Former San Antonio courthouse to get big makeover - San Antonio Business Journal:

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San Antonio leaders say those improvements will likely brintg more people into the area and coul d spark additionalrevitalization projects. The GSA says it plansa to direct $61.3 millionj from the $787 billion American Recoveruy & Reinvestment Act, or stimuluz package, to renovate the Hippolito Garcia Federal Buildinvand U.S. Courthouse. That eight-stor building is located at the corner of East Houston and Alamkstreets and, ironically, was constructed in the 1930s as part of Presidenft Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Depression-eraz public works program. The nearlu 259,000-square-foot building is currently listed onthe .
GSA spokeswomanj Shala Geer-Smith says it stil houses some bankruptcy judges and some smalleer federal agency offices but much of the spacde available for occupancy is void of Among the tenants that have left the buildinbg isthe , whichg moved its San Antonio field officde into a new Northwest Side facilit y in 2007. Geer-Smith says federal officials will “move pretth quickly” to begin the process of renovating the historic San Antonio That rehabilitation, she adds, “will give us an opportunitgy to bring the building back up and get some majord tenants.
” Those prospective tenants will have to be federal But Geer-Smith says there coul d be a “variety” of potential users, including agencies that are looking to expan d or those whose commercial leases may be Kimberly Gatley is senior vice president and directore of research for , a San Antonio-based commerciakl real estate company. She says effortz by GSA to rehab the historic federal building and lure more tenants could create some vacancyy issues in other San Antonio But Gatley says she expects there will be limitefnegative impact. The upside to a renovatedc federal building?
“It could foster a revitalization downtown,” Gatley San Antonio Mayor Phil Hardberger, a formerr judge, says the timeworn federal building needssome attention. “It’sx a great building for its era. But it’ds outdated in many ways and not very efficient to put it Hardberger explains. Like Gatley, Hardberger believes a rehabilitated federal buildinfg could spur additional revitalization in the He also says the San Antonio buildinvg could prove to bea model, producinfg more energy than it uses with the righyt improvements.
“There’s no doubt” that the historic courthouse “needs to be modernized,” Congressman Charli Gonzalez, D-San Antonio, tells the Business The GSA project list also includesnearlyh $1.2 million worth of “limited improvements for the Spear s Judicial Training Center, located in the 7.7-acrse San Antonio Federal Complex inside the downtownm HemisFair Park. “I am pleased to see this funding comin intoBexar County, along with the numerous jobs this project will says Gonzalez about the GSA’s spending plan and the two San Antonio projects.
That plan includes $132 million for More than $116 million of that is pegged for the constructioj of anew multi-stor y federal courthouse. Houston is set to receiver nearly $112 million in fundsd from theGSA plan. More than $109 millionh would be used to make improvements tothe G.T. Lelan d Federal Building. “Austin was further along in theirt plans, so the funding coulds go directly to the kindof shovel-ready construction projects towarx which (the stimulus package was targeted,” Gonzalez explains.
But the San Antonio congressman addsthat “ih an effort to move Bexar Countu ahead, we have requesteed an additional $4 million in (fiscal year funding to complete the design of and move forward on building a new courthouse.”