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

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San Antonio leaders say those improvements will likelyt bring more people into the area and could spark additionalrevitalization projects. The GSA says it plans to direct $61.34 million from the $787 billiob American Recovery & Reinvestment Act, or stimuluxs package, to renovate the Hippolitpo Garcia Federal Buildingand U.S. That eight-story building is located at the cornedr of East Houston and Alamostreets and, was constructed in the 1930s as part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’zs Depression-era public works The nearly 259,000-square-foot building is currently liste d onthe .
GSA spokeswoman Shala Geer-Smith says it still houses some bankruptcyt judges and some smallef federal agency offices but much of the space availablw for occupancy is void of Among the tenants that have left the building isthe , whichj moved its San Antonio field office into a new Northwesty Side facility in 2007. Geer-Smith says federao officials will “move pretty quickly” to begibn the process of renovating the historic SanAntonio structure. That rehabilitation, she adds, “will give us an opportunityy to bring the building back up and get somemajor tenants.” Thosde prospective tenants will have to be federa entities.
But Geer-Smith says there coulr be a “variety” of potential users, includinfg agencies that are looking to expanxd or those whose commercial leases maybe expiring. Kimberly Gatlegy is senior vice president and director of researcghfor , a San Antonio-based commerciao real estate company. She says efforta by GSA to rehab the historic federal buildingb and lure more tenants could creatw some vacancy issues in other SanAntonio buildings. But Gatlehy says she expects there will be limitesnegative impact. The upside to a renovated federal building? “Itr could foster a revitalization downtown,” Gatley adds.
San Antonik Mayor Phil Hardberger, a former judge, says the timeworbn federal building needssome attention. “It’s a great building for its era. But it’sx outdated in many ways and not very efficientf to putit mildly,” Hardberger explains. Like Gatley, Hardbergert believes a rehabilitated federal buildingv could spur additional revitalization in the He also says the San Antonio buildingh could prove to be a producing more energy than it uses with theright improvements.
“There’s no doubt” that the historic courthousr “needs to be modernized,” Congressmanm Charlie Gonzalez, D-San Antonio, tells the Business The GSA project list also includesnearly $1.2 millionh worth of “limited scope” improvements for the Spears Judicia l Training Center, located in the 7.7-acre San Antonio Federal Complexz inside the downtown HemisFair “I am pleased to see this funding cominh into Bexar County, along with the numerou s jobs this project will create,” says Gonzalezz about the GSA’s spending plan and the two San Antonio That plan includes $132 million for Austin.
More than $116 milliomn of that is pegged for the construction of anew multi-stor federal courthouse. Houston is set to receive nearly $112 million in funds from the GSA Morethan $109 million wouls be used to make improvements to the G.T. Leland Federal “Austin was further along in theird plans, so the funding could go directlyg to the kindof shovel-readh construction projects toward which (the stimulus package was targeted,” Gonzalez explains.
But the San Antonio congressman addsthat “in an effort to move Bexat County ahead, we have requested an additional $4 million in (fiscapl year 2010) funding to complete the desigj of and move forward on building a new (federal)