Melissa Robinson

After years as director of real estate and finance for the Hemisfair Park Area Redevelopment Corporation, Melissa Robinson stepped up into the Interim CEO role in April.

The $340 million redevelopment of the part of Downtown San Antonio was the site of HemisFair ‘68, the 1968 World’s Fair. It has languished for decades after the lackluster expo, but in 2012, the HPARC — the nonprofit Robinson now heads which governs the former fair grounds — announced a master plan to revitalize the area. That will include hundreds of residential units, three parks and around 65,000 square feet of retail space across a phased 20-year redevelopment.

The Hemisfair site sits in the middle of Project Marvel, a planned entertainment district to be anchored by the new San Antonio Spurs arena and include a convention center expansion, upgrades to the Alamodome and more than 50 acres of mixed-use development across the Hemisfair area.

Robinson brings nearly 30 years of experience in all areas of development and finance to the project, having been involved in every phase of multiple master-planned projects throughout the years as both a consultant and financial director for the likes of Reata Assets, Pearl Brewery, Duke Development Services, Bitterblue and Zachry Industrial. She’ll likely need all of that experience if she goes from interim to the executive, as expected in coming weeks, and guides the Hemisfair vision to completion, with Project Marvel a potential complementary factor but beyond her control.

— Eric Weilbacher