SAN ANTONIO, TX— Frost Tower is the first office building being added to San Antonio's downtown skyline in 27 years. It will include 23 floors and rise approximately 400 feet tall. The design has been revealed for Frost Tower, according to Weston Urban , the San Antonio-based real estate development firm. The tower's groundbreaking is planned for winter 2016 and construction is scheduled for completion in late 2018. Randy Smith , CEO of Weston Urban tells GlobeSt.com: "Frost Tower is an exciting addition to the San Antonio skyline, as it's the first office tower being added to downtown in 27 years. Downtown San Antonio is going through a great revitalization, with the renovations to Hemisfair Park, and also the extensions and renovations of San Pedro Creek." At approximately 420,000 square feet, Frost Tower will serve as the new corporate/regional headquarters for Frost, a banking and financial services company that has called downtown San Antonio home for nearly 150 years. Around 400,000 square feet of the building will be dedicated to office space, and the remaining 20,000 square feet on ground level will be reserved for retail. “Weston Urban's goal is to catalyze downtown development in San Antonio, and we could not have found a better pair of collaborators than Frost and our city,” said Smith. “The public-private partnership with Frost and the city of San Antonio uncorks the potential of quite a few acres in our urban core and it will play a significant role in the revitalization of downtown San Antonio. The design represents a year of hard work by Pelli Clarke Pelli and GGN, and we feel they've exceeded each of our expectations. This is a building all of San Antonio can be proud of.” Internationally renowned architecture firm Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects was selected to lead design for the tower. This is the second Texas tower the firm has designed in the past five years, with a project in Dallas presently under construction. “We are excited to be working on this project, which will be a force of transformational energy in downtown San Antonio,” said William E. Butler , principal at Pelli Clarke Pelli. “This design is important to San Antonio and its downtown, a modern compliment to the masonry towers of the city's past. We set out to create something iconic and timeless for San Antonio and believe the Frost Tower achieves just that.” Recipient of hundreds of awards for design excellence, including more than 40 design awards from local, regional and national chapters of the American Institute of Architects, Pelli Clarke Pelli is known for designing international urban landmarks. “There is no place like San Antonio and there is no bank like Frost, each is unique,” said Fred Clarke , co-founder and senior principal of Pelli Clarke Pelli. “Contributing a singular building housing a visionary and civically minded institution to this extraordinary city is the project of a lifetime. For my colleagues and me, it is both a responsibility and a great joy.” In June 2015, the city of San Antonio approved a public-private partnership agreement between Weston Urban, Frost and the city. Bexar County also played a significant role, facilitating the completion of the San Pedro Creek improvements project, which will create a park that runs alongside the site of the Frost Tower. “At Frost, we are looking forward to seeing the new tower on the skyline and being part of an energized downtown,” said Phil Green , Frost chairman and CEO. “After seeing the Frost sunburst go up on new buildings in downtown Austin, Dallas and Fort Worth, we're glad to be the named tenant of the newest building in our hometown of San Antonio. Internationally renowned landscape design firm GGN will design the grounds, green space and hardscape surrounding Frost Tower." The founding principal of GGN, Kathryn Gustafson, brings more than 30 years of distinguished practice to her partnerships in Gustafson Guthrie Nichol in Seattle and Gustafson Porter in London. Her diverse works are known as groundbreaking and contemporary design. Weston Urban also partnered with Dallas-based KDC on the finance, design and construction of the Frost Tower. SAN ANTONIO, TX— Frost Tower is the first office building being added to San Antonio's downtown skyline in 27 years. It will include 23 floors and rise approximately 400 feet tall. The design has been revealed for Frost Tower, according to Weston Urban , the San Antonio-based real estate development firm. The tower's groundbreaking is planned for winter 2016 and construction is scheduled for completion in late 2018. Randy Smith , CEO of Weston Urban tells GlobeSt.com: "Frost Tower is an exciting addition to the San Antonio skyline, as it's the first office tower being added to downtown in 27 years. Downtown San Antonio is going through a great revitalization, with the renovations to Hemisfair Park, and also the extensions and renovations of San Pedro Creek." At approximately 420,000 square feet, Frost Tower will serve as the new corporate/regional headquarters for Frost, a banking and financial services company that has called downtown San Antonio home for nearly 150 years. Around 400,000 square feet of the building will be dedicated to office space, and the remaining 20,000 square feet on ground level will be reserved for retail. “Weston Urban's goal is to catalyze downtown development in San Antonio, and we could not have found a better pair of collaborators than Frost and our city,” said Smith. “The public-private partnership with Frost and the city of San Antonio uncorks the potential of quite a few acres in our urban core and it will play a significant role in the revitalization of downtown San Antonio. The design represents a year of hard work by Pelli Clarke Pelli and GGN, and we feel they've exceeded each of our expectations. This is a building all of San Antonio can be proud of.” Internationally renowned architecture firm Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects was selected to lead design for the tower. This is the second Texas tower the firm has designed in the past five years, with a project in Dallas presently under construction. “We are excited to be working on this project, which will be a force of transformational energy in downtown San Antonio,” said William E. Butler , principal at Pelli Clarke Pelli. “This design is important to San Antonio and its downtown, a modern compliment to the masonry towers of the city's past. We set out to create something iconic and timeless for San Antonio and believe the Frost Tower achieves just that.” Recipient of hundreds of awards for design excellence, including more than 40 design awards from local, regional and national chapters of the American Institute of Architects, Pelli Clarke Pelli is known for designing international urban landmarks. “There is no place like San Antonio and there is no bank like Frost, each is unique,” said Fred Clarke , co-founder and senior principal of Pelli Clarke Pelli. “Contributing a singular building housing a visionary and civically minded institution to this extraordinary city is the project of a lifetime. For my colleagues and me, it is both a responsibility and a great joy.” In June 2015, the city of San Antonio approved a public-private partnership agreement between Weston Urban, Frost and the city. Bexar County also played a significant role, facilitating the completion of the San Pedro Creek improvements project, which will create a park that runs alongside the site of the Frost Tower. “At Frost, we are looking forward to seeing the new tower on the skyline and being part of an energized downtown,” said Phil Green , Frost chairman and CEO. “After seeing the Frost sunburst go up on new buildings in downtown Austin, Dallas and Fort Worth, we're glad to be the named tenant of the newest building in our hometown of San Antonio. Internationally renowned landscape design firm GGN will design the grounds, green space and hardscape surrounding Frost Tower." The founding principal of GGN, Kathryn Gustafson, brings more than 30 years of distinguished practice to her partnerships in Gustafson Guthrie Nichol in Seattle and Gustafson Porter in London. Her diverse works are known as groundbreaking and contemporary design. Weston Urban also partnered with Dallas-based KDC on the finance, design and construction of the Frost Tower. Want to continue reading?
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Lisa Brown
Lisa Brown is an editor for the south and west regions of GlobeSt.com. She has 25-plus years of real estate experience, with a regional PR role at Grubb & Ellis and a national communications position at MMI. Brown also spent 10 years as executive director at NAIOP San Francisco Bay Area chapter, where she led the organization to achieving its first national award honors and recognition on Capitol Hill. She has written extensively on commercial real estate topics and edited numerous pieces on the subject.
