Office building to become apartments
Constructed in the 1920s, the space will be turned into 63 luxury units in span of a year
An office building adjacent to the River Walk is set to be converted into high-end apartments.
Plans call for turning office space at the Travis Building at 405 N. St. Mary’s St. into 63 luxury units, according to a filing with the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation.
A second phase will involve adding amenities for residents and retail space to the 10-story structure, which has an attached parking garage. The roughly 76,000-square-foot building was constructed in the 1920s.
The renovations are expected to cost $8 million and take a year to complete, starting Oct. 31, according to the filing.
Harris Bay, a California firm with plans to build a boutique hotel adjacent to the Travis Building, is listed as the owner.
Iconic Travis Bldg LLC bought the building this summer. Deed records also indicate the entity has the same address as Harris Bay.
The property was valued at $6.3 million this year, according to Bexar Appraisal District records.
The proposed 112-room hotel nearby will feature a rooftop bar, restaurant and retail, Harris Bay co-founder Jake Harris said last spring. Harris didn’t respond to inquiries Tuesday about plans for the Travis Building.
The firm is also behind plans for a mixed-use development on the East Side, apartments and retail at the Antiques Warehouse on South Flores Street and apartments and possibly retail at warehouses near GW Brackenridge High School.
Harris Bay’s downtown developments would join a slate of other projects in the urban core, including plans to turn the derelict Hedrick Building at 601 N. St. Mary’s St. into apartments and retail and to convert the former Continental Hotel at 322 W. Commerce St. into housing.
The Travis Building and the adjacent site Harris Bay owns sit
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Travis Park
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Chuck E. Cheese looks much as it always did, but there are key changes.
Temperatures are checked upon entry. Masks are required. The kid-check program at the front door used to be a hand stamp; now, to minimize contact, adults and children take a selfie to show upon exiting. Children under 10, under state rules, are exempt from the mask mandate.
Some tables are blocked off, and games are spaced to allow distance between customers. Cashiers are protected behind plastic shields, and salads are packaged rather than self-service. Hospitalgrade air filters are being installed at the suggestion of employees, McKillips said.
The Ticket Muncher, where customers would feed bags of tickets won playing arcade games, has been rendered obsolete. Customers now use a card to play games and redeem prizes such as plush unicorns, costume jewelry and ring toss games. In addition to minimizing contact, a benefit of the electronic card is saving time checking out, McKillips said.
Chuck E. Cheese, which derives 55 percent of sales from entertainment and 15 percent from birthday parties, was particularly hard hit by the pandemic.
Parent company CEC Entertainment filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in June but is on track to emerge as early as December, McKillips said. About 40 restaurants have closed. There are 515 company-owned locations in the U.S., of which 315 have reopened.
Each location now employs between four and eight people, down from 28 to 35 employees before restrictions were placed on the business, McKillips said.
Chuck E. Cheese also is trying to reach customers who may not be comfortable getting out yet, offering daily afternoon “fun breaks” and other programming on its YouTube channel. Specials for delivery or pickup incorporate games and other items for celebrating at home.
“We’re an entertainment family destination,” McKillips said. “When we shut down, we had to be a food-first restaurant. We weren’t built for that.”
The company quickly signed deals with Uber Eats, DoorDash and Grubhub to shift to delivery, but there were challenges.
“Chuck E. Cheese is not in the consideration set for most people’s pizza ordering,” McKillips said. “We had to develop a brand that was meeting a more sophisticated pizza customer.”
Enter Pasqually’s Pizza & Wings, a virtual kitchen brand based on a character from Munch’s band: a chef who hails from Naples. The pizzas, baked at Chuck E. Cheese locations, use more sauce, two cheeses and Italian spices. The twice-baked wings feature flavors such as chili lime or lemon pepper.
“Innovation has been so important to this brand during the pandemic,” McKillips said.