By Edmond Ortiz
The company that plans to remake the former Lone Star Brewery site wants to know what community members want to see at the future redevelopment.
What is happening
Executives from Southstar, the New Braunfels-based firm that finished the acquisition of the 32-acre property in January, held a meeting March 30 with more than 80 residents of the Roosevelt Park neighborhood, which surrounds the complex where beer was produced from the end of Prohibition in the early 1930s until 1996.
Over the years, a number of developers had taken over the former Lone Star Brewery factory, offering varying visions and plans of revival only to be tripped up by financial or other challenges.
Southstar, which mortgaged the Southtown site through local firm GreyStreet Partners, is responsible for communities such as Vida and Mission del Lago, both further on the South Side, and New Braunfels’ Mayfair master-planned, mixed-use development.
Southstar now wants to repurpose the former beer-producing facility with ideas from community members who will live, work or recreate next to the finished product.
The developer is beginning that process by providing an online survey that anyone can answer. The survey, which features questions about what locals want to see at the site or how the perceive the property, will be available until April 13.
What they are saying
Thad Rutherford, Southstar’s president and CEO, told the meeting crowd at the Roosevelt Park clubhouse that while he has no firm plans yet in mind, he is excited about the potential at the former Lone Star Brewery, and that it is important to get community members involved from the start.
Rutherford has also said it will not be easy, given the need to acquire other abutting parcels, in order to make the redevelopment property a complete site for all to enjoy.
“This is what we do. This is our life. We love creating places. We love creating places that already have embedded history,” Rutherford said. “That’s also a big burden on our shoulders in a good way – a responsibility that we take very, very seriously.”
Meeting attendees were asked to write on Post-It Notes what they believe the former brewery site is – and is not, how the property should provide shared, public space, and what amenities that are currently missing from the community should be part of the riverside redevelopment.
Answers ran the gamut. Many residents envisioned a mixed-use redevelopment that could include different dining and entertainment options, community gathering spaces, family-friendly spots, small neighborhood service-oriented businesses such as physicians or groceries, even a mix of housing.
Some attendees said the redevelopment should be walkable, accessible for various forms of transit, active, artistic, affordable, safe and sustainable. Rutherford has already indicated that whatever happens with the property, it should connect with VIA Metropolitan Transit’s Rapid Green Line, an under-development, north-south bus corridor stretching from the Brooks Transit Center to the San Antonio International Airport.
A few other residents expressed their wish for the Lone Star Brewery redevelopment to integrate nearby historic places, such as the San Antonio River and the historic Missions, and surrounding South Side neighborhoods such as Lone Star, King William and Lavaca.
Other residents said they did not want the Lone Star Brewery redevelopment to become like Pearl, where a few guests knocked the paid parking situation, prices of services and products offered by various merchants, and a perception that Pearl was exclusive and more of a destination for tourists.
A note offered by one guest read: “It is an opportunity to show that an economically healthy, culturally diverse and community-driven, mixed-use development is possible.”
The meeting was led by Elizabeth Fauerso, a former executive at Potluck Hospitality and at Pearl, where she was instrumental in overseeing the transformation of the former Pearl Brewery into a dining and retail destination. She now owns and operates EBF Development and Design Studio.
Fauerso said she residents offered an array of ideas, keeping all sorts of community members in mind.
“You guys are talking about a diversity of uses for a diversity of users,” she added.
Resident Marianne Jurayj agreed with other audience members that the Lone Star redevelopment should be different from Pearl, and be accessible to pedestrians, bicyclists, dog owners and people of all ages.
Jurayj added that the redeveloped site should be connected to both the river, and perhaps linked to Roosevelt Park via some kind of bridge. She also agreed that the exterior look and feel should blend into the neighborhood.
“I feel like they don’t want just big chain stores. They want to have a certain feel. The vibe, I think, is important,” she added.
Ruth Bushman, creative development director at Southtown’s Caliente Hot Glass Studio, said she was heartened by the number of community stakeholders offering ideas for the reimagining of the Lone Star Brewery site.
“It’s exciting to see how many locals showed up here. We have a vibrant community of people,” Bushman said. “This is one of the few walkable neighborhoods in San Antonio, and this space coming in could be really amazing for it.”
Jeff Hunt, Roosevelt Park Neighborhood Association president, said he was impressed by Southstar’s efforts to engage area residents and gather community input before formulating prospective designs.
“We found that this is a very different approach than the other previous developers who came to us with renderings and ideas. They made a lot of big promises that they obviously couldn’t keep right,” Hunt said. “I think this was a really good first step.”
Fauerso said after Southstar gathers responses from the online survey, the company will spend the rest of the year creating different designs on what is feasible at the old brewery site.
“Share the survey with anybody that’s in your neighborhood – your family, your friends, coworkers – anyone that has a stake in this area,” she added.
