Light building project to receive $2.5 million incentive

The old San Antonio Light building at 420 Broadway. BEN OLIVO | SAN ANTONIO HERON

GrayStreet Partners on Friday received the support of the Midtown TIRZ board on a reimbursement of up to $2.5 million for the restoration of the circa-1931 San Antonio Light building, 420 Broadway, and its former print building next door.

Graystreet, whose large downtown portfolio includes several buildings on Houston Street, is converting the old newspaper building into Class A office space. Currently, architecture firm Ford, Powell & Carson is slated to occupy the first floor of the Light building, 12,500 square feet, but no other tenants have been announced.

In the Midtown TIRZ, which stands for “tax increment reinvestment zone,” revenue gained from the rise on property values are reinvested toward public improvements in the zone. There are other TIRZs in the downtown area, including ones for Houston Street, the Hemisfair area, and parts of the east and west sides.

According to the agreement, GrayStreet will be reimbursed for up to $2.5 million of work related to facade restoration (which includes rebuilding the print building’s brick facade), landscaping, sidewalk upgrades, among other improvements.

“We are putting a full city block that’s been dormant back into production,” Peter French, GrayStreet’s director of development, told the board.

The San Antonio Light’s old print building as it will look from Broadway looking east. COURTESY GRAYSTREET PARTNERS

According to the document, the project’s cost is $47 million. Besides roughly 140,000 square feet of office space, the project also includes 2,500 square feet of retail space.

Completion dates vary on the project’s different phases — one for November, and another for December 2019 — but it’s unclear what specific work comprise each phase.

The plans call for a new multistory “vertical connector” between the two buildings, as well as adding two floors, and underground parking, to the old print building.

The TIRZ documents also mentioned a fee waiver worth $75,000 under the Inner City Reinvestment and Infill Policy, which the city is currently revising to apply to all city of San Antonio properties.

The City Council still has to vote on the incentive.