DEPARTMENT: Center City Development and Operations
DEPARTMENT HEAD: John Jacks
COUNCIL DISTRICTS IMPACTED: 2
SUBJECT:
Property Sale at St. Paul Square
SUMMARY:
Resolution for approval for the declaration of surplus property, as well as, the sale and conveyance of five real properties owned by the City of San Antonio to East Commerce Realty, LLC or affiliated entity, commonly known as 123 Heiman St., 121 Heiman St., 1154 E. Commerce St., 1164 E. Commerce St., and 1172 E. Commerce St., described as Lots 30, 32, 33, 34, and 35, Block 1, New City Block 679, St. Paul's Square, C.D.B.G. No. 2035 Subdivision, Unit 1, City of San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas as shown by Plat in Attachment A within the Historic St. Paul's Square in Council District 2.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION:
St. Paul Square is a National Register Historic District also known as the Southern Pacific Depot Historic District. Located on land once farmed by the Mission San Antonio de Valero (the Alamo) in the 18th century, the district was connected to San Antonio by a Spanish road laid out in 1805, now called East Commerce Street.
The name is derived from the Old St. Paul Methodist Episcopal Church, which was constructed between 1870 and 1880 in the Gothic Revival style. Sparsely developed in the early 19th century, the area grew significantly with the arrival of the railroad in 1877 and the "Cemetery Line" of the street car system during the 1890s down East Commerce St., the commercial corridor's main artery. In 1902, the Southern Pacific Passenger Depot was built. The opening of the depot was a catalyst for commercial development, and its Mission Revival style strongly influenced architecture in the area.
Although racially mixed from its earliest days, the area became a flourishing African-American community of restaurants, hotels, retail stores, boarding houses, and professional offices by the mid-20th century. However, the rise of automobile traffic and the construction of IH-37 b...
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