SAN ANTONIO – The skyline of downtown San Antonio will soon have a different look after the addition of the new Frost Tower.
The official groundbreaking celebration of the Class AA tower was held Wednesday.
The new Frost Tower, which will serve as the Cullen/Frost Bankers corporate headquarters, is the first of its kind for the city since 1989, but for Chairman Emeritus Tom Frost, it's a symbol of growth.
"I'm thinking of May 25, 1971, when I was standing right across the street to announce the groundbreaking of the building behind me," said Frost.
The new tower will include 430,000 square feet of office space, a 400,000 square foot wraparound parking lot and 20,000 square feet of ground floor retail.
"I'm looking forward to moving into it myself and having an office there," Frost said. "Mainly it's going to be a building built especially for our headquarters because when we built the other one, we didn't have branches -- we now have a 120 some-odd."
RELATED: Groundbreaking to be held Wednesday for new Frost Bank tower
Former Housing and Urban Development Sec. and former Mayor Julian Castro said the construction of the new tower shows it really has become the "Decade of Downtown."
"This investment is going to benefit the entire community," Castro said. "It's going to make it more likely that companies want to come and relocate in downtown San Antonio, instead of 20 miles from here. It's going to make it more likely that people will want to live in the urban core that does well for the entire space, and I’m excited about it."
Just down the street from the tower construction, more revitalization may be on the way.
There's a partnership between the city of San Antonio and Bexar County and also the Cortez Family Restaurants in an effort to bring the Alameda Theater back to life.
The now dormant space in the theater will be used for all type of shows, public space and some space for Texas Public Radio.
"As the Cortez family, we've been working hard to not only revive the Alameda Theater," said Michael Cortez with the Cortez Family Restaurants, "but also the culture zone here in the West Side of San Antonio and Market Square."
As far as the plans to revive the Alameda Theater, it's still in the early stages, but recommendations have been presented to the city.
Completion of the new Frost Tower is scheduled for 2019.
