A Little Embarassing (Vidor, Van: house, live, fence)

[mazinga69]

wCat,

Which building on St. Mary's are you talking about? Is it the one across from One Riverwalk Place? If so, that building has so much potential.

[oldmanshirt]

Originally Posted by smuboy86

Dallas is defiantly what San Antonio doesn't want to become. Downtown Dallas is full of beautiful, but empty towers. The few new business towers that are being built in the victory area and arts area are relocations from downtown. Most large corporations in the Dallas area have large corporate campuses in Las Colinas, Plano, Frisco. Dallas' skyscrapers maybe beautiful and shiny, but are hollow.

Though I haven't been inside any of Dallas' skyscrapers, I went downtown a couple of weeks ago on a Monday night (I currently live about an hour from DFW) and the whole place just seemed dead, so it's not hard to imagine that there isn't much activity going on down there from a business standpoint. I'd much rather have SA's more bustling and historic downtown, and I'm not even saying I'm opposed to leaving it just the way it is (new developments like Grand Hyatt notwithstanding). I just wish there was some way for the corporate presence in SA to make itself known through more impressive structures somewhere within the city. But again, only my opinion.

[winst0n]

In my opinion, there is nothing wrong in building skyscrapers in a city .. and I don't think that will destory the city's vibe or identity? What is history anyway? 50 yrs from now, the tall glass buildings built today will be historical as well, a representation of what's contemporary in todays era... history did not stop in the 19th century...

[940]

Originally Posted by smuboy86

Dallas is defiantly what San Antonio doesn't want to become. Downtown Dallas is full of beautiful, but empty towers.

That's not quite true.

The vacancy rate of the CBD (central business district) of Dallas (though it's titled DFW in this study, it's the CBD figures of downtown Dallas) as of Q4 06 was 21.7%. Sure it's not great, but it's far from a desolate wasteland with beautiful but hollow and empty skycrapers as has been alluded to.

The vacancy rate of the CBD of some cities with similar vacancy rates is from the same study and listed below. This report was released Feb 21, 2007.

Atlanta 20.8%
Austin 20.5%
Houston 18.3%
Los Angeles 19.6%
San Jose 27.5%
Cleveland 22.2%
Tampa 22.7%
Minneapolis 19.0%

The above information was found at this link.

http://www.buildingteamforecast.com/...dustryid=43721

The city of San Antonio isn't included in the vacancy rates in the above report but a search found an article (released 1/29/2007) that listed the vacancy rate of the CBD of SA at 20.1% for Q4 06. That's up from 18.5% a year earlier. Scroll to the bottom of the article where it mentions the CBD. Here's the link.

http://recenter.tamu.edu/mnews/mnsearch.asp?AID=19&TID=4 (broken link)

And in all honesty, the suburban market of DFW isn't all that great even though that's where some of the largest companies in the US are headquartered. The above report listing different cities also lists suburban vacancy rates.

Secondly, in regards to a post assuming that because it was dead in downtown Dallas at night, then the same must be true during the day...there may not be as much action in downtown Dallas at night as in San Antonio because the bulk of the action is just across Woodall Rogers Freeway in the new Victory development (still being built but new condos, retail, restaurants and the W Hotel are open) and in Uptown, both which are within easy reach and one or two stops from downtown on DART light rail.


More folks are also moving downtown into rehabbed buildings which will only help downtown achieve a more vibrant center. 3,200 people now live in downtown Dallas (10,000 is the goal within a few years) and have an annual per capita income of $84,000. 1,700 more apartments are currently being constructed from older and smaller buildings with more than 500-600 more coming within the year. That doesn't even include new condominium construction planned for downtown. Also, Forest City's Mercantile project, currently underway and one of the largest, will help immensely and will take a 1940's era large office building complex and turn it into downtown housing with 225 new apartments. A new 15 story building built next to it will contain an additional 150 apartments and new retail.

http://www.forestcity.net/PROPERTIES/the-mercantile-bank.asp (broken link)

But it's definitely the opposite downtown during a normal business day when 120,000+ office workers converge on the CBD as of 2003 estimates.

[wCat]

Originally Posted by mazinga69

wCat,

Which building on St. Mary's are you talking about? Is it the one across from One Riverwalk Place? If so, that building has so much potential.

I'm trying to think of the name at the intersection. I don't think it's Pecan and St Mary's. It's sort of across the intersection by the bus station. It's a great looking building. It's grey and red with the windows all knocked out and graffiti on it....very vertical. Do you know which one I'm talking about? It might be about 10 or 12 stories tall??

Lot's of interest in the building over the years, but moreso in recent years.....just people knocking heads over handling the asbestos.

[210]

Cat, are you speaking about this one?

http://xs513.xs.to/xs513/07096/redwhitebuilding.PNG (broken link)

I know many people who want it torn down ASAP.

[21bl0wed]

That building is a POS. Kind of off topic but i am embaressed by the number of tall parking garages in downtown sa...I don't even know where to begin with that...

[oldmanshirt]

Just a thought, but would it make sense for new businesses to locate buildings in between Schertz/Selma and New Braunfuls? There appears to still be a good amount of land out there off of 35, and it would help tie together two rapidly expanding areas.

[wCat]

Originally Posted by 21bl0wed

That building is a POS. Kind of off topic but i am embaressed by the number of tall parking garages in downtown sa...I don't even know where to begin with that...

LOL....obviously beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

210...that's the one. I can't remember who the architect is...but it's classic 50's/60's. I could see Rob Petri going to work there. That aerial doesn't do it justice.....and even up close it looks like horrible as it is. Either restored, or torn down, it will need a serious haz matt team to work on it.

I personally think it should be restored if it's feasibly possible. It's a one of a kind structure in town and would be a show piece with the right architect. AFWife....that's a good one to take pics of while you can!!

[irnag]

Originally Posted by 940

Atlanta 20.8%
Austin 20.5%
Houston 18.3%
Los Angeles 19.6%
San Jose 27.5%
Cleveland 22.2%
Tampa 22.7%
Minneapolis 19.0%

I remember when we had the very bad resession (interest rates were @15%) in the late 70s, early 80s, San Antonio's vacancy rate was approaching 30%. I remember it made the news and almost every building seemed to have a sign on it advertising space available. Sometimes building skyscrapers can be a double-edge sword.

It looks like San Jose has not completely recovered from the dot com bust.