weston urban

In what will certainly be remembered as a landmark decision for downtown San Antonio’s future, the city has given the greenlight to an ambitious, unsolicited plan by Frost Bank and Weston Urban to both alter the city’s skyline and provide new and re-purposed development to the city. The cornerstone of the deal will be a new Frost Bank building, which has yet to be designed, but will be the city’s first new office tower in more than 25 years. In addition, the old Frost Bank Tower will be given to the city and allow the local government to consolidate existing office space, spread out over several buildings. The Frost Bank Tower will be renovated with nearly $30 million in upgrades and be renamed once the city takes ownership. You can read all the details of this complicated deal over at the Rivard Report.

Graham Weston has launched ambitious plans to change downtown San Antonio and we think this is just the beginning of his dream of rebuilding San Antonio into a world class city.

image courtesy of Spacemanbobby

In an unsolicited proposal to the city of San Antonio, Graham Weston’s Weston Urban and Frost Bank have joined forces to possibly bring a new building to downtown San Antonio. The proposal asks the city to turn over 5 downtown San Antonio buildings, including the San Fernando Gym, the Continental Hotel, and the Municipal Plaza building to Weston and Frost. In return, Frost would give the city ownership of the Frost Bank Building and parking garage at 11 W Houston Street. Weston Urban would then build Frost Bank a new headquarters at Flores and Houston Streets and with it new residential space, something the city has been pushing hard over the last few years.

The city would benefit from the deal by being able to consolidate offices spread out across several buildings, while bringing a new development to the city that promises to be an exciting addition to the downtown landscape. Currently, the city leases space in 5 separate building in downtown San Antonio and spends $3.4 million in lease payments for that space.

Graham Weston, founder of Rackspace has made no secret of the fact that he wants to propel downtown San Antonio into the future and make it a world-class downtown on par with cities of San Antonio’s size. If the city takes this offer, this could be a large step in that direction.

image (of Frost Bank Tower in Austin) courtesy of Kumar Appaiah