Downtown SA in the Palm of Your Hand

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Project Update
May 19, 2009 - The Bexar County Performing Arts Center Foundation has chosen Seattle-based LMN Architects in partnership with local firm Marmon Mok to design the new performing arts center.
 
April 1, 2009 - Fort-Worth based The Projects Group has been selected as the project management team.  The Projects Group will provide comprehensive program and project management services beginning April 1st through the completion of the renovation.

The mission of the Bexar County Performing Arts Center Foundation is to provide a "world-class" permanent home to major performing arts organizations of San Antonio and be a premier venue for other attractions so as to enhance the range, quality, and accessibility of cultural activities available to the public; to promulgate arts education; and to contribute to the cultural life of San Antonio, Bexar County and all of South Texas.

The Bexar County Performing Arts Center Foundation will own, renovate, and operate the San Antonio Municipal Auditorium to serve as a permanent home for San Antonio's cultural arts organizations.

The new facility will celebrate the unique character of this historic property while offering a state of the art acoustical interior design.  
With access to the San Antonio River, the Bexar County Performing Arts Center will be a gateway to cultural arts for Bexar Country residents and visitors alike.

NSIDE SA | NSIDE Business

Revitalizing The City Center
By Andi Rodriguez      

If the development and growth of San Antonio were a motion picture, downtown would be listed as a "feature player" sharing a small trailer in contrast to the posse-packing megastars of the peripheral suburban boundaries.

Corporate relocations, major resorts and housing stock have all flocked to the outskirts of the city, creating a doughnut-like development pattern, threatening to flatline downtown vitality. Until now.

It's virtually been decades since a mayor has pronounced the city center as a priority, say downtown proponents. Reinvigorating downtown with fresh ideas and energy since taking office, Castro declared 2010 the "Decade of Downtown" at the Downtown Alliance Annual Meeting last summer. While some may have harbored a bit of skepticism at first, cautioning that it was merely lip service, Castro has since proved them wrong.

"Public sector leadership, ability and willingness to direct efforts toward downtown are essential to its hope and success," says Andres Andujar, executive board member and former chair of Downtown Alliance. "But we must have a roadmap … goals and expectations, so that we can make the right decisions at every step and turn, taking us toward a common vision … so that every effort and investment made takes us a step closer to our dream for downtown."

Castro is busy laying track on this effort, working with city staff and council and recently passing an ordinance focused on the urban core which eliminates city fees for development projects, a land bank to facilitate desperately needed downtown initiatives and a 10-year tax abatement for eligible developments in the inner city.

In addition, a team of public and private leaders are putting the final touches on the proposed Centro Partnership, a public-private nonprofit development corporation envisioned as the portal for downtown redevelopment, and designed to orchestrate economic development opportunities within the city center.

Ben Brewer, president of Downtown Alliance, whose 300 plus property owner constituency would be synergistically incorporated into the proposed partnership is enthusiastic about the potential. Rallying the troops for over 20 years on the bullish future of downtown, these development incentives and the Centro Partnership are new power tools in Brewer's toolbox in his continuing quest to build a better urban core.

Some might dare to argue those with interest in the inner city are getting an unfair advantage.  On the contrary, says Brewer.

"Greater San Antonio is poised to demand 10,000 to 20,000 new housing units each year with the likelihood of less than 1 percent of those resulting in urban residential units," he says. He believes that as the city offers tax abatements and other incentives to new business to San Antonio, seemingly on the outer perimeters, so must options be created to lure development back to the inner city. 

"Research shows that urban density is imperative to support elements of our city that our residents treasure," adds Brewer.

Andujar, who is a Parsons vice president, agrees and stresses the importance of maintaining downtown as the "hub" of the city by maintaining its economic and cultural vitality.

"Urban residential density plays an imperative role in economic development, in luring new business to San Antonio as well as supporting current business in the urban core," Andujar says. "Its health cannot be solely dependent upon the visitor populations. Fiscal stability from residential development will yield more dollars upon the tax roles, ultimately benefiting San Antonio in a variety of ways."

Downtown links locals and visitors symbiotically in a way no other part of the city can claim; this is the primary reason San Antonio's urban revitalization won't suffice with a quick fix, and why Castro's leadership and a symphony of support is vital to its health.

"While tourism and the convention business is a resounding success, we must consider that our downtown and surrounding assets are the attractions that keep visitors interested," says Andujar. "Thus it is imperative that we invest in the improvements and upkeep of our city center."

