kingwilliam

That is absolutely hilarious, the few people I saw seemed like any other college crowd to me.

Well, it probably was.

Seperate question is have they reopened Our Lady of The Lake U? There was a separate topic in here.

It never really closed. The top floor of the main building that caught fire was closed as they repaired it. But basically everything was business as usual a few days after the fire. It looked worse then it actually turned out to be.

and here is the almost exact areas I was checking out and found numerous and I do mean numerous old homes that MUST be restored for the sake of mankind! lol

1. http://www.mapquest.com/maps?city=San+Anto...p;zipcode=78207 Just keep driving West along Commerce and see the neighborhoods. I didn't realize I was so close to Our Lady of the lake University! I would have taken many pics!

That is Prospect Hill.

2. http://www.mapquest.com/maps?city=San+Anto...de=INTERSECTION

I had no idea I was so close to that park, it was neat from a distance. I noticed many new night clubs and many younger people I guess from the college.

That's the south Tobin Hill area, which is basically the Gay District of SA, those clubs you saw were actually gay clubs as there's quite a few all next to each other just south of the college. The Gay Pride Parade and other Gay related parades take place on Main Ave.

you can go to this site and actually zoom in on the downtown area and see where the particular neighborhoods are.

http://www.walkscore.com/rankings/San_Antonio

Others to check out include Jefferson and Monticello.

Here's a few neighborhood descriptions as well as Google Street View pictures depicting the type of housing in said neighborhood.

Dignowity Hill

Dignowity Hill, like I wrote in another San Antonio HAIF thread, is currently under going major revitalization as people move into the area and rebuild homes. It is a Historic District and as such is home to a diverse aray of homes. From Victorian to Mediterranean and others.

Location: One-mile east of downtown

Lavaca

Lavaca is a neighborhood to the east of King William. On the rise.

Location: 1.4 miles south of downtown.

Beacon Hill

Beacon Hill is a stones throw away from Monte Vista which is a good thing as Monte Vista's past resurgence has carried into the Beacon Hill.

Location: Three-miles NNW of downtown

Alta Vista

Alta Vista is sandwiched between Beacon Hill and Monte Vista.

Mahncke Park

Mahncke Park could be called the Baja-Alamo Heights as it's almost as nice but not at the price. It's a neighborhood on the rise in the last few years. The housing inventory mainly comprising bungalow styled homes.

Location: Two and a Half miles NNE of downtown.

Monte Vista

Monte Vista is well, Monte Vista. you either know about it or you don't. lol

Location: 2-miles north of downtown

King William

King William is like Monte Vista, King William.

Location: One-mile south of downtown

Alamo Heights

Location: 4-miles north of downtown

Terrell Hills

Terrell Hills is a really cool but really expensive neighborhood.

Location: 4-miles north of downtown

Olmos Park

Olmos Park is one of the three wealthy bedroom communities of North Central SA. The other two being Alamo Heights and Terrell Hills.

Olmos Park is the wealthiest of the three and wealthiest area of San Antonio, it even has a Billionaire Row.

Location: Three-miles north of downtown

Vert,

If ou want to know about an other Histroical Districts or neighborhoods with reall sweet housing look no further.

The ones you know:

King William

Monte Vista

Alamo Heights

Tobin Hill

Terrell Hills

The ones you might not know:

Dignowity Hill (just east of downtown)

Lavaca

Alta Vista

Beacon Hill

Olmos Park

Mahncke Park

Highland Hills

Major wow!

On a recent trip (2 weeks ago) I had more time to cruise around SA and check out some of the neighborhoods I never knew existed. I was in the area off N Main or rather seemed to be near Alamo Community College area? You cannot help but notice the grand old mansions and homes. My big question is what happened?

That was Tobin Hill. Tobin Hill just recently (last year) became a Historical District after years of arguing that the deserved that distinction. It's just south of the Monte Vista neighborhood, not sure if you explored that Historical District, and like Monte Vista once, Tobin Hill is slowly but surely being revitalized.

Here's a Express-News article with more information:

http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/MYSA09290...5_html4502.html

Funny enough, like the article states, King William was the first neighborhood in SA to be granted Historical.

I saw so many extremely unique structures that must have been built in early 1800's to turn of the century. Sadly, many are in serious need of restoration. They have big porches and balconies, columns, stained leaded glass windows, etc. No paint cant be seen on many, simply faded from existance.

No thanks to the 60's,70's, 80's exodus to the suburbs. Leaving these homes to be either abandoned or left to be occupied b poorer citizens who didn't care to maintain the look and feel of the homes.

