On Aug. 9, UTSA announced their signing of a letter of intent to purchase the office building One Riverwalk Place and the next-door parking garage; the UT System Board of Regents approved the plans during their Aug. 21-22 meeting.
The 260,000-square-foot office building was built in 1981 at 700 N St. Mary’s St along downtown San Antonio’s River Walk. It was sold to USAA in 2013 for an undisclosed amount; however, its assessed value at the time was $19.6 million. The location was retrofitted from 2014 to 2019 and has now been appraised at $22.25 million. UTSA has not disclosed how much it intends to pay for One Riverwalk Place as per the requirements of Texas Education Code Section 51.951. It can be assured that the price UTSA will pay for the building is not permitted to exceed its market value.
This purchase is yet another part of UTSA’s 10-year plan to expand its downtown campus. In 2022, they acquired the Southwest School of Art, and in the following year, they opened San Pedro I and broke ground on San Pedro II. This year, UTSA also announced a merger with UT Health San Antonio.
With the Southwest merger, UTSA created a new school under the College of Liberal and Fine Arts. With San Pedro I, they housed their School of Data Science and National Security Collaboration Center. San Pedro II will be a new college entirely with a focus on “innovation, entrepreneurship, and careers.” The UT Health merger serves to give the university a leg up in its competition with leading research universities. The most recent venture seeks to house thousands of students, hold academic departments, and provide rentable retail spaces and 550 parking spots. The Board of Regents has also given the university approval to hire whomever they see fit to “market, lease, and build out the space.”
The San Pedro facilities alone cost UTSA a combined total of $215.8 million dollars, the price being a reflection of President Taylor Eighmy’s “commitment to expansion, collaboration, and community engagement.” Eighmy envisions the university becoming a sprawling network of campuses across San Antonio that enrolls 45,000 students in a wide array of disciplines to ultimately advance the prosperity of the community and the students who call it home.
To read more about the university’s expansion plans, head over to utsa.edu/masterplan/.
