Proposals for the development in the middle of downtown’s tourist district signal...
Together, the proposed buildings at Hemisfair feature 56,090 square feet of retail across three floors, according to plans submitted Sept. 30 to the city’s Office of Historic Preservation. That would constitute one of the largest concentrations of retail downtown outside the Shops at Rivercenter shopping mall. By comparison, H-E-B’s South Flores Market grocery spans 12,000 square feet of space.
The three-story building, facing the River Walk and the entrance to the Convention Center, contains 30,800 square feet of retail in itself. The two buildings are part of the master-planned development Zachry Hospitality has struggled to get off the ground since 2017, when City Council voted to lease the firm 5.5 acres of land around Civic Park after HPARC chose it from among 11 companies that submitted bids to develop the site.
Zachry had always planned to partner with other developers on the project. It originally sought for NRP Group, a national developer with a strong presence in San Antonio, to build an apartment complex along Market Street. Debra Guerrero, NRP’s senior vice president of strategic partnerships and government relations, said last year that the firm dropped out after realizing it would be difficult to achieve rent levels high enough to cover the cost of building a high-rise tower.