We started the San Antonio part of our tour with a visit to the city planning department.
We met with Mr. Patrick Howard, Mr. Jesus Garza, Mr Ray Herrera and M/s Sylvia Cortez from the planning and development services department, Mr. David McGowen from the city center development office and M/s Betty Feldman, the city architect.
The major topics discussed included:
* Upcoming projects including the new federal courthouse and police headquarter projects,
* general approach to incentives provided to developers (particularly use of municipal districts and TIRZ funding),
* approaches to planning and economic development in the city,
* code compliance monitoring and enforcement issues,
* approaches to sustainability related issues.
We then visited two projects, both currently owned by Mr. Ed Cross, one of the prominent developers in the city.
While we did not originally planned to do so, the city folks advised us to visit a seemingly abandoned project at the intersection of Broadway and I-35. This huge skeletal concrete structure, was a subject of several legal battles between the current and former owners. The new owner, Ed Cross informed us that the legal issues are likely over and the development activities will resume in a matter of weeks.
Ooops...I forgot to snap some pictures of this project...perhaps I was counting the seconds to leave the are???
The next project we visited was The Vistana. Mr Cross agreed to take time off his busy schedule to give us a tour of the project...I am very grateful to him as setting the visit was my responsibility and it almost did not happen...
The Vistana:
* is located on Santa Rosa and Commerce,
* is widely regarded as one of the key and successful redevelopment projects in the city,
* developer spent considerable resource and effort at the initial planning stage (about 40% of architectural time spent on ground floor planning and design),
* Started in spring of 2006,
* has about 247 units and about 240 different pricing structures,
* exhibits an contemporary approach to finish-outs with open fixtures,
* has public-private partnership aspects,
* has about 96% current occupancy rate for residential, 40% occupancy for storage units
Here's a file I got from the project website.
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