By 2020, the end of the decade that former Mayor Julián Castro memorably dubbed the Decade of Downtown, San Antonio’s central city should be transformed on all sides.
To the north, a redesigned Lower Broadway will become the closest thing to a complete street in San Antonio, with wider sidewalks, more tree canopy, and a new community of residents and workers activating a once-vacant zone into a vibrant urban neighborhood stretching from the Pearl to Houston Street.
To the west, there will be the redevelopment of San Pedro Creek and the Zona Cultural improvements along Commerce Street from Main Plaza to Market Square. The new Frost Bank Tower and hundreds of new residences developed by Weston Urban, many in resurrected historic buildings, will bring back to life a side of downtown that only the oldest among us can remember as ever being alive.
Done right, it’s unique Spanish/Mexican/Mexican-American essence will make the west side of downtown a magnet for locals and visitors alike in search of a contemporary experience built on cultural authenticity.
Hemisfair, with its eight-acre Civic Park surrounded by apartments, offices, shops, restaurants and cafes, will finally give San Antonio a great downtown green space for people to convene. Civic Park will be the jewel that serves as the centerpiece, tying together River North, Southtown, and the emerging tech district.
The hundreds of thousands of people who have come to play in the four-acre Yanaguana Park in its first 10 months of operation are proof that if you build it in downtown San Antonio, they will come.
Yet the first look at how City staff has allocated the $850 million in the 2017-2022 bond contains a hard-to-explain gaping hole in this vision: Funding to transform Hemisfair has been cut in half, without explanation, making it all but impossible to deliver the promised Civic Park.
City staff has recommended $43 million for the redevelopment of Broadway and $43 million for the Zona Cultural. There is $36 million to contribute to the San Pedro Creek Improvements Project led by Bexar County and the San Antonio River Authority.
Hemisfair and the Civic Park, with an estimated cost of $58 million, has been budgeted at a mere $26 million, with $5 million of that sum directed to the rebuilding of internal streets inside Hemisfair.
That leaves Civic Park with only $21 million, a shortfall of $37 million, a funding gap that could threaten the $200 million in private sector investment that the development partnership of Zachry Corp. and NRP has agreed to spend in developing apartments, offices, and other improvements around Civic Park.
“The deal is we develop around a park,” said one person associated with the development group. “No park, no development.”
You can’t have one without the other. Andrés Andujar, the CEO of the Hemisfair Redevelopment Corp. (HPARC), estimates that future revenues from the leases HPARC will manage in Hemisfair is sufficient for the City to leverage $18 million in a separate bond offering.
That would bring the total available funds to $39 million, leaving HPARC short about $20 million. Without the funding, the words “world-class” will once again be so much hot air in San Antonio. People will get something done on the cheap, something just good enough – at least for some.
It would be nice to believe there is $20 million in philanthropic dollars out there, but there probably isn’t anything even close. The Hemisfair Conservancy recently erected signage thanking its donors, who number less than 300 people. Civic Park will be a public park, and it will take public funds to build it right.
Why does an eight-acre park cost so much? Creating such an expansive green space in a space that has seen 150 years of development requires a lot of underground engineering. The massive Convention Center demolition and cleanup underway now, evident in the photos published with this column, shows the immense scale and complexity of the project. All that smashed concrete is supposed to become Civic Park.
Public health and safety also must be engineered. The water circulating in the fountains near The Tower of Americas today is polluted and bacteria-ridden. It is unsafe for the children often seen playing in it. Civic Park will have a water recycling and purification system invisible to the park goer, but essential if we want a park built to national standards.
Several months ago, Centro San Antonio convened 21 stakeholders to study and debate the best use of funds from the 2017 bond. The group met without media attention to study the transformative projects that offered the greater return on investment.
Committee members asked themselves three questions in examining the many proposed projects downtown: Will it transform our city? Will it leave a legacy? Will we able to say, “Something big happened in 2017?”
