By Madison Iszler, Staff writer | San Antonio Express-News (SAEN), 2024-08-09 11:00:13
由生成式 AI 翻译，译文内容可能不准确或不完整，以原文为准。
得克萨斯大学圣安东尼奥分校（The University of Texas at San Antonio，UTSA）即将购入市中心一栋地标性办公楼，以扩大该校的占地面积。作为其未来几年在市中心容纳数千名学生和教职工计划的一部分，此举堪称雄心勃勃，有可能将以旅游业为中心的城市核心区改造成更接近社区的地方。
他们的目标是，到 2028 年，约有 1 万名学生在市中心生活、学习和开展研究。亚利桑那州立大学（Arizona State University）在凤凰城市中心建立校区后，该市中心发生了翻天覆地的变化，UTSA 的计划正是受此启发。
UTSA 校领导表示，拟议收购位于圣玛丽街 700 号北街的河滨广场 1 号（One Riverwalk Place）将是朝着这一方向迈出的又一步。
“我们对市中心的愿景一直集中在发展，以扩大我们的教育和劳动力合作机会——我们如何使我们的学术项目与圣安东尼奥的劳动力需求保持一致，然后与企业、社区合作伙伴以及市中心的其它合作伙伴一起制定战略？”UTSA 教务长兼学术事务执行副校长希瑟·希普利（Heather Shipley）说道。
到目前为止，UTSA 已经为该地区带来了数千名学生，并且在过去五年中将其在市中心的房地产持有量增加了一倍多。
其房产包括位于市中心西部的校区；靠近中央图书馆的西南校区；耗资 9180 万美元、占地 16.7 万平方英尺的圣佩德罗一号楼（San Pedro I），该楼由数据科学学院（School of Data Science）和国家安全合作中心（National Security Collaboration Center）占用；以及耗资 1.31 亿美元、占地 18 万平方英尺的圣佩德罗二号楼（San Pedro II），该楼将用于技术和科学项目及研究。
UTSA 房地产、建筑和规划副总裁科琳娜·格林（Corrina Green）拒绝透露该校将为这座建于 1981 年左右的河滨广场 1 号楼支付多少费用，理由是她正在与该房产的所有者和管理者——前身为美国联合服务汽车协会房地产公司（USAA Real Estate Co.）的 Affinius Capital 和 Patrinely 集团——进行谈判。
UTSA 拟议收购这座 18 层的大楼之际，正值市中心写字楼市场陷入困境。受疫情影响，对办公空间的需求下降、房产价值暴跌以及利率高企，业主们遭受了沉重打击。USAA 于 2022 年搬出河滨广场 1 号楼，此后该楼的评估价值暴跌 37.3%，至 2225 万美元。
除了河滨广场 1 号楼外，该校还打算从圣安东尼奥的 GrayStreet Partners 公司手中收购圣佩德罗一号楼旁边的一组破旧建筑和停车位。这两笔交易预计将于今年晚些时候完成，届时 UTSA 将在市中心拥有约 48 英亩、总计 210 万平方英尺的土地，这将使这所公立大学成为市中心最大的房地产所有者之一。
其中一些房产可能会易手。该校将拆除半球公园（Hemisfair）的德克萨斯文化研究所（Institute of Texan Cultures），并在其西南校区或阿拉莫附近为该博物馆建造新址。为了支付费用，UTSA 将征求对该博物馆位于塞萨尔·查韦斯大道（César E. Chávez Blvd.）801 号东街、占地 13.5 英亩的场址进行开发的建议，马刺队（Spurs）有意在此建造一座球馆。
建筑规划
UTSA 将在这座近 26.5 万平方英尺的河滨广场 1 号楼的六层楼中设立学术部门和支持服务部门。
格林表示，此举将整合分散在不同建筑中的项目，并为 UTSA 正在创建的另一个学院腾出空间，该学院将开设人工智能、网络安全、计算、数据科学和其它学科，以及扩展艺术课程。
格林说，该楼有六到七层楼被企业租用，该校将继续出租这些空间。该校将评估一楼的零售选择，其余楼层将作为灵活空间，可供更多大学员工或其它非大学租户使用。
格林说，大约一年前，Affinius 和 Patrinely 的高管联系了该校官员，以了解他们是否有兴趣购买这座大楼。该楼三分之二的面积是空的，他们已经翻新了其中一些楼层，预计将员工迁入，但最终决定不这样做。
“他们说，‘听着，我们并没有真正推销这栋楼。我们并没有真正将其挂牌出售，但我们真的认为它符合我们所听到的这所大学想要做的事情。我们想成为一个好的社区合作伙伴。我们知道你们可以搬进去。我们知道你们可以激活它，你们可以让学生们来到市中心，’”格林说。“所以我们开始考虑这件事，觉得值得一试。”
格林说，由于近年来建筑成本飙升，拥有一个可以随时搬入的空间“在财务上似乎是加速城市核心区发展的一个更好的计划”。
记者未能立即联系到 Affinius 的发言人置评。
由于公司转向远程办公或选择在员工居住地附近租赁办公空间，市中心的写字楼受到了尤为沉重的打击。根据商业房地产公司 Partners 的数据，第二季度，市中心 590 万平方英尺办公空间的空置率为 24.3%，而市场整体空置率为 17.5%。
创建一个学区
此次收购需要获得德克萨斯大学系统董事会（UT System Board of Regents）的批准，该委员会将于本月晚些时候对此进行投票。
格林说，在此之后，UTSA 计划开始着手制定其学术和研究项目的计划，以及主要在其市中心房产的住房、餐饮和娱乐选择，不过其位于北边的主校区也将包括在内。
她说，她已经与开发商——包括市中心的 Weston Urban 公司——讨论过为 UTSA 正在准备迎接的大量学生和员工提供住房的问题。
Weston Urban 联合创始人格雷厄姆·韦斯顿（Graham Weston）在 UTSA 城市核心区的發展中发挥了重要作用。
大约六年前，他建议 UTSA 将其在市中心的资产出售给另一所高等教育机构，因为“当时似乎没有任何真正的努力来释放其潜力，”韦斯顿在 2021 年的一次采访中说。韦斯顿曾参观过位于纽约市罗斯福岛（Roosevelt Island）的康奈尔科技园区（Cornell Tech），并对其项目赞不绝口。
韦斯顿会见了 UTSA 校长泰勒·伊格米（Taylor Eighmy），两人一拍即合。出售 UTSA 市中心校区的计划没有发生，韦斯顿后来向数据科学学院捐赠了 1500 万美元。
