We visited the Frederick Building, The Alamo Architects bldgs, and the San Antonio River Improvement Project.
Our first visit of the day, the Frederick Bldg, was an eye opener. This development is located in the eastern side of the city. This predominantly african american inhabited part of the city is part of an empowerment zone. Such an empowerment zone provides tax credits for businesses hiring local people living in the zone. It is also located within a TIF area.
The project:
* appears to have stagnated...no visible recent development activities,
* is currently up for sale, (asking about 8 million...)
* has a few offices in the ground floor of the bldg,
* historical tax credits are available due to the historical nature of the bldg.
There is not much to say about this project
Here are some snaps of the bldg...
The next project we visited was the Alamo Architects: This is a LEED silver building.
The project has some cool features that exhibited true creativity...some of the fence like structures are made of the bottom side of concrete from the floor. There is a huge golden ball like structure hanging in the middle of the walkway...apparently it was a structure made for the pope's visit to SA in the 80's.
This project:
* was a warehouse...its an adaptive reuse,
* is located within IDZ (Infill Development Zone) that allows long term usage flexibility,
* included a significant amount of material reuse during construction.
The neat and creative stuff I mentioned earlier...
We also visited Marty Wender...one of the most energetic persons...to say the least. He relayed the story behind some of his notable developments and shared some practical experiences. He discussed in detail how he approached grounds-up development on a remote location. He also shared his approach to long term view towards development and the merits of holding-out.
We finally visited the San Antonio River Improvement project along the river banks of the San Antonio River. We met with Steven at the San Antonio River Authority. He gave us a lengthy and detailed tour of the first phase of the river improvement project that is already completed.
The project:
* demonstrates the impact of public initiatives to jump start and direct development projects,
* shows that new developments are already springing up alongside the improvement and property values have increased AS a result of the improvement project,
* includes both restoration and renovation works,
* is done in sync with keeping the primary economic drivers of the city as well as protecting and mitigating the flooding impact of the river.
Here are some snapshots of the project...
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