But like I said, that is changing as more people bu homes and restore them Man from within suburban parts of the cit looking to move closer to downtown. From what I'm told, Tobin Hill looks today like what Monte Vista looked in the late 80's. At the beginning of its reinitialization into what it is today. Though I'm told it'll happen faster because more people are quickly buying the homes and because of Monte Vista already being established as a top notch neighborhood and finally because of the developments happening in the Pearl Brewery/Lower Broadway area.

Are there any orgs trying to save these relics?

yes.

There's the Historic and Design Review Commission and the San Antonio Conservation Society.

http://www.saconservation.org

Also, a development group has within the last couple of years bought vacant lots within Tobin Hill and built really nice homes.

http://www.brownstonetraditions.com

Even the West side of the downtown area has dense examples of Victorian homes complete with original gingerbread ornamentation! Jaw dropping. Maybe I should just Google under San Antonio historical homes but those sites normally just feature the ones that have been restored. I wish I could lift up one of these homes & bring back to Houston! I mean this place rivals Galveston, seriously. I am bedazzled.

yes, San Antonio is very underrated in that department for some reason. We have tons of historical areas in this cit that get overlooked for whatever reason.

Though thanks to Google street view, you can take a tour of the city any time you want!

Like I said, the dynamics of the Dignowity neighborhood are changing.

It's basically becoming the place for young people who want to live in a neighborhood like Southtown or King William but not as expensive.

Ok, now here's Dignowity Hill.

http://www.neighborhoodlink.com/sat/dhna/map

This neighborhood just east of downtown is basically what Southtown, King William and Monte Vista were in the 80's. Blighted neighborhoods on the turnaround with new people moving in renovating homes to live in changing the dynamics of said neighborhood.

The first time I ever encountered the Dig was last spring during Fiesta when I dropped some friends off downtown. Because traffic was a nightmare everywhere I had to find alternatives to get out of the downtown area and back on the freeway. Driving through this area I didn't know at the time was Dignowity Hill, because of traffic and road closures, I saw a bunch of homes that had been renovated or were being renovated and the homes and newly revitalizing neighborhood reminded me of a King William in genesis.

Now over a year later, it's still transforming.

With the recent road work on Commerce, the turning of the nearby area into an A&E District as well as the BRAC process can only help in that transformation. Because of BRAC some 12,000 military people are moving from out of state to the near by Fort Sam Houston post. All looking for places to live. All moving here within the next two years.

Some pictures of Dignowity Hill.

There's also the Dignowity Pushcart Derby which has become quite popular the last couple of years within the neighborhood.

Check out these videos from this years Derby:

Here's the On The Hill blog. Neat stuff.

I got these pictures from there.

Here's a story about three people, all well off, who moved from an affluent part of the city to Dignowity Hill. Not only did they move there, they also bought several homes in the neighborhood and fixed them up, some they practically saved from being tore down!

Here's the story by the On The Hill blogger:

What the images don't tell is about the people, besides Gino, who saved Rose from winding up a pile of 100 yr old lumber. You see, Rose had been scheduled to be demolished by the city because they had decided that house was an unsafe structure and most likely she was.

But three people with a healthy dose of vision, guts and good business instincts thought that Rose was worth saving. Byron and Betty, who are married to each other and partner Bill had recently bought and restored several homes in the area. Some of these restored homes were former "crack" houses or had been used by the homeless to get out of the weather. They were in pretty bad shape.

But get this, they all moved into the neighborhood. They lifted stakes from what most folks in San Antonio would consider some of the most affluent parts of town to a neighborhood that real estate agents would say was "in transition".

What's even more amazing is that these folks were all in their 70's when they got into this! Talk about looking forward and taking on some pretty daunting risks at an age when most people are just coasting along waiting for the inevitable to happen.

So here I am, 55 yrs old, looking ahead to retirement and these people are out there trying to change the world at 75.....unbelievable! These guys are my heroes!

I had to post in this thread.

Firstly, Vine, for someone who is doing so much "talking" about San Antonio, you seem to no nothing about this city. Please, just stop. I mean really, the Spurs arena was built on the east side, not the north side. About three miles east of the Alamodome. I mean, that's just one of the many things you spewed that were incorrect.

When it comes to Southtown, King William and Monte Vista, these were neighborhoods in disarray because of the exodus to the suburbs during the 70 and 80's. These neighborhoods were run down until people, mostly artists, moved in and began to revitalize these places over the past 20 years. The SAME THING is happening on the east side in the Dignowity Hills neighborhood. More on that later.

Also, there has been a renewed effort to bring people downtown to live and work, etc. One of the big things is the River North District that is currently being created.

http://downtownsanantonio.org/pdf/CHARRETTE%20CATALOG.pdf

This will be for San Antonians not tourists.

It's also fantastic that it is also coinciding with the 2-mile urban extension of the Riverwalk.