The final report delivered to City Manager Sheryl Sculley on June 30 is vital to the vitality of downtown, and “secondary projects” worthy of additional funding if available. The Centro stakeholders concluded that the three most important and transformative projects, the ones most likely to serve as catalysts for private sector development, are those described above: Broadway, Hemisfair, and the Zona Cultural.
Centro asked for $43 million for Broadway. Check.
It asked for $61 million for San Pedro Creek and the Zona Cultural. City staff allocated $79 million.
It asked for $50 million for Hemisfair. City staff allocated $21 million for Civic Park and $5 million for park streets. Additional funds are recommended for streets around Hemisfair, and funds from the 2012 bond still are set to be spent on streets around Hemisfair.
Word quickly spread among the stakeholder group that Centro’s requested funding for Hemisfair was not met. Centro’s CEO Pat DiGiovanni put the best possible face on the outcome.
“We’re very excited that many recommendations from our volunteer bond committee made it on the list of bond projects that the City Manager presented to City Council this week,” DiGiovanni told the Rivard Report. “The stakeholders we convened not only shared an interest in seeing greater investment in the center city, but also were willing to look beyond their own interests to speak with a common voice for projects that they collectively determined had the greatest opportunity to result in transformational change. They worked together to develop guiding principles, thoughtfully and objectively evaluated a lengthy list of projects, and reached consensus on the recommendations that were then sent to City staff. We believe this is a model that can be used to inform the process for future bond programs. We’re grateful for their passion for the urban core and their hard work.
“As for the projects we submitted, strategic investments in the heart of the city for the Broadway Cultural Corridor, Zona Cultural and San Pedro Creek and Hemisfair, benefit the entire community. We’re hopeful that these projects will gain support from the citizen committees, the Mayor and members of City Council, and ultimately, the people of San Antonio who will vote on the bond,” he added. “We look forward to being an active participant in the community conversation and more importantly demonstrating to the community the return on investment that these projects will have on the neighborhood that all San Antonians can claim as their own.”
Mayor Ivy Taylor, Sculley and three newly-appointed tri-chairs of the Citizen Bond Committees all stated at a July 26 press conference at City Hall that the funding priorities will now be decided by citizens appointed to the three committees.
SA Tomorrow Tri-Chair Darryl Byrd, marketing and communications specialist and SAISD Foundation Co-Founder Carri Baker, and IBC Bank Senior Vice President Eddie Aldrete will serve as the committee chairs. About 30 volunteer citizens will be selected by City Council members to serve on each committee: Streets, Bridges, and Sidewalks; Drainage and Flood Control; Parks and Recreation; Facilities and Improvements; and Neighborhood Improvements.
History shows that more than 90% of the projects and funding levels drawn up by City staff are approved by the citizen committees. More attention has been paid to the planning of the 2017 bond than any of the previous cycles, and much of that attention has been driven by Rivard Report coverage and community events. It will be an interesting test of the process to see just how much voice citizens are given this time around.
At this stage of the process, Council members representing suburban districts, whose constituents vote in greater numbers than those living in the inner city districts, often push back in an effort to dilute investment in the urban core. The consequences of such underinvestment are evident everywhere in the urban core. While the growth sectors of the city have received far greater funding historically than the inner city, there is a way to avert that suburbs versus the urban core fight this time.
The answer is to increase the size of the bond by a little less than 3%. That would add $25 million to the $850 million bond. The impact on the city’s credit rating and its debt service obligations would be minimal, yet Hemisfair could proceed as promised without cutting any other transformative projects.
“In some ways we’re kind of battling against history,” Mayor Ivy Taylor said at Wednesday’s City Council briefing on the 2017 bond. “You go back some decades and some parts of town didn’t receive some of the attention that was needed, and so we’re still trying to play catch up. I think that’s what makes this conversation difficult. Acknowledging that is definitely going to be an important step.”
