TheWriter
10-11-2005, 02:08 AM
SBC Center attracts ideas for boosting neighborhood
Web Posted: 10/11/2005 12:00 AM CDT
Elizabeth Allen and Greg Jefferson
Express-News Staff Writers
For years, Freeman Coliseum was an island of Bexar County property hosting the annual San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo and surrounded by a neighborhood that had not seen much economic development.
What a difference a shiny new arena for a championship NBA team makes.
The SBC Center, which opened next door to the coliseum three years ago as the home of the Spurs, has yet to bring the much-talked-about economic revitalization to the East Side neighborhoods surrounding it.
But the arena has become a magnet for public and private ideas to make the 175-acre county property and adjacent municipal golf course something that some say could transform the East Side.
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.
One of the presenters will be Ellerbe Becket, the San Francisco-based planning firm that designed the SBC Center.
The other group, the Bexar County Community Arenas Consortium, is led by San Francisco-based EDAW and includes local firm Kell Muñoz Architects, along with Chicago-based HVS Convention, Sports & Entertainment Facilities Consulting and Philadelphia-based SMG.
One of EDAW's newest employees is former Mayor Ed Garza.
The competing presenters aren't the only ones with an eye on the property.
Dan and Marlene Bailey of HollyHills Development are already talking with local officials, looking to make the most of the land surrounding the county property.
The Los Angeles-based developers have been shopping proposals for a megaproject close to the SBC Center-Freeman Coliseum complex, encompassing the city's Willow Springs Golf Course.
"HollyHills Development began master planning and developing our company's vision for the East Side of San Antonio 10 months ago," HollyHills spokesman T.J. Connolly said. "There are still meetings and presentations that must be held with other key stakeholders in the area.
"San Antonio has a chance to adopt a unique, urban-planning, mixed-use community that incorporates a retail, residential, sports and entertainment vision."
Willow Springs
A city official said the proposed development near the SBC Center would focus on sports, hospitality and entertainment. One component reportedly would be a hotel close to the golf course. Another would be the takeover of the course itself.
And whether the Baileys' grand plans come to fruition or someone else ends up developing the area, Willow Springs will play a crucial role.
"The key thing is that golf course," Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff said. "What are they going to do with that?"
Wolff stressed he wants "to concentrate on our deal" at the arena complex. But he believes the right master plan on the county property could potentially support a nearby hotel and that the most logical place for that would be Willow Springs.
One person who agrees on the importance of the golf course owns property next to it.
Cardell Cabinetry President Bill Tidwell long has been one of the largest landowners in the East Side's Council District 2, and his holdings keep growing.
Along with expanding the more than 1 million square feet of cabinet manufacturing space that lines Interstate 35, Tidwell in 2003 bought the historic Red Berry estate on Gembler Road, across Salado Creek from Willow Springs, for a corporate retreat and event center.
And last year he purchased a 165,000-square-foot warehouse that is not only near the SBC Center, but adjacent to Willow Springs.
"You can walk out in front of it and right there's the SBC Center," Tidwell said with a chuckle, "then on the other side of the golf course, that's my Red Berry deal."
Tidwell said he has talked to city and county officials, as well as private developers, about potential uses for his properties. He said it is too early to disclose details of his discussions, but he agrees that any redevelopment of the area hinges on Willow Springs.
"It's going to take a lot of money, but without the golf course, none of this is going to happen," Tidwell said.
During a City Council committee meeting several weeks ago, Parks and Recreation Director Malcolm Matthews said District 2 Councilwoman Sheila McNeil has been in talks with an unidentified private party about the course. But he had few details about the discussion.
McNeil is tight-lipped. Asked whether she's talking to the Baileys about Willow Springs, she said, "There's more than one developer interested in that area, in making it a destination."
And right now, she added, they're waiting on the county's master plan for the area.
Privatization?
But turning the course over to the private sector wouldn't be an easy step for the city. For years, officials have struggled over what to do with the city's money-losing courses — make improvements and beef up their management, or privatize them.
Frustrated by the debate's slow pace, City Councilman Chip Haass favors experimenting with the privatization of one or two of the municipal courses. Willow Springs, he said, would be one of his prime candidates.
Willow Springs and the Mission Del Lago golf course on the South Side, he said, "have the most potential to improve the surrounding area."
But, he said, operating the course alone wouldn't make it worth a developer's time to be profitable; the project also would have to include a hotel, condominiums or time-shares.
Haass said he had heard of the Baileys' interest in the area from McNeil's predecessor on the council, Joel Williams, but that he hasn't heard from McNeil about the developer.
One possible cloud over HollyHills' plans is Dan Bailey's past. He pleaded guilty to mail fraud in 1987 and served 31 months in federal prison.
Haass declined to comment on what effect that history could have on how the council handles any SBC Center-area plan with the Baileys' development.
He noted any company interested in managing Willow Springs would have to compete with other vendors.
Wolff was circumspect on the Baileys' proposal.