Construction pictures:

As for the area just east of downtown, maybe some of you know about the 20 story Vidorra high rise condo (with a second twin also planned) being built just east of downtown next to the rail tracks someone in here said no one wants to live near. If you don't, here ya go:

Still need more proof the east side is developing? Well guess what, it was just recently made the Arts and Entertainment District of San Antonio.

This graphic is from the 2nd of this month before the Council voted to approve the zoning change and create the A&E District. Which is why it says "proposed".

This is going to help big time in the development of the near East side.

Below are pictures I took back in September of the redone Commerce Street east of downtown.

Fatty's to the left and Friedrich to the right.

Looking east:

What this same area looked like before:

Taken last year.

I know someone in this thread said their friend wanted to open up a retail business near Fatty Burgers. Well, you can see why. Also, the Friedrich Building shown above is a former Air Conditioning production warehouse that is 500,000 square feet and is now a mixed-use building home to the HQ for a beer company, an architecture firm, a marketing firm and a Web site builder.

I just returned from a trip to San Antonio and the Hill Country and loved your city. Driving down I-10, It almost feels like two completely different cities. Old San Antonio and New San Antonio. I'm curious, what is the economic climate in the city? Who are the major employers? With regards to Boerne, far NW San Antonio suburbs and exurbs, where do all of these people work? Which areas have the most desirable schools?

To answer your questions, I'll go in order.

The economic climate is quite high right now. Construction is booming, jobs are being added by the thousands every once, unemployment is going down.

The major employers are HEB, Valero, USAA, Military, etc.

Well, I could not really tell you were people work as I have no idea where they work, lol.

As for which areas have the most desirable schools, well, for San Antonio that's going to be either the NEISD or the NISD. Alamo Heights ISD is always highly rated. SCUC-ISD is another good one as well as Boerne ISD. An often not talk about district is ECISD.

Hope I could help.

SA is a very nice place. Lived there for 11 years. My dad is from there so I go way back in that part of the state. It's a lower-wage, less educated city than Houston. Has attracted some big names in banking (Citi, WaMu) lately, but these are call centers. I believe the big economic driver is still tourism, by a long shot. Educationally, they're at least trying to work within that framwork. UTSA offers a degree program in tourism related business, and there is an Culinary Institute-acrredited school there now as well. USAA is not on many peoples' radar, but is a major employer--about 17,000 on their campus. The medical center is quite large, and the military medical community is the considered by many the best in the country. Southwest Research is also HQd there on the west side.

I have to correct you on some of what you posted. SA may have a generally lower wage than Houston, however, SA has a higher median household income than Houston. Also, per capita, SA has more college students in all of Texas.

As for Citibank and WaMu... I'm not sure what "lately" is but those call centers came in 2005 or before. Recently, SA has been a data center magnet landing a 500 million, eventually 1 billion dollar, Microsoft data center.

The big economic driver is the medical and bio-science industries followed by the financial industry. Tourism I believe is third or fourth, recently being passed by the Military.

The Culinary school is actually a CIA school. The most prestigious culinary academy in America.

This better illustrates what I'm trying to say.

The red square is where Monterrey Village is.

A bunch of different developers trying to do the same thing, and the traffic situation is already stacked against them. No good access to DT or the Med Center, or the airport from the deep west side of San Antonio.

Not true at all. You can get to Medical Center or airport from the far west side using any of the following freeways: 151, 410, 90, 1604, 10.

For example, to access the medical center from Monterrey Village or anywhere in Westover Hills, you simply would have to take 151 to 410, 410 to Babcock Rd. which then leads you to the Medical Center. Or take 410 to 10 and get off on Medical Drive.

To get to the airport you just continue on 410 for another 10 miles until you hit Aiport Blvd.

Though Far West side residents will no longer need to go to the Medical Center for use as three Hospitals are currently under construction in Westover Hills, forming the Westover Hills Medical Center, the third Medical Center in San Antonio after the South Texas Medical Center and Stone Oak Medical Center.

Latest La Cantera project is mixed-use Town Center

Web Posted: 03/27/2008 11:08 PM CDT

Creighton A. Welch and Melissa Monroe

Express-News Business Writers

Last week, USAA Real Estate Co. unveiled its expansion plans for Phase II of The Shops at La Cantera. This week, the new projects continue to roll out.

USAA Real Estate Co. announced today that it is taking its 1,700-acre La Cantera development to the next level, and soon will start building The Town Center at La Cantera, a 178-acre mixed-use development along Interstate 10 and Loop 1604.

"This is the future of long-term development in the U.S.," said James Loyd, executive managing director at USAA Real Estate Co.

The first phase of the project, on about 40 acres, will have 500 loft-style apartments built on top of 200,000 square feet of neighborhood retail space, plus nearly 1 million square feet of office space and a 200-room boutique hotel.

Details about the developer and brand of hotel were not released. The first phase is expected to take five years to complete.

