A Dallas developer’s reported plans for one of San Antonio’s most historic downtown blocks appear to echo a failed 2013 proposal to top the landmark Joske’s building with a high-rise hotel.
On Monday and Tuesday, local news reports showed plans for a 14-story hotel stacked on top of the Joske’s building and within steps of Alamo Plaza.
JMJ Development, reports stated, wants to build a hotel on the 131-year-old Joske’s building at the Shops at Rivercenter, which is owned by Ashkenazy Acquisition Corporation of New York. One report also states the development would be a Hard Rock Hotel.
But the Dallas-based developer, reached by phone Tuesday morning, would not confirm those plans, and told the Rivard Report that details published in a San Antonio Express-News article are not accurate. “We don’t know anything,” a spokeswoman said.
An email exchange between Express-News reporter Richard Webner and JMJ spokeswoman Kimberly Rhodes posted on Twitter following publication of this article contradicts the developer’s claim to the Rivard Report, stating the project would be a Hard Rock Hotel.
The developer has not yet filed paperwork with the City, Councilman Roberto Treviño (D1) told the Rivard Report Wednesday.
Five years ago, another Dallas developer, BC Realty, proposed a 23-story hotel stacked atop the former Joske’s department store in a partnership with Shops at Rivercenter owner Ben Ashkenazy.
Conservationists staunchly opposed the project, and the U.S. National Park Service and others warned it could jeopardize the city’s chances of securing World Heritage status for San Antonio’s Spanish-colonial Missions. The UNESCO World Heritage Committee awarded the Missions the prestigious designation in July 2015.
The City’s Historic and Design Review Commission‘s (HDRC) recommended denying approval for the project even after the developer limited the structure’s height to 10 stories. Though the reduced-scale project had the support of City Manager Sheryl Sculley, it did not move forward.
San Antonio Hotel & Lodging Association Chairman Justin Holley said the new proposal for a luxury hotel in that location presents an opportunity to attract more business travel to the city.
“If it’s a full-service, higher-end luxury hotel, it could benefit us,” Holley said. “We have such a variety of hotels in the city, but not a lot of luxury hotels, so when big conventions come here they look for that variety, and that’s probably the missing link. When you look at the overall landscape of downtown, we could potentially absorb something like that.”
But Susan Beavin, president of the San Antonio Conservation Society, who said the news caught her by surprise on Monday, says her organization will fight the project as currently proposed.
“I just don’t think that’s an appropriate space [for a building of that height],” Beavin said. “If it’s four or five stories, then that might be totally different. Because there’s nothing else around it that’s that height until you go to the Convention Center. But there, where you have the Menger and Crockett [hotels], there’s nothing of that scale.”
Beavin said she wasn’t yet sure how such a structure could affect the San Antonio Missions’ status as a World Heritage site. But with all eyes on the Alamo redevelopment plan, she said a controversial hotel development could divert attention away from that project.
JMJ Development was founded by Timothy Barton in 1990 as a privately held real estate firm known for developing luxury residences and commercial projects in the United States and around the world. The Dallas-based firm is currently planning a high-rise apartment tower on the River Walk at Villita Street and Jack White Way.
Barton has worked on Donald Trump projects for years, according to a Forbes article about his work on a “fake” Trump tower in Russia, and JMJ Hospitality was named as developer for a proposed Le Diamond Ivana Trump project that was shelved in 2009.
In recent years, Ashkenazy has been bringing more entertainment venues to the downtown mall, including Sea Life Aquarium and Legoland Discovery Center, planned for 2019. The 1,000-room Marriott Rivercenter Hotel anchors one end of the mall. Ashkenazy did not respond to requests for more information about the planned hotel.
The Hard Rock organization has been focusing more on its hotel and casino business, and less on its restaurants, since opening a Hard Rock Hotel in New York City in 2016, and most recently in Atlantic City. The company website lists 21 hotels in the U.S., Mexico, and Canada, with two more coming soon to Atlanta and Hartford, Connecticut.
I suppose there’s a reason that the Joske’s building isn’t being considered for an Alamo museum? It would certainly make moving the Cenotaph make sense as well as a dignified welcome to the Plaza.
What about moving the Institute of Texan Cultures there? It’s so isolated where it is. This would expose it to more people and open the current site for something more appropriate
You mean you haven’t heard of “Battle for the Alamo” it’s a museum located in what was the basement level of Joske’s with lots of historical artifacts.
Gotta get down there to that, thanks R Mcginnes!
Moving the ITC above it sounds even more intriguing as it bops around my brain, would love to see a discussion here or at a Pearl event about this!
I truly believe this would not fly (maybe 2 floors added, but nothing more). HDRC, thankfully keeps this city historic, a rare gift in Texas!
Rick: I would hate to see the Institute of Texan Cultures moved. I have such fond memories of visiting it as a child. What’s wrong with walking or biking to see it? Also has free parking.
What’s in it for Scully to continue to sell out SA’s history? AGAIN, thank you HDRC and the Conservancy Society!
I would miss that sharp-edged building too. But moving the ITC to the ol’ Joskes sounds intriguing. A heckuva lot more foot traffic, and like Rick and R Mcginnes point out, quite relevant to this area. The Tower of the Americas will still be around to celebrate our opening-up-to-bigger-stuff at Hemisfair ’68!
Thank you for this report, Shari. I vote “no!”. Please watch and report on our city manager, to help us ensure she doesn’t just plan to overrule in favor of a luxury hotel or a market-will-bear rate housing (we still need more affordable housing for lower and middle income residents) I can see myself supporting that proposed ballot initiative, just so the popular vote can overrule her! (hint to our city council: Start looking for a new city manager if she overuses her executive privilege again. We elected y’all, not her)
And since there’s a heckuva lot more tourist and general traffic here then at the current ITC location, Rick’s suggestion sounds intriguing. I do not want to jeopardize our UNESCO World Heritage status, and an improved, relocated ITC would strengthen that cause. Bring on more historical-tourism (get that “entertainment district” up and running for Ripley’s already!)
You can bet that Susan Bevins and her San Antonio Conservation Society will always fight for what is best for the people of our city. They have done so for nearly a century, stepping in time and again to save and reclaim important parts of who and what we are as a city. It’s our Conservation Society, not politicians or developers who have made the difference between our city and all others who follow our lead. These quick-buck “Trump-style” Dallas developers will soon learn what San Antonians already know. Not everything has a price.
Thank you!
I agree with your particular and general sentiments. But Susan Beavin claimed that nothing else around there is of such an unprecedented and inappropriate height. The truth is otherwise. The historians know there’s already a 200-foot hotel tower every bit as close to the Alamo. Has been since the 1920s. Conservationists apparently figured out a way to live with it and either forget about it or omit it.
https://www.emporis.com/buildings/118208/emily-morgan-hotel-san-antonio-tx-usa
Real estate developers and the tourist mob have absolutely destroyed downtown San Antonio over the last forty to fifty years. It is sickening.
A terrible idea! We are discussing removing the tacky things in front of the Alamo and putting in a Hard Rock???