Truer words were never spoken at City Hall. Vision and transformation should be given equal weight alongside conservative fiscal management, which can lead to reduced project spending to the point it threatens genuine transformation. No one can doubt San Antonians want a downtown that is economically and culturally more vibrant, and that building such a center city is the foundation of building a better city for everyone, no matter where you live and work.
Top image: An aerial photograph of Hemisfair and the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center. Photo by Scott Ball.
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Council Reviews ‘Rough Draft’ Priorities for $850 Million Bond
Mayor Selects Three Citizens to Lead 2017 Bond Program
$850 Million Bond: Balancing Basics and Catalysts
Hardberger Seeks Funds for Unique Land Bridge
Fully funding the Civic Park is quite crucial towards the redevelopment of Hemisfair and downtown overall. How can we as citizins make an impact in increasing funding?
Call the Mayor and your City Council representative. Make yourself heard. –RR
My email to Mr. Treviño.
It was very disheartening and troublesome to read Robert Richards report on the cut of funding for Civic Park within Hemisfair Park. The whole city of San Antonio (not just district 1 residents) deserves and needs a world class park downtown! The tourists (who San Antonio is slowly losing to other Texas cities) who decide to come to San Antonio and spend their hard earned money deserve a world class park outside their hotel. Residents in district 1 new and old who have invested in the urban core deserve a world class park to meet and play.
Houston with Buffalo Bayou and Memorial Park, Austin with Towne Lake Metropolitan Park and new the $28 million The Boardwalk at Lady Bird Lake, and lastly Dallas with $106 million Klyde Warren Park are leaving San Antonio in the dust! Educated young professionals that this city is trying so hard to attract demand an urban world class park.
My wife and I moved to the downtown urban core 7 years ago from the northside. Since then we have had two children. Despite pressure from friends and family to move out to the suburbs, we have stayed in our urban home. We can’t see ourselves living anywhere else in this city. We came to a conclusion that we are happiest where we are living now. Our young daughter asks us each morning and evening to go on walks along the river. My friends with kids living out in the suburbs are shocked how much our daughter loves to go outside and just take a walk! We tell them about San Pedro Creek and the plans for Hemisfair Park, and how living downtown is getting so fun and exciting now that we have kids who love being outside.
Yanaguana Garden is proof enough that a downtown park is for the whole city. Families from all corners of the city go there to play and socialize. A park that is “good enough” doesn’t cut it anymore. Don’t rip Civic Park out of my children’s hands and every other resident and visitor of San Antonio
why are you jumping on people for giving their opinion. You “hero’s” are the news reporters. how about helping the peoples voices get heard and not just try to push forward your agendas.
We need to stop calling some of the projects “downtown” projects and use the term “citywide” projects. While they most certainly are located downtown, they have citywide impact. We have often tended to get mired in a 10 district, divide the pie mentality, I believe this time we use a different strategy. Real transformation and opportunities for the projects to be catalytic for the benefit of all citizens should be considered on some projects. For example, I do believe the Spiurs being an institution and present in our community is a benefit indirectly to the whole city. It loosely falls under the heading “quality of life amenity.” As they say, words matter.
Shameful! That land bridge is looking more and more wasteful.
I say 86 the land bridge and the Zona Cultural stuff. Hemisfair and Broadway are the two projects where San Antonio is finally starting to understand the concept of density. Build where the people are going. Double down on those two areas. Don’t fall into the trap we did with the street car where we feel the need to give everyone something. You are going to hurt some people’s feelings. Get over it and do what is right for the city.
Agreed. Focus on finishing what we’ve started. Yanaguana has already proven to be a destination for families, and seeing what is going up around it makes me extremely hopeful for the future development. Some of the house rehabilitation that is going on looks amazing – just today we saw the new deck that has been constructed between two of the homes east of Yanaguana. Beautiful.
Hemisfair can be a draw for San Antonio’s residents. It could be something unique to Texas, but not if it’s half done. Hold off on Zona Cultura. Centro may be trying to push too much at once.
