Friedrich Lofts
The Friedrich Lofts building was once home to the Friedrich Refrigerators, who manufactured refrigerators and air conditioners. As the company grew, so did the building. The site is a collage of structures built as needed, and became interconnected over time. Beautiful spaces, both interiorly and exteriorly, are created through this patchwork of necessity. Materials, in a mode of deterioration give the structure wonderful textures. Rust, plank formed concrete, and old timber joists only add to the experience. Some of the spaces resemble an ancient Roman interior courtyard. Don’t you agree?
Ancient Roman Courtyard in Pompeii*
Friedrich Lofts
Mr. Patrick Shearer, of Cambridge Realty Group, walked us through the once thriving 533,000 square foot industrial complex. Currently only 20,000 sf are being rented by 2 to 4 design oriented companies, including a long standing interior design firm. Tenants pay part of the T.I., but may receive incentives such as free rent. Friedrich Lofts is in an Empowerment Zone, which means that any businesses that have employees living within this zone can receive tax credits. It is also located within a TIF district and numerous other governmentally incentivized zones. This is pretty obvious just from looking at the updated streets and street lamps, where TIF money was used for the upgrades.
The building is historic, but more for its former use than for its structure. This allows for selective demolition of the property, because no single element is intrinsically more important than another. Some remediation is needed in the non-renovated portions of the building, like for asbestos, lead paint, PCBs, etc. Inspection/s of the site may present problems down the road as codes change, especially if the inspections take place individually as each section of the project is developed. Parking is not allowed in the large warehouse space because of the lack of ventilation. More parking would be required as the project is built out. Approximately 178 spaces are needed at 3 spaces per 1,000 square feet.
The building is for sale at $8 million or $15 per square foot. It was initially purchased between $4 and 5 per square foot. Rumor has it that The City of San Antonio is currently interested in purchasing the property, but won’t pay the asking price, probably more like in the $6-6.5 million range.
Alamo Architects
Alamo Architects have achieved LEED silver for their office. They could have achieved Gold or Platinum had the decision to pursue LEED certification been made sooner. The LEED submittal process was reasonably inexpensive because of the project’s relatively small size (approx. 10,000sf). Cost recovery has been hard to determine, because many of the LEED initiatives are not quantifiable. But the utility bill is 25%-30% less than it was at the company’s previous space, despite the 40% increase in overall square footage.
The site was an old industrial building initially used for trailer manufacturing and then housed a kitchen cabinetry builder. Alamo Architects reused much of the materials from the site, including large pieces of concrete for fence walls, forklift counter weights for planter barriers, metal frame windows as railing infill pieces, and garage doors for partitions. Besides earning LEED points for material reuse, this gave them points for minimizing construction waste; especially since this is determined by tonnage (obviously concrete is dense and weighs a lot). There is a large water tank for rain water collection. New double glazed windows replaced the garage doors and a new roof and siding were added to the existing metal frame. This is definitely a beautiful project, with great benefits for the environment and the building’s users.
Mr. Charles Martin “Marty” Wender & Westover Hills
Mr. Marty Wender, a large scale land developer, treated us to lunch at his office, where he, like Mr. Cross had done the day before, imparted invaluable knowledge to us. So below are a few of those jewels:
- Know where the city is growing.
- Time is the enemy of the real estate deal.
- A name is very important. With it may come stigmas, negative or positive.
- You can’t prove a positive by saying a negative [I’m still trying to wrap my head around that one].
- Be forward thinking to prevent issues later.
- Do whatever it takes to prove your point or sell your idea [legally of course]. “Marty” flies clients in helicopters.
- Get the job done when no one else can.
- Find very experienced people and contract them out, like lawyers, engineers, and architects.
- You can’t change people, so don’t try.
- If you don’t have what a client wants, find it or go get it.
- Listen to the customer, sell them what they want / tell them what they want to hear…but don’t lie to them.
- Know who you are selling to, know your audience.
- Have a “Show Me” mentality, prove that something won’t work.
- Know the facts, all the facts.
- Keep in mind that decisions aren’t made in the board room, but at home. Know that families and spouses help make business decisions.
- Local politics can make or break you.
- Politicians want two (2) things, Credit and Contributions. Credit is free.
- There are givers and takers; those who give back to the community and those who take from the community. Be a Giver.
- Get involved with organizations and be seen.
Most of those tips can be found in the decision making processes of Westover Hills. Westover Hills is named after a more affluent neighborhood in Fort Worth and the name is extremely important, as there was a negative stigma to anything in west San Antonio. Larger thoroughfares and increased utility lines, including fiber optic cable were built in place. Future infrastructure was planned for, like major highways. Enough forward thinking went into Westover Hills that 3 overpasses were pre-built, using money for Sea World development, to not slow current traffic to the theme park and neighboring facilities when that highway was being built. Speaking of Sea World, it was a project that almost didn’t happen. If it weren’t for Mr. Wender and his efforts, it wouldn’t have, which goes back to “get the job done when no one else can.”
Marty Wender is a salesman, he is not an idea man, but rather sells other people’s dreams and ideas. He is an implementer to get things done, especially when no one else can. Thanks Marty for your example and insight.
River Walk North – Museum Reach
Mr. Steven Schauer, External Communications Manager with the San Antonio River Authority gave us a personal tour of the recently opened Museum Reach stretch of the River Walk. The Museum Reach stretches 1.3 miles from the Holiday Inn El Tropicano Hotel to the Pearl Brewery redevelopment. Along the way, it passes VFW post 76, the San Antonio Museum of Art, 1221 Broadway (“the Concrete Mess”), and numerous other vacant or empty sites ready for development. There are also several art installations along the way, most of them under the bridges.
The Pearl has helped draw the project along. It and the Museum of Art are most likely the leading instigators for having the lock and dam system for extended boat travel. The lock and dam raise the boats 9 feet above the lower river’s water level. Both the Museum of Art and the Pearl are former breweries who use to use the San Antonio River’s water for their beverages. The Pearl gave the city $3 million to have a concrete island put in the river that will later be used as a stage for events for both the Pearl and The City of San Antonio. It is wired and has everything else needed, where amphitheater seating is along the Pearl’s bank. This is a great example of a public/private partnership
To encourage development along the river, the city has an incentive where the increase in property taxes will be waived for 15 years. [Personally, I am not sure this incentive is necessary to facilitate development along the Museum Reach, because the River Walk really doesn’t need any incentive for development. Development will happen anyway, as it is a great location and offers the public great spaces to gather, relax, exercise, or just stroll, because, what once was a blight is now a delight. If anything, the city should have done a gradual increase in tax assessments, this way the property owners don’t go into sticker shock when they get their property tax assessment 15 years from now and the city can start benefitting from the property tax revenue quicker, not just the sales taxes generated.] The$72 million project is starting to spur development along its banks, and will add (eventually) to the city’s tax revenue.
* Photograph was borrowed from the web, unknown site and photographer.
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