Restaurant owner gives up plans to remodel historic Main Plaza building, lists it for sale

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Posted January 13, 2025 by inuno.ai

In 2019, a San Antonio restaurateur had big plans for one of the city’s oldest buildings, a vacant three-story structure facing San Fernando Cathedral that she acquired four years before.

Lisa Wong’s vision included a retail space at the street level and modern apartments with a terrace overlooking Main Plaza.

In late 2024, she put it back on the market.

The 7,500-square-foot building at 114 E. Main Plaza is for sale, listed by Kuper Sotheby’s global real estate advisors Alan Valadez and Binkan Cinaroglu.

Valadez would not disclose the listing price. The property is assessed at $1.3 million, according to county tax records.

He’s heard from plenty of potential buyers, he said, with their interest piqued not just by the location in the heart of downtown and on the River Walk, but also by its deep history.

Originally built in 1742 on Plaza de las Islas Canarias, now known as Main Plaza, the structure was called Casa Reales and served as the seat of government. It housed the courthouse, jail and municipal offices in the 1800s. The building was rebuilt in 1876-77.

That makes it one of the city’s most historically significant properties, states the listing.

From 1953 to 2009, it housed the Pauline Books & Media Center operated by the Daughters of St. Paul, nicknamed “The Media Nuns,” before Wong purchased the building in 2013.

The building has a basement, main floor and terrace level, and is zoned for commercial and residential use in the River Improvement Overlay 3, which regulates development to protect the San Antonio River.

It is also located in a historic district and listed as an individual historical landmark.

Valadez said Wong bought the building in anticipation of Main Plaza undergoing renovations in 2019, a project postponed due to the COVID pandemic. She had planned a $4 million restoration of the building.

In 2020, Wong secured $1.1 million from the Houston Street Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone (TIRZ) for the project and $1.5 million in historic tax credits. The development agreement states that TIRZ funding can be transferred to a new owner only if approved by the TIRZ Board and City Council.

Even though the plaza redevelopment project is now about to get underway, Wong, who owns Rosario’s and is a partner in another restaurant and the River Walk barge business, no longer has the time to redevelop the Main Plaza building, he said.

Main Plaza Conservancy, a nonprofit that partners with the City of San Antonio as caretakers of the plaza, are making plans to improve the plaza’s accessibility and bring attention to its important history.

Conservancy leaders have said they want the plaza to be a more accessible and comfortable place for residents and visitors, as well as the growing number of students and faculty from UTSA’s downtown facilities.

The last major upgrade to the plaza was in 2008, a $12 million effort that realigned the streets around the plaza.

In recent years, there’s been renewed interest in the plaza that has led to new residential and hospitality projects, including the towering Floodgate apartment building, the AC Hotel San Antonio Riverwalk and a new Marriott hotel under construction at the corner of Main Avenue and East Commerce Street.

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