What is the “Zona Cultural” funding for, anyway? All I’ve seen is this loosely defined “cultural” area but no indication as to why they need that funding and what for. I think Hemisfair is much more clearly defined and is further along–it has much more likelihood of going through and being executed superbly. I’m shocked the city isn’t putting the needs of the mighty tourist first and making this their priority. Was at Hemisfair this weekend, and the fountains and such are disgusting and smell like sewage. Pretty embarrassing for the visitors going to ToA.
The key sentence: “Funding to transform Hemisfair has been cut in half, without explanation, making it all but impossible to deliver the promised Civic Park.” I don’t think anyone in support of Zona Cultural or the land bridge understood those projects to be at the expense of the plans for a world-class park.
As voters, we need to demand an explanation and adjustment.
yes! Agreed. Lets be more intentional/focused with our citywide projects.
Too many projects = unfinished/poor design.
The prospect of a world-class Civic Park was one of the primary driving forces for us moving downtown and for us encouraging other to make the move. (And a few already have.) Every new visitor to our place gets to view the work on Hemisfair. Unless the city builds a park to the standards of that of other great cities, it will ultimately become more of an embarrassment than a source of pride.
This makes me angry and disappointed. Future vision has become very blurred and short sighted..
On behalf of the Hemisfair Conservancy team, I thank all of our donors for their generous support. Every gift makes a difference. Over 430,000 people representing every district in the city have come to Yanaguana Garden since it opened in October 2015. Hemisfair is the place where San Antonio meets. Everyone with a passion for this transformational project is encouraged to join our family of donors.
The Hemisfair Conservancy has had my support and will in the future.
The elected politicians here seem to only want projects that can be accomplished while they are in office. Look at how many Alamo Plaza “visions” are collecting dust. Same with Tri-Party. Now, I think most of them have good intentions. Some seem more and more to be in the pocket of developer and real estate interests.
One problem I see are the current term limits. I think they are too short to give anyone an incentive for long-term planning. The reality seems to be to get what you can get done in two years and put those notches in your belt. This goes back decades.
Maybe it’s time to reexamine term limits in the interest of planning for the future.
The proposed Bond Program presented to Council last week seems biased towards somewhat contradictory or confused and expensive Broadway corridor renovation work with an earmarked $62m ($43m for ‘complete streets’ work + $19m for mainly a new Zoo parking garage at Brackenridge Park) — planning that should be revisited, including if additional public funding is needed for Hemisfair.
Funding for new structured parking at Brackenridge Park (the most expensive, least future-proof and least ‘complete streets’-supportive form to build) seems at odds with complete streets goals for Broadway. New development along Broadway has also apparently deliberately ‘un-completed’ sections of this street recently including by removing bike lanes and narrowing and obstructing sidewalks (see Google Streetview), and it doesn’t make sense for the public to pay again — at the expense of projects like Hemisfair — to try to restore some of the pedestrian amenity discarded by new development.
Regardless, $43m is well beyond the $10m proposed to ‘complete’ several blocks of Alamo Street between Market and Cesar Chavez to improve pedestrian access to Hemisfair, suggesting that the proposed Broadway corridor funding should be trimmed (as well as noting that all of Times Square in New York — five blocks — was pedestrianized for $27m). It also suggests that the budget shortfall for Hemisfair work might not be as great as reported above, as the boundary of proposed Alamo Streework primarily serves Hemisfair.
In addition, it does not seem well-reasoned or fair that Centro (the City’s contracted Public Improvement District administrator) would advocate for improvements along Broadway north of Brooklyn Ave and outside of the Public Improvement District (PID) boundary, at the expense of improvement work within the PID — including priority corridors within the PID.
Broadway is not considered a priority corridor by recent VIA planning (VIA Vision 2040) informed by public as well as technical input — with Fredericksburg, Commerce-Houston San Pedro, New Braunfels and other corridors that connect residents and employment centers with downtown, the PID and Hemisfair ranking highest in regards to factors including productivity, site potential and access to jobs and housing.
