San Antonio’s Hemisfair Park, site of the 1968 World’s Fair, is finally inching towards realizing its decade-old redevelopment plan.
Before the World’s Fair, Hemisfair was a residential neighborhood of about 2,500 homes. Though it was called Germantown, the dusty settlement dating back to the Texas Republic was a genuine melting pot of Germans, Polish, Hispanics and African-Americans — all of whom were turfed out through eminent domain to make way for the fair.
The site languished for decades after the lackluster expo, but in 2012, the Hemisfair Park Area Redevelopment Corporation — the nonprofit which governs the former fair grounds — announced a master plan to revitalize the area which included 2,000 residential units.
Finally, at long last, the company is seeking design approval from San Antonio’s Historic and Design Review Commission for a 29-story mixed-use tower on the site, according to the San Antonio Business Journal.
Plans call for around 320 residential units and about 55,000 square feet of retail space on three floors, located on the corner of East Market and South Alamo Street. Austin-based Post Lake Capital Partners is attached as the developer.
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HPAR Corp. CEO Andres Andujar said bringing residential developments back to the city-owned Hemisfair site will be the most important step in the rehabilitation area, which is just south of downtown. He also said densifying downtown San Antonio is part of the path forward for the city’s modernization.
“Bring the locals, and they will bring in the tourists,” he said, telling the SABJ that he hopes the tower will be one of many developments that are part of public-private partnerships in the area.
Since Hemisfair will own the land developments will be built on, developers will essentially be tenants that will generate the lion’s share of Hemisfair’s revenue once its redevelopment master plan is fully executed.
The hope is that Hemisfair Park new incarnation will be more successful than its last. The 1968 World’s Fair, also known as HemisFair ’68, opened just two days after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. First Lady Lady Bird Johnson and Texas Governor John Connally had to be escorted around the site under heavy security due to death threats. Overall, attendance did not match predictions and the fair lost $7.5 million — almost $64 million in today’s dollars.
— Maddy Sperling