Brewer heartily concurs, as it affects the residential component of a city, and it is something he thirsts for. "A strong residential base is truly necessary for a thriving downtown," he implores.

As Castro stumps his way across town, he beats the drum continuously that urban density and revitalization are not only about downtown. In the macro view, it touches everyone. Residual effects will follow, he says, as the healthy urban core proliferates to its outer boundaries and spawns new life within the struggling neighborhoods to the north, south, east and west.  In Castro's view, new urban economic growth will result in a mosaic of diverse, yet connected neighborhoods within our entire community. 

Brewer adds that historically, great city centers have thrived due to the diversity of its residents. He cites new efforts across the country and percolating locally to entice young professionals, those in the creative industries, students and recent graduates back downtown to maintain this balance and energy.

San Antonio's 4-mile downtown urban core currently contains approximately 2,700 downtown residences. In an ideal world, Brewer would like to see a "mandate" seeking 10,000 new units by 2020.

And that, he says, would make for one heck of a "Decade of Downtown."

Livin' la vida downtown

• Shift from Waste Management to Resource Recovery
• Identify Key Strategies, Concepts and Best Practices
• Establish Foundation for long-term Waste Diversion Programs.

• 316,292 tons of waste was disposed of at a cost of $6,836,879.
• 72,646 tons of waste was diverted through the recycling program and generated revenue of $614,031 and avoided disposal costs of $1,570,607

• Outreach & Education (Why to reduce waste & How to do it)
• Financial Incentives (The carrot)
• Expand Collection Program (Make it easier)
• Enforcement through Ordinance (The stick)

• Improve existing SWD programs (recycling, brush collection, etc.)
• Create new SWD recycling programs (TBD!)
• Influence other organizations (Keep SA Beautiful compost program, GSA's Community Gardens, etc.)

Web Posted: 02/07/2010 12:00 CST

Downtown might come alive

For at least 30 years, San Antonio has been vexed by a frustrating problem: The river that runs through the heart of the city has flourished with development, much of it aimed at tourists, while efforts to attract retail spaces, housing and offices to the street level have largely failed.

Consequently, the core of the city is split. At the river level, we look like Venice. On parts of Houston Street, it feels like downtown Beirut.

Suddenly, the stars may have aligned to heal that split.

Last week, the City Council passed an ordinance to eliminate city fees for projects. It also offers 10-year tax abatements for projects in the inner city and creates a land bank to facilitate desperately needed downtown projects. Wouldn't a grocery store be nice downtown?

Meanwhile, County Judge Nelson Wolff and Mayor Julián Castro are both pushing for a streetcar system.

There also is a little-understood element in the works that got a one-line mention in Castro's State of the City speech. It's called the Centro Partnership, a nonprofit development corporation that, as City Manager Sheryl Scully explained, will serve as a single point of contact to initiate and manage the redevelopment of downtown.

Sculley, who lives downtown, said cities such as Memphis, Tenn., Philadelphia and Phoenix have created public-private entities to boost and manage economic development in their inner cities.

The plan is for Downtown Alliance — an organization with more than 300 property owners in the inner city — to morph into Centro Partnership. The mayor, county judge, other elected leaders and business owners would serve on the nonprofit board, which presumably would safeguard against cronyism.

“This new organization would bring together the city, the county and the private sector to do projects that really focus existing and new resources on the inner city,” said Ben Brewer, president of Downtown Alliance. “This is the game changer we've needed for downtown.”

A housing study funded by the Downtown Alliance identified a strong market, helping the developers obtain financing for two projects: The Vistana, which is west of downtown, and Vidora, to the east.

At Vistana, which is 90 percent leased, 60 percent of the residents are new to downtown. Many are from the North Side.

That's the kind of thing the new organization would do.

Sculley said the city might transfer the management of downtown parking to Centro Partnership. “We need to consider parking as an economic development tool,” she said. “How we deal with parking will determine what kind of development we can attract downtown.”

No doubt there will be opposition to turning over city-owned garages and other public spaces to a nonprofit corporation comprising public and private board members. But this kind of collaboration is the wave of the future. Cities that have done it have seen a reversal in urban decay.

We need to make the streets of San Antonio as alive and vibrant as life alongside the river that runs beneath us.

jrussell@express-news.net