"As a general rule with any developer, you start believing them when they start building a building," he said.
http://www.mysanantonio.com/business/stories/MYSA101105.01A.Arena.dd4a4a2.html
Web Posted: 10/11/2005 12:00 AM CDT
Elizabeth Allen and Greg Jefferson
Express-News Staff Writers
For years, Freeman Coliseum was an island of Bexar County property hosting the annual San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo and surrounded by a neighborhood that had not seen much economic development.
What a difference a shiny new arena for a championship NBA team makes.
The SBC Center, which opened next door to the coliseum three years ago as the home of the Spurs, has yet to bring the much-talked-about economic revitalization to the East Side neighborhoods surrounding it.
But the arena has become a magnet for public and private ideas to make the 175-acre county property and adjacent municipal golf course something that some say could transform the East Side.
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.
One of the presenters will be Ellerbe Becket, the San Francisco-based planning firm that designed the SBC Center.
The other group, the Bexar County Community Arenas Consortium, is led by San Francisco-based EDAW and includes local firm Kell Muñoz Architects, along with Chicago-based HVS Convention, Sports & Entertainment Facilities Consulting and Philadelphia-based SMG.
One of EDAW's newest employees is former Mayor Ed Garza.
The competing presenters aren't the only ones with an eye on the property.
Dan and Marlene Bailey of HollyHills Development are already talking with local officials, looking to make the most of the land surrounding the county property.
The Los Angeles-based developers have been shopping proposals for a megaproject close to the SBC Center-Freeman Coliseum complex, encompassing the city's Willow Springs Golf Course.
"HollyHills Development began master planning and developing our company's vision for the East Side of San Antonio 10 months ago," HollyHills spokesman T.J. Connolly said. "There are still meetings and presentations that must be held with other key stakeholders in the area.
"San Antonio has a chance to adopt a unique, urban-planning, mixed-use community that incorporates a retail, residential, sports and entertainment vision."
Willow Springs
A city official said the proposed development near the SBC Center would focus on sports, hospitality and entertainment. One component reportedly would be a hotel close to the golf course. Another would be the takeover of the course itself.
And whether the Baileys' grand plans come to fruition or someone else ends up developing the area, Willow Springs will play a crucial role.
"The key thing is that golf course," Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff said. "What are they going to do with that?"
Wolff stressed he wants "to concentrate on our deal" at the arena complex. But he believes the right master plan on the county property could potentially support a nearby hotel and that the most logical place for that would be Willow Springs.
One person who agrees on the importance of the golf course owns property next to it.
Cardell Cabinetry President Bill Tidwell long has been one of the largest landowners in the East Side's Council District 2, and his holdings keep growing.
Along with expanding the more than 1 million square feet of cabinet manufacturing space that lines Interstate 35, Tidwell in 2003 bought the historic Red Berry estate on Gembler Road, across Salado Creek from Willow Springs, for a corporate retreat and event center.
And last year he purchased a 165,000-square-foot warehouse that is not only near the SBC Center, but adjacent to Willow Springs.
"You can walk out in front of it and right there's the SBC Center," Tidwell said with a chuckle, "then on the other side of the golf course, that's my Red Berry deal."
Tidwell said he has talked to city and county officials, as well as private developers, about potential uses for his properties. He said it is too early to disclose details of his discussions, but he agrees that any redevelopment of the area hinges on Willow Springs.
"It's going to take a lot of money, but without the golf course, none of this is going to happen," Tidwell said.
During a City Council committee meeting several weeks ago, Parks and Recreation Director Malcolm Matthews said District 2 Councilwoman Sheila McNeil has been in talks with an unidentified private party about the course. But he had few details about the discussion.
McNeil is tight-lipped. Asked whether she's talking to the Baileys about Willow Springs, she said, "There's more than one developer interested in that area, in making it a destination."
And right now, she added, they're waiting on the county's master plan for the area.
Privatization?
But turning the course over to the private sector wouldn't be an easy step for the city. For years, officials have struggled over what to do with the city's money-losing courses — make improvements and beef up their management, or privatize them.
Frustrated by the debate's slow pace, City Councilman Chip Haass favors experimenting with the privatization of one or two of the municipal courses. Willow Springs, he said, would be one of his prime candidates.
Willow Springs and the Mission Del Lago golf course on the South Side, he said, "have the most potential to improve the surrounding area."
But, he said, operating the course alone wouldn't make it worth a developer's time to be profitable; the project also would have to include a hotel, condominiums or time-shares.
Haass said he had heard of the Baileys' interest in the area from McNeil's predecessor on the council, Joel Williams, but that he hasn't heard from McNeil about the developer.
One possible cloud over HollyHills' plans is Dan Bailey's past. He pleaded guilty to mail fraud in 1987 and served 31 months in federal prison.
Haass declined to comment on what effect that history could have on how the council handles any SBC Center-area plan with the Baileys' development.
He noted any company interested in managing Willow Springs would have to compete with other vendors.
Wolff was circumspect on the Baileys' proposal.
"As a general rule with any developer, you start believing them when they start building a building," he said.
http://www.mysanantonio.com/business/stories/MYSA101105.01A.Arena.dd4a4a2.html