Brandt Bakke was in Pearsall one afternoon when his father instructed they go for a drive and “look at some dirt.”
Bakke steered the automotive towards Southtown, the place he wished to point out his dad the Blue Star Arts Complex and the residential and business progress within the space south of downtown.
Instead, the intersection of Roosevelt Avenue and Lone Star Boulevard caught their eye and their imaginations.
“What drew me to it originally was the tunnel outlets and just the way the park, Lone Star, the railroad was kind of all just blending together, and it just seemed like such a cool corner,” Bakke stated.
Now the developer household — Brandt Bakke, his father Phil and uncle Joe — need to make the parcel of land that sits a stone’s throw from the ruins of the Lone Star Brewery website and Roosevelt Park close to the San Antonio River much more attention-grabbing.
They set about making a plan to accumulate the property and switch it into the type of enterprise that neighbors had as soon as anticipated would recast the defunct brewery and draw extra funding.
“I think we all are hoping that if it can’t be Lone Star that starts the final transformation of Roosevelt Park, then let it be the Bakke development,” stated Jeff Hunt, president of the Roosevelt Park Neighborhood Association.
In 2019, the Bakkes purchased the one acre at 207 Roosevelt Ave., positioned within the Mission Historic District, from the Meier household, who had for years lived and operated a enterprise crafting stone and marble monuments and mausoleums.
By 2021, the Bakkes had turned a former warehouse on the positioning into smooth new workplace area for themselves and moved from a constructing on Broadway Street in 2022.
They then acquired 4 extra parcels surrounding the property, together with a defunct railway bridge extending to land throughout Roosevelt and adjoining the Mission Reach of the San Antonio River.
A 12 months later, they received approval from the Historic and Design Review Commission (HDRC) to revive the Meiers’ two-story residence and redevelop the positioning into a large “ice house-style” informal meals and beverage vacation spot. The residence will turn into a restaurant or wine bar, Bakke stated.
A definite tile and concrete masonry mannequin mausoleum subsequent to the house will stay in place and doubtlessly house a future ofrenda.
At a more moderen HDRC listening to, commissioners authorised a wide-ranging proposal to place up one other workplace constructing and end out your entire property as an eclectic and sprawling leisure, restaurant and bar area.
A classic Lone Star Brewery billboard hovers over the spot the place the Bakkes, working with Alamo Architects, envision a footbridge crossing over Roosevelt to a sand volleyball courtroom, meals truck parking and landscaped seating areas overlooking the river.
In design renderings, floor parking tons are laid out alongside the north fringe of the positioning, subsequent to Union Pacific railroad tracks.
Dan Kachtik, proprietor of King William District Crossfit, stated his enterprise is positioned about 150 yards from the challenge, on Groveton Street, which he stated will make it straightforward for the gymnasium’s members to entry it.
“I think it’ll do really good because they sound very family-friendly, dog-friendly,” he stated. “I think it fits with the vibe of the neighborhood. People like to walk to places in that area, and I think a lot of people will walk or bike there.”
Bakke stated he doesn’t need to name it a ardour challenge as a result of they do need to make a revenue. But, “this has extra social impression than simply constructing a storage unit, the place folks can put their stuff they don’t need.
“You get an emotional return that exists when you do something where … people are going to have a place to go watch a Spurs game on a Wednesday night, go watch a Cowboys game, have a neighborhood community event out on the lawn.”
Revitalization plans for the previous brewery website a block away have come and gone for greater than 5 years, with a collection of latest homeowners failing to make modifications and dashing the hopes of the neighborhood, if not town, which has sought to incentivize redevelopment.
Developer-owners Midway and Graystreet acquired the 32-acre industrial website in April 2020 and put it again available on the market lower than two years later.
While the Bakkes’ plan has been within the works for a number of years, they intend to see it by. The rezoning and historic evaluation processes behind them, the developer has given the design workforce the go-ahead to start out development drawings.
“That’s why this has taken so long to come to fruition, is that we plan on being down here for a long time,” Bakke stated. “So building something that’s going to have longevity and have great buy-in from the neighborhood is important to us.”
The Bakkes intend to maneuver into the deliberate workplace constructing, a brand new three-story construction, and lease their present area to a different agency. “This is our last move,” Joe Bakke stated.
The body of a vacant warehouse, stamped Carnegie Steel 1909, can be repurposed right into a pavilion with a grass-covered roof and two giant holding tanks will stand on the nook of the positioning and have signage.
The father-son-uncle workforce can be working to accumulate for the event the conspicuous pig construction that was inbuilt 1933 to house a barbecue restaurant and later served because the outsized mascot for the Pig Stand restaurant on South Presa.
Though renderings present the concept can be known as “South Star,” Bakke stated they’re nonetheless engaged on what to name it.
“We’re not sold on anything yet,” he stated. “Definitely something that kind of ties in the history of the property” with Meier Monuments and in addition the Staffel feed and seed enterprise that had a retailer there.
Bakke stated they count on to interrupt floor on the challenge in April or May and would possibly open in phases, with the total challenge presumably accomplished in 18 months.
