As the sun was setting on a recent evening, cycling groups and other people on bike and on foot made their way down and across Roosevelt Avenue, passing restaurants and fruiterias, no-tell motels, a golf course and empty lots and a few small businesses.
The five-lane roadway better suited to cars that speed past both commerce and centuries-old neighborhoods is an active and abiding thoroughfare that cuts through the heart of San Antonio’s South Side as the gateway to the UNESCO World Heritage site.
Change that will bring dedicated bike paths and sidewalks and more is coming, say officials, along with a major new development. But not fast enough for residents and business owners in the area who say the delays are hurting development.
“We’re tired of it looking ugly, falling apart — we’re ready for change,” said Theresa Ybanez, former president of the Mission San José Neighborhood Association.
The community for the most part welcomes San Jose Village, the latest newly proposed development coming to Roosevelt Avenue and East Southcross Boulevard. The multifamily and mixed-use cluster of buildings spanning both sides of the thoroughfare is being developed by James Lifshutz.
The developer plans to build on six vacant or dilapidated properties there. It’s a project he’s had in the works for several years that began with rezoning parcels.
Plans recently submitted to the city’s Office of Historic Preservation reveal a major residential and mixed-use development with green spaces open to the public, freshly planted trees and landscaping, a swimming pool and dog park that connects to the trailhead.
The development will be a blend of old and new, in design and structure. While four non-historic structures could be razed to make way for new buildings, a 1935 Mission Revival-style restaurant building will be rehabilitated.
Ybanez worked with Lifshutz and his design team on the project since its inception and said it is a long time coming.
The neighborhood is looking for the project to spark more economic development in the area, to put an end to the blight and disinvestment, she said.
Ybanez also hopes it will help boost senior and middle-income housing though longtime Bustillos Drive resident Rosie Anguiano said she told the developer she doesn’t want apartments there if the buildings are going to hover over her house.
“I told him, ‘Do what you would do in your backyard,’” she said.
But perhaps the bigger frustration and worry lingers over roadwork approved for Roosevelt in the 2017 bond that the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) has pushed to 2028. Construction is expected to start in 2026.
The bond included $8 million for continuous sidewalks, bike paths, turn lanes and lane reductions on Roosevelt Avenue between U.S. Highway 90 to Southeast Loop 410.
TxDOT nixed the lane reductions, forcing the city back to the drawing board.
But because the state owns the highway, design changes must go through the National Environmental Policy Act review process, said Razi Hosseini, director and city engineer for the City of San Antonio Public Works Department. “It has to go up to Austin [and that] sometimes takes more than a year.”
A TxDOT spokeswoman said questions about the status of the project should be directed to the city.
The road improvement project, initially expected to be complete by 2024, “hasn’t even started yet, so we’re all very antsy about that, especially the developers,” said Jane Henry, president of the Mission San José Neighborhood Association.
“We’ve seen other developments in the neighborhood get approved and everything … and they’re also off the table now,” Henry said. “So we hope that San José Village will get approved by the [city boards] and will eventually be built.”
Nicha’s Comida Mexicana owner Arthur Garcia said he put the new restaurant he had planned to open this summer near Mission San José on hold due to financing issues. The land is now for sale though he still hopes to build the restaurant.
But if the roadwork isn’t completed by then, “that would be horrible because I see what’s happening to places like Augie’s Barbecue out on Broadway [Street],” Garcia said. “The construction was taking forever. It’s really hurt his business.”
During a recent neighborhood meeting at Mission Library, State Rep. Liz Campos (D-San Antonio) said that she plans to meet with city officials, Councilwoman Phyllis Viagran (D3) and TxDOT about the roadway project.
“It’s definitely not fair,” Campos said. “I’m going to put pressure on them to the best of my ability and inform you guys what’s going on.”
Campos added that she couldn’t make any promises or guarantees in getting the project expedited, “but I will definitely make the effort.”
A representative from Viagran’s office also attended the meeting and offered to provide regular updates about the project.
That did not satisfy concerned residents and business owners.
“We need to have this big change happen so we can start bringing in new businesses and new opportunities,” said Kevin Sekula, owner of Harold’s Art and Framing, addressing the officials. “We’re going to continue to be ignored until we put your feet to the fire and it needs to happen. We do not want to be put on the back burner.”
Ybanez said she is embarrassed by the conditions along the World Heritage Trail and wants to see the roadway beautified and made safer and more accessible.
“It’s ugly because there are businesses that are not following code compliance,” she said. “It’s ugly because there are no sidewalks to safely walk on. It’s ugly because it hasn’t been taken care of by our city. And it’s not because families in this neighborhood did not beg for these changes.”
Ybanez contrasted the Roosevelt delays with the Tobin Land Bridge project at Phil Hardberger Park, which was built over a state highway in only a few years’ time. She asked, “Why is it that we get shafted?”
The proposed San José Village will feature multifamily, mixed-use and retail structures at 2835 and 2900 Roosevelt and at 958, 992 and 1018 E. Southcross.
Renderings prepared by Alamo Architects and submitted for review show building façades and other design elements in keeping with the Spanish Missions and the Mission Historic District Design Manual.
The manual also limits all commercial structures within the Mission Historic District to three stories.
Liftshutz, the developer behind the Blue Star Arts complex and Hot Wells, also redeveloped an abandoned warehouse at Roosevelt and Riverside Drive in 2019 into studio apartments with attached maker spaces.
His latest, the San José Village project, was scheduled for conceptual review by the Historic and Design Review Commission on Sept. 6 but postponed by the owner to its next hearing on Wednesday.
Lifshutz did not respond to a request for comment.
“We generally think it’s a great thing. It’ll really stimulate the neighborhood,” Henry said, adding that she is looking forward to the demolition of vacant buildings that are eyesores and subject to illicit activity.
In the meantime, Henry has formed a committee to advocate for improvements to Roosevelt where she mostly hopes for sidewalks and better lighting.
Government Beat Reporter Andrea Drusch contributed to this report.
