economically viable.”

Microsoft is lending more than its name and support to the project. A a company executive announced a $1 million gift to UTSA’s Texas Sustainable Energy Research Institute, established in 2010 to accelerate and expand energy, water and sustainability research projects at the university.

Microsoft has undertaken a $250 million expansion of its existing data center in San Antonio, built in 2008, a project that will expand the 427,000 square foot facility by adding a companion 256,000 square foot data center next door. Energy supply and costs are key factors of data center management, and UTSA’s new mission will be to find ways to gain greater efficiency while not sacrificing reliability, especially in times of peak load demand when the state grid comes under the greatest pressure.

[josh]

WESTON URBAN PLANS TO BUILD A 1.000-UNIT URBAN VILLAGE ON THE WEST END OF DOWNTOWN SAN ANTONIO

In northwest downtown, workers are at work renovating a 120,000-square-foot, century-old former department store into the new home for Geekdom, a communal workspace for tech professionals, which has 800 members. The building will eventually have a cafe, a rooftop bar, and other amenities "that the geeks want," said Randy Smith. Mr. Smith is the president of Weston Urban, a real-estate development company founded in 2012 that aims to "create the ecosystem for tech entrepreneurialism" in San Antonio, Mr. Smith said.

Mr. Smith co-founded Weston Urban with Graham Weston, a native of San Antonio who is the chairman and chief executive of Rackspace, a cloud-computing company valued at $4.5 billion. Over the next five years, Weston Urban plans to develop a downtown district using four surface lots the group bought last year, along with three buildings it already owns, and by buying other properties. The plan includes 1,000 rental apartments plus restaurants, shops and other businesses designed to create a lively downtown.

This is the area that will be transformed by this urban village.


In the same Wall Street Journal feature, it is noted that residential demand in the Pearl District (about a mile north of central downtown)has nearly doubled to 1,500-units.

Mr. Goldsbury then began building a new neighborhood called Pearl. Today it is home to 11 restaurants and bars, a campus of the Culinary Institute of America, and 320 units of rental housing, the bulk of which were completed late last year. Apartments rent at averages of $1.80 a square foot, Mr. Shown said. A Kimpton hotel is under construction, as is high-end rental building The Cellars, where the 124 units will be priced at 40% more a square foot than existing Pearl apartments. The district has room for 1,500 more apartments, said Mr. Shown. But everything, including future apartments, is for rent.

This is the Pearl District.

[josh]

New rendering for The Prado student housing development currently under construction across from UTSA's Main Campus on the far northwest side.

It's also across the street from The Block, a popular food truck park.

The Prado is one of three large student housing developments under construction at the UTSA main campus.

The other two being:

• The Luxx
  
• Tetro

[josh]

please delete.

[josh]

Get excited!

Click on the image for a larger version.

Reata updated their packet for 930 Broadway.

In the update, they have a map of River North and overlaid it with different developments that are planned/approved/under construction.

Some we know about, some we heard about, others we are now finding out about.

What's listed:

• 1221 Broadway Phase 3 - 100 units
• The River House - 261 units (under construction)
• 1130 Broadway - 300 units (approved/construction to begin after Fiesta)
• Jones Ave. and Broadway - 300 units
• Broadway St. & 10TH St. - 100 units (renovation of Iron Mountain building)
• 930 Broadway - Medical Office
• 10th St. & Alamo St. - 250 units
• Avenue B & 9th St. - 370 units (10 stories)
• Avenue B & 8th St. - 300 units

1,981 total units are in the pipeline for River North.

[josh]

Map of River North.


The area overlaid in gray

[josh]

THE PEARL IN 2011 AND THE PEARL IN 2013

[JoninATX]

Update on the new Tobin Center for the Performing Arts





https://m.facebook.com/TobinCenterSA...9562350720825/

[josh]

Picture
of
Cherry Street Modern



in Dignowity Hills

[Dubya61]

in Dignowity Hills

no diggity ... no doubt

[josh]

Oracle bringing 200 high paying jobs to San Antonio

Oracle, the computer technology company headed by tech heavyweight Larry Ellison is setting up an operations center in San Antonio and will add 200 new tech jobs to the city's growing high tech work force, 1200 WOAI news reports.

The Redwood City, California based firm says it plans to use the operations center to provide technical support to clients in North America and Latin America, as well as provide financial services.

