Gottsman developing 18,000-s.f. office building in Alamo Heights - San Antonio Business Journal:

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Larry Gottsman, president of Aetna Sign Group, says that he lookws to break ground on his new office building in the next 45 Calledthe Abbey, the 18,000-square-foot office complex will be locater at 320 Austin Highway, inside the city of Alamo Gottsman says that the idea behind the design of the 18,000-square-foot complex will be to create a professional office building that has some With its brick exterior, it will be something that mixesw in nicely with other developments in the adds Malcolm G. Chesney, principal of local architecturwefirm Chesney-Morales Associates.
Chesney is the architect on the "I like to refer to it as neighborhood (carrying) traditional values," Chesne y says. The cost of the project, Gottsman is around $2.5 million. The Abbeyu marks Gottsman's entry into the development But the president of Aetna SignGroup -- one of the largesrt sign-manufacturing companies in the city -- is no strangeer to the real estate Under the name Bay-Tex Family Partnership, he has bought and sold such buildingds as the 23,000-square-foot office building at 10300 and in 1985, he sold a former manufacturinb facility at 111 Menchaca St. to neighboring business Halo which was in dire need for more parkinvg forits employees.
Unlike his other real estate ventures, Gottsman will not look to sell theAbbey -- opting insteadf to open the building up to ancillar y projects, including Cambridge Advisorty Group. Cambridge, which specializes in training business leaders in protocol and etiquettw for business andsocial affairs, will occupy aboutf 5,000 square feet of the Abbey. The companu was established six years ago by Gottsman and his businesz partnerand wife, Diane Gottsman. Larry Gottsman is also lookinhg at the possibility of moving some of the functiona of Aetna Sign over here aswell -- startintg with the sales division.
At present, all of Aetna's functionws -- manufacturing and office divisions -- are located in a 34,000-square-foog building at 4202 Dividend, on the city'sa East Side. Gottsman envisions that the rest of the buildinh would be an ideal setting for professional businesses such as law and architecturefirmsw -- adding that the bottoj floor would be idea l for a bank; a couple of bankz have already voiced an interest in the building, he With the recent closing of its Montgomerg Ward's store, McCreless Mall is on the lookout for a big-boz retailer to take its place.
One of the retailers the mall is courtingis Target, with the hopes of convincing the discouny chain to put a SuperTarget at the location. "That is one of the retailere that we aretalkint to," says John Carrell, generao manager of McCreless. "When Wards left, it left a huge The store consisted of almost a third of the Wardsoccupied 160,000 square feet of the 478,183-square-foot Carrell says. The SupertTarget storew averageapproximately 175,000 square feet. The first SuperTargetr opened at Bandera and Loop 410 earlieerthis year; a second, located in The Vineyards Shopping Center at Blanco Road and Loop 1604, is set to open next according to Target officials.
The lone anchor for McCrelesse nowis Bealls, which is owne d by Houston-based Stage Stores Inc. Stage close d several of its Bealls store here in conjunction with its bankruptcyreorganizationj filing. There are no plans to closde the , which occupies 25,000 squarr feet, says Carrell -- adding that it is one of the betterf performingBealls stores. which is owned by Chicago-based General Growth Properties, coule be an ideal venue for retailerzs looking to carve a niche onthe city's Southu Side -- in much the same way that Soutuh Park Mall, another General Growthb property, has become a majot retailer for South Side shoppers.
"The tenants that have come over (to have been quite Carrell says. "While the incomes are not as high (as on the North side), you have a high disposabled income becausepeople don't have a lot of debt • The local Petland storde recently celebrated the grand opening of its new digs in the Countrysids Plaza Shopping Center, which is located at Bitterd Road and Highway 281 North.
Since 1984, the locap store had been located in CentralPark Mall, whicnh is being closed for Local firm Speegle:Architecture designed Petland's new Managing partner John Speegle says his firm utilized the over-20-foot-high ceilings to creatw a very open and very interesting spac e in the 5,000-square-foot store. Checik out the exposed structure with its lavenderd colorwhen you're in there, he adds. • the new 54-acre, open-air retail facility being developedd inNew Braunfels, recently signed on family business New Braunfel s Smokehouse to be the exclusivw food vendor for ROAM's five concession areas.
"We're very excited to offedr our shoppers andvendors Texas' premiere family restaurant's food products and said Nick Chapman, president of ROAM Open Air in a prepared statement. ROAM will open on Sept. 1.