New plan for SBC Center area?

[eastsider]

This weeks SA Business Journal has an article about the lack of new development around the SBC Center on San Antonio's east side. Right now, people attending games have no options for entertainment before or after games, which became more of a focus after the Spurs won the NBA champipnship last month. Currently, business owners in the area say that the parking/roads are set up for funneling people in and out of the area, which hurts their business more since everyone is quickly moving in/out of the area. Looking to help change this, the Bexar County Commissioners approved a measure on June 21st that calls for a RFP for consultants interested in creating a redevelopment plan that will improve the mix of uses for the 175 acre area surrounding the SBC Center.

http://sanantonio.bizjournals.com/sananton.../04/story1.html

[eastsider]

Bexar County commissioners this week will hear two competing proposals on redeveloping the SBC Center-Freeman Coliseum complex. What they want is a convention center that would take advantage of business, attract daytime visitors and perhaps spur the construction of a nearby hotel. And they're open to acquiring more property to make it happen.

The two proposals will come from Ellerbe Becket, who designed the SBC Center, and Bexar County Community Arenas Consortium, a group being led by EDAW and made up of architect and consulting firms. Other developers are also showing interest in doing projects in the area.

The Willow Springs Golf Course figures to play a key role in the development of the area. The municipal golf course could be turn private and then add a hotel or condos to the property.

San Antonio Express-News: SBC Center attracts ideas for boosting neighborhood

[eastsider]

The Bexar County Commissioners have chosen the group led by EDAW/Kell Munoz Architects to develop a master plan for the area surrounding the SBC Center.

After discussion with officials of the Spurs and San Antonio Livestock Exposition, who preferred a firm with the competing group, commissioners voted to create a committee that will oversee fine-tuning of the planning team before the planning itself even begins.

The commissioners want to bring in Bullock, Smith & Partners, who were a member of the competeing proposal, to participate in the planning process. The EDAW/Munoz proposal showed a huge sports complex around the SBC Center which included baseball and football stadiums, and a NASCAR type racetrack. The sports complex may not be part of the final masterplan.

County officials would like to see a plan that would build on the Stock Show & Rodeo's agricultural tradition, lure industrial trade shows the Convention Center can't easily accommodate, and take advantage of the SBC Center, which will not be changed. The slew of barns and outbuildings and even the 55-year-old, concrete-and-steel Freeman Coliseum is fair game.

San Antonio Express-News: SBC Center plan calls for more planning

[ZachariahDaMan]

That's awesome that they are trying to make places around the SBC Center for people to go before/after Spurs games rather then them just going to the games and going home afterwards.

[OneSweetWorld]

spurs fan are gonna wanna go home so they can cry..because the pistons are gonna be whoopin there asses every night.

[ZachariahDaMan]

That's so right!

[NCB]

I think that the Pistons and the Spurs will be playing each other in the finals next year again. And I think the Spurs will yet again, be the NBA champion!

[ZachariahDaMan]

I totally disagree but I guess we will have to wait and find out.

[eastsider]

Two plans are emerging for east SA. The first is for the county owned land around the SBC Center (I guess now its AT&T Center?) for which EDAW won a contrat to develop a master plan. They are planning a 1,000 acre sports and entertainment complex that will have water taxis, a signature bridge, a hotel, a resort, and office space.

The next plan is for land surrounding the county's land which HollyHills development is in the process of buying. The plan includes sports stadiums, a Nascar style racetrack, shopping centers, and condominium towers. They did not say where funding would come from, but did say it would take about six months to have cost estimates for the project in place.

Phase I of the plan would include the NASCAR track, hotel, retail development, movie theaters, and colorful plants and landscape elements at major highway exits, Bailey said, and begin in about two years.

San Antonio Express-News: Grand vision for East Side

[eastsider]

Article about the couple that runs HollyHills Development, the company that has plans for a sports complex on the East Side of San Antonio as well as other projects around the city.

Near the SBC Center, the company has proposed a rodeo village, a NASCAR track, professional football and baseball stadiums, and condominium towers. It's also looking to bring Grand Prix racing back to San Antonio.

It is estimated that their East Side plan would cost over $3 billion to build.

San Antonio Express-News: These developers are a work in progress

They also now have a website for their East Side Vision:

http://www.eastsidevision.info/

[eastsider]

The Bexar County Commissioners have seledted two plans for the redevelopment of the Freeman Coliseum which is adjacent to the AT&T Center. The cost of both plans is over $100M and each would add over 200,000 sf of space that could be used for exhibitions, conventions and other events.

The cheaper of the accepted proposals, dubbed Plan 2A, would create 260,000 square feet of additional space and upgrade the coliseum, with a tentative price tag of $130 million. Plan 2B would level the coliseum and add 230,000 square feet, for an estimated $143 million.

According to projections provided by Randy Hohlaus, a principal with Kell Mu