Ballpark envisioned as part of upgrades downtown

Weston Centre Geekdom Weston Centre Geekdom Photo: Express-News Photo: Express-News Image 1 of / 3 Caption Close Ballpark envisioned as part of upgrades downtown 1 / 3 Back to Gallery

Graham Weston isn't interested in owning a ballpark, but he is looking to play ball.

The billionaire co-founder of Rackspace Hosting Inc. wants to be a catalyst who spurs more residential development in and around downtown. And he has identified at least one area where he'd like to start.

Weston says the area around the Weston Centre, one of several inner-city properties that he owns, is ripe for development. It's also one of the areas under consideration for a downtown baseball stadium for the San Antonio Missions.

Weston co-founded Geekdom, a collaborative workplace for high-tech entrepreneurs that has seen substantial growth in its first year, at the Weston Centre.

Weston and his associates have talked with city and county officials about the possibility of a downtown ballpark as part of a broader discussion of his plans to create a vibrant urban core consisting of residential and commercial space.

Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff, a baseball enthusiast and key proponent of bringing professional baseball to the central part of the city, is looking to enlist Weston in the drive for a downtown ballpark.

While he's warm to the idea, Weston said it's unlikely that he would pay for a stadium or a sports team.

“It is a missed opportunity to not have sports downtown,” said Weston, the chairman of Rackspace. Still, “there's zero chance I will build a stadium. I am a believer of baseball downtown, and there are areas of opportunity. But I'll likely build housing and other things that would go around a stadium.”

While such a venue is only in the talking stage, Wolff said a few sites are being looked at, including the eight acres of the football and baseball fields behind Fox Tech High School in the northwest corner of downtown.

But Wolff maintains the high school, which is a magnet school for health and law, should remain at its location, even if a baseball stadium lands in its backyard.

Dave Elmore, founder of the group that owns the Missions, a minor league baseball team, has expressed interest in a downtown stadium, Wolff said. Elmore did not respond to an interview request from the San Antonio Express-News.

“It's all pretty speculative now,” Wolff said. “We've been kicking around ideas. I don't know what's going to come of it.... Eventually, something may come together that makes sense.”

The idea is to build a roughly 10,000-seat stadium that could be sized up to accommodate a major league baseball team.

Other potential sites Wolff mentioned are the Institute of Texan Cultures and locations to the north and south of the Alamodome. Any viable site, he added, would have to encompass at least eight acres.

County Commissioner Kevin Wolff said the Commissioners Court would seriously consider approving incentives for a ballpark but that it's currently focused on building up infrastructure, such as drainage, to accommodate such a project. One example is the plan to refurbish San Pedro Creek, which flows near the Fox Tech property.

“At this stage, it's dreaming, with the potential to make some of it reality,” the commissioner said.

He added: “But this is not just about a baseball field. It's about a greater vision.”

That's where Weston comes in. He's teamed up with Randy Smith, who was formerly the director of real estate at Rackspace, to form Weston Urban, a firm focused on downtown development. Weston maintains that he's not interested in buying and developing tracts of land downtown. Instead, he wants to act as a catalyst, creating partnerships with developers who have viable projects but might need help with funding.

“For some people, there's no reason to come downtown,” Weston said. “San Antonio is yearning for places to live and go downtown. We want to build an ecosystem. Where it will exactly go hasn't been determined. But if it is here, we have to start from scratch.”

Weston was referring to the area around the Weston Centre. The aim is to create an area of downtown that will act as a hub for tech startups.

“We have an opportunity to have an identity here,” Smith said. “If it moves somewhere near the tourists (near and on the River Walk), maybe that identity gets lost. But here, it's an opportunity to have that tech village, that startup-campus feel that I don't think exists elsewhere in the city.”

Weston Urban's development plan for downtown, he added, will spring from Geekdom and the nearby area — potentially including a baseball stadium and a hoped-for residential and entertainment district growing up around it.

Weston owns three parcels that total 1.4 acres near the downtown high-rise office building bearing his name. There are no immediate plans for development at those sites, except for a tract at East Pecan Street and Main Avenue that will be used for an urban garden.

Weston confirmed that he's in talks with multiple entities about downtown residential developments but said there was nothing firm to announce.

More immediate plans could stem from Geekdom. Smith confirmed that the lobby, the second floor and the river frontage at the Weston Centre will be renovated to support tenant amenities such as wellness-related services, community space and some retail.

Weston has even reached out to the San Antonio Independent School District about his plans, taking into account that there needs to be an education base for the future neighborhoods of downtown, said Ed Garza, president of SAISD's board of trustees.

He downplayed the stadium talk.

“It's an exciting opportunity for partnership, but it's just been at that conceptual discussion,” Garza said. “Somebody is going to have to pick that up and run with it. It's certainly not going to be our effort as a school district.”

Although Weston Urban's plans are in their early stages, Smith said downtown will have a much different look in coming years.

“There's no reason for moss to grow on this one,” he said. “We want to do it now.”

vlucio@express-news.net