SAN ANTONIO – Nearly four months after the University of Texas at San Antonio confirmed it would explore a downtown site near the Alamo as a potential home for a new Institute of Texan Cultures museum, the exploration of that acreage has become far more serious.
UTSA officials may have a better idea by May if such a move will work.
“That is our preferred site,” UTSA Executive Vice President for Business Affairs and Chief Enterprise Development Officer Veronica Salazar said during an exclusive interview.
The site under consideration is currently a parking lot. It’s immediately east of the Crockett Hotel, which sits footsteps from an Alamo area undergoing a more than $400 million transformation.
Because the real estate is within a historically designated zone, UTSA officials have already had some preliminary conversations with the Texas Historical Commission about potentially developing a museum on the site. Salazar says UTSA plans to provide an update to the commission during its next quarterly meeting.
Salazar says UTSA has also met with Kate Rogers, executive director of The Alamo Trust, which is spearheading the Alamo master plan, to gauge her groups needs, which could include parking and office space.
“We’re still working through those details to see if we can all fit in that tight site and get as many of our needs met as we can,” Salazar said. “They have been very collaborative and cooperative with us in this diligence period.”
Based on preliminary numbers, a new museum could span roughly 80,000 square feet and cost upwards of $100 million to construct.
The University of Texas System Board of Regents voted on Feb. 22 to give UTSA conditional approval to exclusively discuss with the city of San Antonio a potential lease or sale of the current 14-acre ITC site at Hemisfair.
Read the full story in the San Antonio Business Journal.
Editor’s note: This story was published through a partnership between KSAT and the San Antonio Business Journal.
Related
Watch Below: San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg said the Institute of Texan Cultures property could be the key to moving forward with a plan for a downtown Spurs arena