他的公司也在建造面向 UTSA 学生和教职工的住房。在数据科学学院对面，Weston Urban 正在翻新历史建筑并建造一座高层建筑，以提供约 300 套公寓、零售和办公空间。该公司与贝克萨尔县（Bexar County）的一个部门合作开发了这个项目，该项目提供房产税减免，以换取至少一半的单元留给收入低于该地区收入中位数的居民。
Weston Urban 正在对主街（Main Avenue）300 号一座拥有约 350 套公寓的综合大楼进行最后的修整，并计划在市中心的其它房产开发更多住宅。
“如果我们能让背着书包的学生、居民和下班后的人们聚集在一起，这对市中心来说将是一个我们一直无法拼凑起来的组合，”Weston Urban 联合创始人兰迪·史密斯（Randy Smith）在 2022 年的一次采访中说。
格林说，与开发商就住房选择进行的讨论将继续成为 UTSA 所谓的“学区规划流程”的一部分。
“我们正在制定一个计划，以确保我们能在市中心为这些学生提供支持，尽管我们可能还没有建造大学所有的住房，”格林说。
得克萨斯大学圣安东尼奥分校计划收购位于市中心的河滨广场 1 号办公楼。
得克萨斯大学圣安东尼奥分校计划收购位于市中心的河滨广场 1 号办公楼。
得克萨斯大学圣安东尼奥分校计划收购位于市中心的河滨广场 1 号办公楼。
得克萨斯大学圣安东尼奥分校计划收购位于市中心的河滨广场 1 号办公楼。
点击查看原文：UTSA to buy major office building amid downtown San Antonio expansion
UTSA to buy major office building amid downtown San Antonio expansion
The University of Texas at San Antonio is set to buy a prominent office building downtown, expanding the university’s footprint as part of its effort to fill the city center with thousands of students and employees in the coming years — an ambitious endeavor that could transform the tourist-centric urban core into something closer to a neighborhood.
The goal is to have some 10,000 students living, attending classes and conducting research downtown by 2028, a plan inspired by the transformation of downtown Phoenix after Arizona State University built a campus there.
UTSA leaders say the proposed purchase of One Riverwalk Place at 700 N. St. Mary’s St. would be another step in that direction.
“Our vision for downtown has focused on growth to expand our educational and workforce collaboration opportunities — how do we align our academic programs with the workforce needs of San Antonio and then do that strategically with the businesses and community partners and other partners in downtown?” said Heather Shipley, provost and executive vice president for academic affairs at UTSA.
So far, UTSA has brought several thousand students to the area — and has more than doubled its downtown real-estate holdings over the past five years.
Its properties includes its campus west of downtown; its Southwest campus near Central Library; San Pedro I, a $91.8 million, 167,000-square-foot building occupied by the School of Data Science and the National Security Collaboration Center; and San Pedro II, a $131 million, 180,000-square-foot building that will be used for technology and science programs and research.
Corrina Green, associate vice president of real estate, construction and planning at UTSA, declined to disclose what the university would pay for the circa-1981 One Riverwalk Place building, citing ongoing negotiations with Affinius Capital, formerly known as USAA Real Estate Co., and Patrinely Group, which own and manage the property.
