A West Side treasure celebrates a new life
It made perfect sense that the Rev. Rob Mueller of Divine Redeemer Presbyterian Church took the occasion of a West Side blessing to reach back into the Old Testament for a story about the valley of the dry bones. During the holiest week of the year, as congregations praise Jesus’ resurrection, the pastor looked to Ezekiel as he prayed for the revival of the Basila Frocks building.
A soft, persistent rain fell over the Basila Frocks on Wednesday, offering its own blessing.
The building will need several more before a $6 million redevelopment project turns it into a modern, two-story, 20,000 square-foot space and an outdoor, mixed-use plaza.
The city of San Antonio committed about $1.2 million for the project from the tax increment reinvestment zone fund and its general fund.
It will offer spaces for offices, co-working spaces, a marketplace for vendors selling one-of-a-kind, handmade items and community gatherings.
It’s co-owned by Prosper West and the Dreamon Group and fueled by federal and local funding. Future tenants will pay down the mortgage.
Prosper West, formerly the Westside Development Corp., is a nonprofit economic development group.
Dream On is a private firm that describes itself as a fullservice family of businesses that develop, construct and does property management.
Several at the gathering praised both firms. Prosper West said Dreamon deserves credit for filling financial gaps to make the renovation of Basila Frocks possible.
The historic building at the corner of Martin and Zarzamora was once the dream of an immigrant family from Syria that came to San Antonio and opened a women’s garment factory.
They hired Mexican American women to sew ready-towear frocks, believed to be among the first sold off the rack.
It was the 1920s. The business thrived. When it fell on tough times, the couple sold the building.
They eventually bought it back and reopened for business.
Through the years, Basila Frocks housed a restaurant, a bar, a ballroom venue, an immigration law office, a wrestling gym and more. A lot of the neighborhood’s memories rest there.
It’s a shell now, but you can see its good bones, already steadied and ready to undergo transformation.
Workers in hard hats, architects and builders — with Prosper West and Dreamon leaders standing by — received an old-fashioned laying of hands.
Mueller’s prayer was beautiful.
“For those of us who are Christians,” he said, “this week is a journey from life through death to even greater life, and that’s exactly what we’re celebrating here today.”
In the Bible story, he said, Ezekiel worries about his people. He fears death and desolation.
The people of the West Side and their advocates worry, too. It’s an area of generational poverty now threatened by gentrification. Their zip code reveals more about their health than any genetic code could.
At one point, a developer sought to tear down the Basila Frocks to build a dollar store. Neighbors fought back. The building survived but remained vacant.
“Countless times, I’ve driven past this abandoned structure and asked, ‘Lord, can this building live? ’ ” Mueller said.
Others were just as emotional.
“The Basila Frocks is more than a building,” said Prosper West President and CEO Ramiro Gonzales. “It represents an ideal. It represents hope for the West Side.
“Seeing it fall into disrepair and decay hurt,” he said. “People start to lose hope in an area when they don’t see reinvestment.
“So, what today represents — what the renovation of this building represents — is a renewed hope and sense of revival.
“It’s not just development for the sake of development and for the sake of opportunity,” he said. “It’s really intended to be a hub, an economic and community hub.”
Some affordable housing advocates disagree.
They want to see public and private funding extended to an affordable housing complex, the rehabilitation of low-income homes and more done to fight off the displacement that gentrification brings.
In the case of Basila Frocks, though, even affordable housing champion District 5 City Councilwoman Teri Castillo gave her blessing to the project and praised its developer, Dreamon.
Castillo thanked Prosper West for being amenable and promising that the West Side community have access to the building for events and meetings.
A sign outside offers leasing information. “Call Janie,” that would be Janie V ill ar realm cc linc hie of Dream on ,“at 210-821-5858, Ext. 108.”
“It’s a short turnaround because we do have great bones in this building,” Gonzales said. “We just need to put in all the refinishing touches and all the systems,” such as plumbing, electrical, heating and air-conditioning.
“There’s still some big challenges ahead of us,” he acknowledged about the West Side.
But for one day, a group of people gathered in the rain to celebrate a beloved building’s revival, that it wasn’t torn down for a dollar store.
“Today we are here to say, ‘Yes, these bones shall live again,’ ” Pastor Mueller said.
And he prayed for the West Side, that it may share in the