"The significance of the project is that it's a continuation of bringing retail and office and providing that commercial development to an area that has had a pent-up demand for quite a while," said Kimberly Gatley, senior vice president and director of research with NAI REOC Partners, a local real estate firm. "They're really servicing a need that has been there for some time."

The Town Center will focus on walkability and will have several parking garages rather than huge surface lots. Each building is expected to be Leadership in Energy Efficiency and Design certified for green building.

"If you look at it in terms of the environment, it should have a much less negative impact than other projects," Loyd said. "Due to our financial strength, we can afford to do this right, and will do it right."

Development in La Cantera has been unfolding slowly over the years, beginning with such landmarks as Six Flags Fiesta Texas and the Westin La Cantera Resort.

"It has always been kind of a long-term vision and focus for us," said T. Patrick Duncan, president and CEO of USAA Real Estate Co.

In 2005, The Shops at La Cantera opened as an open-air retail village with a Texas Hill Country architectural theme. High-end retailers at the center include a Nordstrom, Neiman Marcus, Tiffany & Co. and Anthropologie

What do you know about the residential component of Cresta Bella? How many lots? What size? Price per acre? Will they be builder only or build on your own lot?

Has there been any news on the residential component of The Rim? No, they will be builder built not build on your own lot.

Thanks.

700 lots/homes. Prices will range from $400,000 to $3 million. Most of the lots have been sold to local luxury custom home builders. There will also be a multifamily portion to Cresta Bella.

There will be a grocery store.

The building circled will be a grocery store.

Cresta Bella is a 426-acre mixed-use development located 3 miles north of the IH-10 and Loop 1604 interchange. Plans call retail, office, housing, commercial, and two hotels. Cresta Bella will also house be home to the new HQ for one of its developers, Post Oak Development.

It's nice to finally see some names listed. Do you know if this development will be more similar to a Town Square, or more like a Heubner Oaks?

Yes the design will be urban town square with main street concept. I believe Phase III will also be designed in that same model.

Other tenants to be at phase II include Ruehl, Armani Exchange and Gilly Hicks.

I'm quite interested in seeing the residential portion of phase III and weather there will be a high-rise or two, as there isn't a lot of land to work with.

Some tenants planned for phase II include:

Urban Outfitter, D&G, Vercase, Metropark, Barnes and Noble, Gucci.

Also, there will be a phase III for The Shops at La Cantera. Planned for phase III are retail, office and residential.

Wow, sounds like they're going to be busy over there. Hopefully the older parts of the post will get some attention from all this construction. There are historic sections of Ft. Sam that haven't been used in 30 or 40 years.

I'd like to think that the new work will also help Government Hill, the historic neighborhood outside of the gates, but I doubt it. Even with historical designation, the area still hasn't started to turn around.

I wouldn't be shocked or surprised if private developers began to build up Government Hill. Fort Sam has never had this type of boom, no area anywhere near Government Hill has had the type of boom expected to take place in the next 3-4 years. It's unprecedented so what the future has for Government Hill is anyones best guess. However, in my opinion, one of the major key factors to great redevelopment of GH would be opening the New Braunfels Ave segment that runs through Fort Sam. I doubt the Military just re-opens it and allows traffic to move in and out of the base freely, however why not A) swap land with the city or tunnel New Braunfels Ave through Fort Sam. I'm not sure which would be more feasible but I'd venture to guess plan B would most likely be the best option. Though, would the Military allow such a thing?

LOL, I corrected it.

John Bann (left) and Michael Hartman, who are central figures in the transformation of Fort Sam Houston, discuss the construction projects.

http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/metro/sto...AC.295fccf.html

Fort Sam preparing for BRAC building boom

Web Posted: 01/04/2008 11:30 PM CST

Sig Christenson

Express-News

The roar of heavy trucks throbs like a bass line beneath the whining of hydraulic tools and the banging of hammers outside the McWethy Troop Medical Clinic at Fort Sam Houston. But the sound it produces is discordant, like an orchestra tuning up before a concert.

The metaphor is apt because the projects under way only are warm ups for the work that's about to begin.

Starting this month, Fort Sam will be hit by a construction wave the likes of which hasn't been seen since the Depression, thanks to the 2005 Defense Base Closure and Realignment Commission.

BRAC, as it's called, ordered 23 installations to shutter by 2011 and issued 2,513 closure recommendations, most of them mission realignments, but the news for San Antonio was mostly good. The fifth base closure round since 1988 will bring $1.56 billion in construction to Fort Sam alone.

In all, the closure round will pump about $2.1 billion into the post and a pair of Air Force bases. But nowhere will it be more pronounced than at Fort Sam, which will add 10,567 military, civilian and student personnel in the next three years.

The work already under way