I'm hearing average salary will be in the $75k a year range.

[josh]

no diggity ... no doubt

Ha! lol

I also just realized that I wrote it as Dignowity Hills when it's actually Dignowity Hill. My mistake.

[josh]

Found this gallery on another website and I thought it was pretty cool. It compares the San Antonio freeway system to other metro areas, including Oklahoma City.

For those wondering, the San Antonio system has a sort of a "spoke" design. There's two loops, the inner loop (410) and an outer loop (1604). Then there are interstate highways (10,35, 37) and State Highways (281, 90, 151) that intersect with the loops.

San Antonio


Atlanta


Charlotte


Dallas


Denver


New Orleans


Honolulu


Houston


Indianapolis


Las Vegas


Los Angeles


Milwaukee


Nashville


Oklahoma City


Orlando


Phoenix


Sacramento

[Plutonic Panda]

That's really neat! It's almost time for OKC to complete the somewhat done loop around our city. I'm actually in the process of making a map of what I think OKC should do.

[ljbab728]

It seems like a fairly pointless comparison for most of the cities. They aren't all developed the same way and comparing it to Honolulu is really ridiculous.

[josh]

It seems like a fairly pointless comparison for most of the cities. They aren't all developed the same way and comparing it to Honolulu is really ridiculous.

I think it was just to.show the vast size.of the freeway system not to compare freeway system to freeway system.

[ljbab728]

I think it was just to.show the vast size.of the freeway system not to compare freeway system to freeway system.

There's nothing wrong with it but many cities have vast freeway systems so it's not particularly remarkable.

[josh]

And it was comparing the SA freeway system with both large and small highway systems. I think you're making a deal out of nothing. For instance, the SA system looks giant compared to Las Vegas and Nashville but is outsized by LA and Dallas. It's a neat series of images.

[Plutonic Panda]

There's nothing wrong with it but many cities have vast freeway systems so it's not particularly remarkable.

I thought it was neat. Never really realized how big OKC's was for its size

[josh]

Plans are to frame new downtown civic park with buildings

Hemisfair Park in downtown San Antonio is currently undergoing a major redevelopment. Millions are being spent to transform the park by increasing the amount of park land as well as creating a mixed-use neighborhood within it.

This includes:

1. Three new parks within the overall Hemisfair development area.
   • Civic Park
   • Tower Park
   • Play Xscape
2. There will also be small neighborhood green spaces.
   
3. A 325 million dollar expansion of the convention center to the east.
   
4. Restoring the old street grid within Hemisfair to allow for the new mixed-use neighborhood.

[JoninATX]

The San Antonio loop fits very well with in Oklahoma City, Denver, & Sacramento. Seems like you can just place it right in.

[josh]

Developer wants to bring 300-700 units to St. Paul Square in potentially two residential developments

The redevelopment cat left the bag when University of Houston regents last week approved spending $2.5 million to rent a building at St. Paul Square for a branch of its Conrad N. Hilton College of Hotel and Restaurant Management. Starting Aug. 25, the college will begin offering classes at St. Philip’s College, until the three-story building at 122 Heiman St. is ready, which could be as soon as January, said Graham Bowcher, the college’s assistant dean.

Plans for the school hinted that there is much more in store for the historic St. Paul Square, much of it Zachry Realty LLC either owns outright or leases from the city of San Antonio.

“The current thinking includes urban living, educational components and dining and retail opportunities that will transform the area into San Antonio’s next great mixed-use neighborhood,” said Rene M. Garcia, vice president of Zachry Realty.

The company is partnering with REATA Real Estate to revitalize St. Paul Square, which sustained a heavy blow when anchor tenant Ruth’s Chris Steak House moved in July 2013. Many of the historic buildings remain vacant. Once a hotbed for concerts, the pavilion at Sunset Station, which Zachry is leasing to the RK Group, just sits. In short, St. Paul Square has been a ghost town recently.

Zachry Realty and REATA hope to capitalize on the cache that the University of Houston will bring to the historic district.

The strategy is to start with signing office tenants, which could come within year’s end. From there, they’ll look to fill street-level spaces with retail and restaurants.

Down the road, they’re looking to add 300-700 residential units — possibly two separate developments — to the area; construction could start next year, they said.

St. Paul Square is east of Hemisfair and just north of the Alamodome.