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San Antonio Express-News

April 28, 2001

ArtPace founder has plans for Tobin Building

	Author:
	John Davidson;  
	
EXPRESS-NEWS STAFF WRITER


Edition: Metro
Section: S.A. Life
Page: 3E

Index Terms:
Feature

Estimated printed pages:
3

Article Text:
Having put San Antonio on the map in the world of international art, Linda Pace is now making her mark on downtown real estate development.
	




   Pace, founder of ArtPace, a residential program for emerging artists, has purchased the Tobin Building at 114 Camp St., one block off South Flores street, in the neighborhood now being called SoFlo. Pace says that the 83,000-square-foot building will be developed for both commercial and residential use. The first two floors of the six-story building will be available for commercial use; the upper four floors will be residential. An old gas station on the 2.5-acre property is slated to become a restaurant.



  "I've always loved the building because it's so historic and because it has such good bones," says Pace. "I think the neighborhood has a lot of potential. I'm hoping it will become a walking neighborhood."



   Pace is in the process of choosing an architecture firm and hopes to begin construction by the end of the year. ArtPace will remain at its current location at 445 N. Main Ave. The project on Camp Street, which will be known as the Camp Street Building, is not part of the ArtPace Foundation.



   "Our original motivation was to provide an opportunity for former ArtPace residents to come back to San Antonio to work," says Laurence Miller, founding director of ArtPace and now senior consultant. "We were looking at much smaller buildings, then this became available. We had also been looking for a place to create a public memorial for Linda's son Chris (who died in 1997 at age 24), and there will be room for that."



   In the residential component of the building, Pace will provide several efficiency apartments for returning ArtPace residents.



  The building was designed by Herff & Jones architects and was constructed in 1926 for one of the seven or eight candy companies once located in the area. In 1932, Edgar Tobin bought the building and turned it into the headquarters for Tobin Aerial Surveys, the famed aerial mapping company. Pace bought the building from a partnership that had planned to use it for a telecom hotel to house switching equipment for telecommunications companies.



   Despite prolonged street construction and the rundown appearance of the neighborhood, SoFlo shows signs of a renaissance. The city is building the One Stop Development Services Center a block from the Pace project, and property owners are beginning to organize to petition the city for improved landscaping and better lighting. According to Humberto Salda a, an architect active in the area, the South Flores Property Owners Association is asking the General Services Administration to turn its parking lot into a park, which it once was.



   Developers and property owners in the area see the Pace project as an important catalyst. "She'll create the environment to make things happen," says Tony Bradfield, who with Walter Mathis is buying the Judson building on South Flores.



   "There's been some kind of synergy that's been trying to happen there for several years," says Debra Maltz, a residential broker at Downtown Real Estate Co. "In downtown, the opportunities are limited these days, and when downtown gets kind of full, you start moving out. It's next to the Arsenal (referring to the building that houses the H-E-B headquarters) and King William. A good indicator of the interest in this kind of thing is the fact that you have a success at King William Lofts. That project shows that San Antonio is ready for something like this, that people understand the idea of buying a raw space and finishing it out. People are doing that in a lot of other places, but it's just starting here."



   "I know that she's going to do something where other people might procrastinate," says A.C. "Charlie" Acuna, who owns property on South Flores. "She's already done another building off Flores and she did a nice job. I'm happy that she wound up with it. She's from San Antonio, and that's a big plus."



   jdavidson@express-news.net





Copyright 2001  San Antonio Express-News
Record Number: 546354