Copyright 2004 San Antonio Express-News San Antonio Express-News (Texas)
February 7, 2004, Saturday , METRO
SECTION: BUSINESS EXPRESS; COVER STORY ; Pg. 8H
LENGTH: 1553 words
HEADLINE: COVER STORY ; Big dreams for Brooks ; The city-base has a unique plan and has scored some early victories, but progress has been slow.
BYLINE: Analisa Nazareno
BODY: The putting green at Brooks City-Base is winter yellow these days. But when former Mayor Howard Peak gazes at the dormant nine-hole golf course, he sees high-end condominiums and townhouses.
He sees a neighborhood of scientists sharing ideas about radiation and cell reproduction, cryptography and information security. All on the way to picking up their morning coffee at the cafe down the road.
And, more importantly, he sees dollars from the base growing and staying in San Antonio.
"What I (envision) is really more important when I'm driving down here and see what this can be, what is its potential," said Peak, now the chairman of the Brooks Development Authority.
Condominiums, townhouses, an avant-garde high-tech high school partially funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Charitable Foundation, a pedestrian-oriented town square with a high-rise office building marking its center, fitness and recreational areas, restaurants and boutique retail stores.
All that - plus a cluster of office buildings and laboratories that could serve as the incubator for the nation's most effective homeland defense strategies and technologies - are part of the vision.
It's a bold, ambitious plan.
Peak and Brooks Development Authority director Tom Rumora talk about their plans with the same sort of enthusiasm that most developers do when they're talking about a big deal they're trying to sell.
But the BDA is no regular developer. With 11 board members appointed by City Council members and the Air Force, this developer has all the nimbleness of a slow-moving freight train.
And the plans, after a few years, are coming together like any other bureaucratic project - slowly.
"The biggest challenge facing anybody that would be redeveloping a project like Brooks is setting a vision that can compete in the marketplace and satisfy (a) diverse set of owners," said Mark Dotzour, chief economist at the Texas A&M Real Estate Center.
"A private developer can quickly assess the market and determine the highest and best use for the land and proceed to develop it in a timely fashion. Because the market can change from year to year, moving quickly is important.
"When you have multiple stakeholders with diverse objectives, the biggest problem is having a nimble enough management to bring it to market in a manner that brings it to market at the right time and at the right price."
In the fall of 2001, the city charged the BDA with transforming the former Air Force base into a technology park. At the same time, it's trying to convince the Defense Department that its military missions at Brooks - medical and scientific research work - should stay at the southern San Antonio base when Congress gets set to name military bases for closure nationwide in 2005.
Whether Brooks City-Base lands on the base realignment and closure list, or BRAC, is a source of anxiety for the board.
"We talk about BRAC a lot," Peak said. "Of course, it's not something that we can control, except to do as good a job as we can saving the Air Force money and to help them be more effective in what they do. We think we can keep their missions here and even better, be a receiving location for missions from somewhere else."
If the Air Force leaves, it's not just the 3,500 Air Force jobs - and their $50,000 salary average - that would be departing. The BDA's biggest selling point - the opportunity to work in proximity with Air Force researchers and the potential to network into military research contracts - would disappear as well.
"We're very focused on what might happen, but we're not trying to outfox military strategists," Rumora said. "This facility was on the (BRAC) list in 1995. The Air Force decided that they didn't need this facility back then. What we're trying to do is to make it more attractive for the Air Force to stay here. But this development, the commercial property will be done whether the Air Force is here or not."
The San Antonio Express-News owns the copyright to this story. For a full copy of this story, e-mail Analisa and she will send you a clip via e-mail or snail mail.
February 7, 2004, Saturday , METRO
SECTION: BUSINESS EXPRESS; COVER STORY ; Pg. 8H
LENGTH: 1553 words
HEADLINE: COVER STORY ; Big dreams for Brooks ; The city-base has a unique plan and has scored some early victories, but progress has been slow.
BYLINE: Analisa Nazareno
BODY: The putting green at Brooks City-Base is winter yellow these days. But when former Mayor Howard Peak gazes at the dormant nine-hole golf course, he sees high-end condominiums and townhouses.
He sees a neighborhood of scientists sharing ideas about radiation and cell reproduction, cryptography and information security. All on the way to picking up their morning coffee at the cafe down the road.
And, more importantly, he sees dollars from the base growing and staying in San Antonio.
"What I (envision) is really more important when I'm driving down here and see what this can be, what is its potential," said Peak, now the chairman of the Brooks Development Authority.
Condominiums, townhouses, an avant-garde high-tech high school partially funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Charitable Foundation, a pedestrian-oriented town square with a high-rise office building marking its center, fitness and recreational areas, restaurants and boutique retail stores.
All that - plus a cluster of office buildings and laboratories that could serve as the incubator for the nation's most effective homeland defense strategies and technologies - are part of the vision.
It's a bold, ambitious plan.
Peak and Brooks Development Authority director Tom Rumora talk about their plans with the same sort of enthusiasm that most developers do when they're talking about a big deal they're trying to sell.
But the BDA is no regular developer. With 11 board members appointed by City Council members and the Air Force, this developer has all the nimbleness of a slow-moving freight train.
And the plans, after a few years, are coming together like any other bureaucratic project - slowly.
"The biggest challenge facing anybody that would be redeveloping a project like Brooks is setting a vision that can compete in the marketplace and satisfy (a) diverse set of owners," said Mark Dotzour, chief economist at the Texas A&M Real Estate Center.
"A private developer can quickly assess the market and determine the highest and best use for the land and proceed to develop it in a timely fashion. Because the market can change from year to year, moving quickly is important.
"When you have multiple stakeholders with diverse objectives, the biggest problem is having a nimble enough management to bring it to market in a manner that brings it to market at the right time and at the right price."
In the fall of 2001, the city charged the BDA with transforming the former Air Force base into a technology park. At the same time, it's trying to convince the Defense Department that its military missions at Brooks - medical and scientific research work - should stay at the southern San Antonio base when Congress gets set to name military bases for closure nationwide in 2005.
Whether Brooks City-Base lands on the base realignment and closure list, or BRAC, is a source of anxiety for the board.
"We talk about BRAC a lot," Peak said. "Of course, it's not something that we can control, except to do as good a job as we can saving the Air Force money and to help them be more effective in what they do. We think we can keep their missions here and even better, be a receiving location for missions from somewhere else."
If the Air Force leaves, it's not just the 3,500 Air Force jobs - and their $50,000 salary average - that would be departing. The BDA's biggest selling point - the opportunity to work in proximity with Air Force researchers and the potential to network into military research contracts - would disappear as well.
"We're very focused on what might happen, but we're not trying to outfox military strategists," Rumora said. "This facility was on the (BRAC) list in 1995. The Air Force decided that they didn't need this facility back then. What we're trying to do is to make it more attractive for the Air Force to stay here. But this development, the commercial property will be done whether the Air Force is here or not."
The San Antonio Express-News owns the copyright to this story. For a full copy of this story, e-mail Analisa and she will send you a clip via e-mail or snail mail.
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