San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)
REVITALIZING COMMERCE
Skyline: Hotel, apartment projects bringing a contemporary look to a downtown block.
Apair of modern buildings rising along the River Walk will mix up the landscape in downtown San Antonio, revitalizing a block near City Hall and injecting more contemporary designs and dining into the city’s urban core.
The luxury Canopy by Hilton San Antonio Riverwalk hotel at the corner of East Commerce and North St. Mary’s streets opened last week.
Construction on the octagonal Floodgate apartment building nearby is advancing.
Designs were laid out in 2015 for the hotel and in 2016 for the Floodgate.
Some buildings previously on the East Commerce block were vacant; others were home to a hot dog shop, a payday lender and a convenience store. Some of the structures were razed and others restored. Among them was the Witte building, which Esquire Tavern owner and Canopy developer Chris Hill renovated.
House of Má and Hugman’s Oasis, a combination tiki bar and Vietnamese restaurant, will open in the Witte building. Hugman’s is named for Robert H.H. Hugman, an architect widely regarded as the “Father of the River Walk.”
The 21-story Canopy, which opened Thursday, is among four scheduled to open by the end of this year; before now, a new hotel had not been built since 2018. Domingo Restaurant and Otro Bar are opening in the 195-room hotel.
A 2016 report put the estimated cost of the Canopy between $55 million and $60 million. Hill declined to comment on the project’s cost.
The new attractions and activity will “make a revitalized beginning” for the stretch of the River Walk, he said.
Nearby, crews have started pouring vertical piers for the 16-story Floodgate after nearly a year of demolition and work to stabilize the Esquire Tavern and Witte Building, according to developer Keller Henderson.
Named after a nearby bridge and floodgate over the San Antonio River, the upscale Floodgate will include 60 apartments, three penthouses and 10,000 square feet of restaurant space. It’s expected to be finished in March.
The project is among the biggest residential investments downtown in recent years. Henderson said in a 2017 interview that he decided to increase the building’s height from 10 stories because the multifamily market in the inner city was expanding.
“As San Antonio’s redevelopment projects, from lower Broadway to the Lone Star District, continue to move forward successfully, I still feel it is the most relevant and dynamic market in the city,” Henderson said Monday.
He said in 2017 he planned to rent the units at an average price of $4 per square foot, making the $43 million Floodgate the priciest apartment complex in the city.
Henderson said Monday he plans to rent the apartments at market rate.
The building will include a private dining room, fitness center, yoga and cycling studio, pool and pet lawn, among other amenities.
Both developments will receive city incentives.
For Hill’s Canopy project and Witte restoration, City Council members approved a $7.4 million package in 2016 for historic restoration and public improvements.
The Floodgate is set to receive an estimated $3.9 million in tax rebates, city and San Antonio Water System fee waivers and loans through the Center City Housing Incentive Policy, or CCHIP.
CCHIP stemmed from former Mayor Julián Castro’s Decade of Downtown initiative, which was designed to spark development in the area.
It worked, setting off a wave of construction of apartments, office and retail space. But critics contended much of that housing was out of reach of many of the city’s residents.
In 2018, City Council members overhauled the housing incentive and another program then known as the Inner City Reinvestment and Infill Policy, or ICRIP.
CCHIP expired in December, and there are no plans to renew it, city spokeswoman Kelly Saunders said.
ICRIP, now known as the City of San Antonio Fee Waiver Program, is still in effect.