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Centro Partnership Resources and Presentations
Centro Partnership Board of Directors
The Board of Directors has been established and includes representatives from the public sector (Mayor, City Manager, Bexar County Judge, District One Council, VIA, and SAHA leadership) and private sector (leadership from both in and out of the downtown area). The first board meeting was held in December 2010 and meets bi-monthly; an executive committee meets each month.
The Board is led by Don Frost, Chairman, David Zachry, Vice-Chair, Paula Owen, Treasurer, and Ruben Cortez, Secretary.
The first initiative of the Partnership will be to lead a strategic planning effort over the summer, which will result in a guiding document to serve as an action plan to stimulate new focused development in the center city over the next decade.
More about the Centro Partnership as it relates to SA2020
Great cities have great downtowns.
In the recent SA2020 Vision process, a vision for downtown was created – “In 2020, downtown is the heart of San Antonio and is everyone’s neighborhood.” Now, San Antonio needs to establish a strategic plan for the next decade. This process will build on the strengths and assets that currently exist and take them to a new level in order to create:
• An economic atmosphere favorable to the development of new residential product
• The ability to attract and relocate jobs to the urban core
• Infrastructure connections between downtown and the surrounding neighborhoods
• A downtown that the citizens of San Antonio will choose to visit regularly
In the SA2020 Vision process, downtown development was singled out as a key component to achieving the Vision. Two key indicators were noted as areas where major improvements could be made: 1) to target an increase in the number of housing units in downtown by at least 5000 over a baseline of 3,383 units today, and 2) to increase the number of downtown employees by 25% (13,775 additional employees) over a baseline of 55,100 downtown workers (2000 U.S. census figure). In both cases, there are many factors that will impact growth in these two areas, but a comprehensive plan with specific implementation procedures needs to be developed to achieve these results. We have a unique opportunity with the strategic planning process to articulate catalytic development projects for downtown and possibly fund some or all of these projects through a potential City bond issue in 2012.
Mayor Castro has called on the Centro Partnership to take the lead on updating a strategic plan for downtown and the center city. The Centro Partnership will work with other stakeholders to accomplish this, and calls on you to become a partner in this effort. It is important that everyone is at the table as we move forward. Your investment – both personal and monetary - will insure that we identify the necessary improvements while preserving and protecting the special amenities, properties and businesses that have made our downtown one of the most unique places in the world.
Much has changed in downtown over the past decade, and it is time to update our strategic plan for downtown and the center city. SA2020 outlined the Vision phase (“dream it”) for downtown, now it is time to move forward with the strategic plan phase (“map it”) for downtown.
CENTRO Staff:
Pat DiGiovanni, CEO: 210.225.3862
Ben Brewer, COO: 210.225.3862 x100
Janie Castillo, Accounts Payable: 210.225.3862 x103
Jimmy Richards, Operations Manager/Centro Amigos: 210.225.3862 x108
Melissa Burnett, Director of Communications: 210.225.3862 x101
Eddie Romero, Membership Coordinator: 210.225.3862 x107
Jaclyn Bays, Director of GIS and Urban Data: 210.225.3862 x104