The 2017-2022 Bond Program should reflect these corridor priorities and balance special interest projects like additional Zoo parking and Broadway renovation with public interests including bus ridership, development potential, congestion avoidance and access to public space like Hemisfair guiding the Bond Program.
See:
August 10 2016 Briefing on Bond Programs (posted by CW Shirley Gonzales)
http://files.constantcontact.com/f80df3a6301/4d2135a6-3b59-4a0c-b4b4-3f04bbc59a24.pdf?ver=1470862610000
City of San Antonio’s Public Improvement District (PID):
https://webapps.sanantonio.gov/filenetarchive/%7B760C859F-6208-4195-BBD4-07C50DC6A3C4%7D/%7B760C859F-6208-4195-BBD4-07C50DC6A3C4%7D.pdf
Bloomberg predicts [$27m] Times Square pedestrian plaza will stay under de Blasio (2013)
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/bloomberg-crows-times-square-pedestrian-plaza-article-1.1557047
Of all of the bond projects, Hemisfair has been the one that has gone through the most public process. HPARC has invited participation by everyone and has found widespread support across our community. Of all of the bond projects I consider this one the MOST important. Let’s work together to get council to support this vital Iniative!
Is there any money allocated for downtown baseball stadium? I hope not, but if there are, then they should redistributed to Civic Park right away.
Maybe if Sheryl Sculley’s paycheck was cut it half, then there would be no problems with having adequate funds for the Hemisfair project.
Let me guess youre an overpaid overweight member of sapd whos still bitter bc their raise wasnt enough, stupid comment
Meanwhile the roads on the west and east sides are deteriorating, families without adequate transportation have no local parks to enjoy, the homeless population is growing by leaps and bounds, labor wages in downtown have stagnated for non-professional workers. This project is dressing up the city to attract tech companies that will not employ locals but rather import grads from around the country, driving up rent prices and further dividing the city. If they wanted to change the city they would find the arts, chance the poverty situation and give opportunities to San Antonians first.
I completely disagree with your statement about tech workers. I work in the startup scene downtown and 90% of my staff were born in San Antonio. All of our startups employ local residents and the vast majority of the big ones were started by San Antonio locals. The concept that our local tech scene is being built for others is not correct and I would be happy to see data that supports something different.
We need to VOTE out mayor “good for nothing” TAYLOR and FIRE “bandwagoner” Sculley who are just not serving the visions of the city. Ivy got into position because it was a Democratic Politcal move and just is not cut out to be mayor of a city the size of San Antonio.
Considering what appears to be “Institutional Corruption” going on, No Bond Dollars should be provided. HemisFair once had close to 30 acres of Park Land. The Master Plan required 24 Acres. The City reduced that to 20 Acres when they took the plan to the state and effectively removed our right to vote and keep our politicians honest. This was reduced to 18 acres (special interest negotiations that further prostituted park acreage for a hotel). All footprints on the HemisFair Park Master Plan fronting Alamo and Market Streets, as if on steroids. have grown larger. Approx. 15 acres of park will remain, less than required by State Law. HPARC and Pape- Dawson, with creative accounting and no public review/independent audit, provided that commerical land, like that of Ruth Chris Steak House and parking spaces, constitute park acreage. This appears to be white-collar fraud – in 2017, lets replace our Mayor.. that’s my opinion and not mine alone.
It appears that the highly promoted green space of the future “Civic Park” is smaller than Travis Park. Nothing more than a small Commerial Commons behind the Zachary Hotel and future residential/office towers.
Why is Rivard Report spreading “Fake News”??
Another FRAUDULENT HPARC “marketing salvo” is that Park space is “tripling” from 6.5 Acres…at the same time, HPARC does not share with the public the drawings supporting their gameplan to convert this 6.5 Acres (around the Tower of the Americas into more residential towers – regardless that the Mayor, City Manager Sculley and D1 Rep. Trevino have been provided many private viewings of this plan.