UTSA’s proposed purchase of the 18-story building comes at a punishing time for the downtown office market. Owners have been hammered by declining demand for space, plunging property values and high interest rates in the wake of the pandemic. USAA moved out of One Riverwalk Place in 2022 and the building’s assessed value has since plummeted 37.3% to $22.25 million.
Along with One Riverwalk Place, the university also is seeking to buy a cluster of dilapidated buildings and parking spaces next to San Pedro I from San Antonio firm GrayStreet Partners. After both deals close, which is expected to happen later this year, UTSA would own roughly 48 acres totaling 2.1 million square feet in the downtown area, making the public university one of the largest owners of downtown real estate.
Some of that property may change hands. The university will demolish the Institute of Texan Cultures at Hemisfair and build a home for the museum at its Southwest Campus or near the Alamo. To pay for it, UTSA will seek proposals for developing the 13½-acre site the museum has occupied at 801 E. César E. Chávez Blvd., where the Spurs are eyeing constructing an arena.
Building plans
UTSA would fill six floors of the nearly 265,000-square-foot One Riverwalk Place with academic departments and support services.
That move would combine programs dispersed across various buildings, and free up room for another college UTSA is creating for artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, computing, data science and other disciplines as well as expanding arts offerings, Green said.
Six or seven floors are occupied by businesses and the university would continue leasing out that space, Green said. The university would evaluate retail options for the ground floor, and the remaining floors would be flexible space that could be occupied by more university employees or other non-university tenants.
Affinius and Patrinely executives reached out to university officials about a year ago to gauge their interest in buying the building, Green said. Two-thirds of it was empty, and they had renovated some of the floors in anticipation of moving employees in but ultimately decided not to do so.
“They said, ‘Listen, we’re not really marketing this. We’re not really putting it up for sale, but we really think that it aligns with what we’ve heard the university wants to do. We want to be a good community partner. We know you can move in there. We know you could activate it, you could get students downtown,’” Green said. “And so we started looking at it, and felt it was worth pursuing.”
Because construction costs have soared in recent years, having space that’s ready to move into “seemed financially a better plan to accelerate that growth in the urban core,” Green said.
A spokesperson for Affinius did not immediately respond to an inquiry.
Downtown office buildings have been hit particularly hard by companies shifting to remote work or opting to lease space closer to where their employees live. The vacancy rate across the 5.9 million square feet of office space in the city center was 24.3% in the second quarter, compared with the market-wide rate of 17.5%, according to commercial real estate firm Partners.
Creating a district
The acquisition requires approval from the UT System Board of Regents, which will vote on it later this month.
After that happens, UTSA plans to begin hashing out plans for its academic and research programs as well as housing, dining and recreation options primarily at the university’s downtown properties, although its Main Campus on the far North Side would be included, too, Green said.
She said she has already talked to developers — including downtown firm Weston Urban — about housing for the influx of students and employees UTSA is gearing up for.
Graham Weston, co-founder of Weston Urban, has played a big role in UTSA’s growth in the urban core.
About six years ago, he proposed that UTSA sell its downtown holdings to another higher ed institution because “it didn’t really seem like there was any real effort afoot to do the hard work to unlock its potential,” Weston said in an interview in 2021. Weston had visited Cornell Tech on New York City’s Roosevelt Island and was enamored with its programs.
Weston met with UTSA President Taylor Eighmy and the two hit it off. A sale of UTSA’s downtown campus didn’t happen, and Weston later donated $15 million to the School of Data Science.
His firm is also building housing geared toward UTSA students and faculty. Across from the School of Data Science, Weston Urban is renovating historic buildings and erecting a high-rise for around 300 apartments, retail and office space. The firm partnered with an arm of Bexar County on the project, which provides a property tax exemption in exchange for reserving at least half of the units for residents making less than the area median income.
Weston Urban is putting the finishing touches on a complex with about 350 apartments at 300 Main Avenue as well, and has plans for more residential development at other properties downtown.
“If we can have backpacks and residents and folks after work, that is a cocktail for downtown that we just have not been able to piece together,” Weston Urban co-founder Randy Smith said in an interview in 2022.
Green said discussions with developers about housing options will continue to be part of what UTSA is calling its “district planning process.”
“We are working on a plan to make sure we can support those students when we get them down there, even though we may not be building university-owned housing just yet,” Green said.
The University of Texas at San Antonio plans to buy the One Riverwalk Place office building downtown.
The University of Texas at San Antonio plans to buy the One Riverwalk Place office building downtown.
The University of Texas at San Antonio plans to buy the One Riverwalk Place office building downtown.
The University of Texas at San Antonio plans to buy the One Riverwalk Place office building downtown.
By Madison Iszler, Staff writer, via San Antonio Express-News