By J.B. Smith

Tribune-Herald staff writer

Just west of Heritage Square this week, a giant drill burrowed holes 40 feet deep into bedrock. A 100-ton crane stood by, ready to lower 131 massive piers into the holes to support a million-dollar concrete slab for the Austin Avenue Flats.

Developer Michael Wray strode around the site, beaming with pride. He said the public will begin to get a sense of the project in the next few weeks when the steel framing begins, but for him the foundation was a cause for excitement.

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“When this slab is done, 80 percent of my job is finished,” he said, referring to the first phase of his luxury condo project. “To the public, it will look like it just started.”

It’s an apt symbol for downtown’s redevelopment, which has been years in the making but is only now beginning to bloom. Tens of millions of dollars in new businesses, construction projects and building renovations are already under way.

This year alone, downtown will see the completion of a new headquarters for the Greater Waco Chamber of Commerce and the first 47 luxury condos in the $75 million mixed-use development around Heritage Square. Work will begin next month on a 368-bed upscale student housing complex as part of the same project.

The $17 million renovation of the Waco Hilton will wrap up next month, and the $17.5 million reinvention of the Waco Convention Center will begin this fall.

Work is far along on the multimillion-dollar renovation of the storied Roosevelt Hotel for upscale offices and retail.

And the ripple effect is spreading several blocks up Austin Avenue, where an art gallery, a new restaurant, loft apartments, offices and a major bar/music venue are in various stages of development. Elsewhere around downtown there are plans for new hotels, night spots, restaurants and even an Irish-style pub.

Jason Attas, a real estate agent with J.S. Peevey Co., said he has sold or has under contract several downtown buildings that have sat empty for years. Investors are now circling downtown looking for properties, he said.

“We have finally arrived,” Attas said. “Everybody’s always talked about the revitalization of downtown, but for the first time ever we can actually see things happen. Before now, it was hype and hot air. Now you can point to dirt being turned, construction going on, people putting their money where their mouth is.”

That’s not to say the redevelopment just began. The city of Waco and two downtown special tax districts have invested millions of dollars in infrastructure projects around town over the past two decades. Private investors have done multimillion-dollar projects such as RiverSquare Center, Behrens Lofts and the Insurors of Texas building.

And Wray, who is one of several partners in the $75 million redevelopment around Heritage Square, said the square itself was a seed of downtown’s rebirth. The $2 million fountain plaza in front of City Hall was built in the early 2000s by Keep Waco Beautiful, with civic leader Francis Sturgis leading the charge.

“I don’t know if I would have considered this project if it wasn’t surrounding Heritage Square,” Wray said. “When you look at all great high-density mixed-use projects in large cities, they are built around great public spaces, community gathering places.”

Wray predicted that Heritage Square will become a social hub of Waco. He is planning retail, a movie theater and office space, plus restaurants including outdoor cafes facing Heritage Square. At full buildout, he expects the development will offer about a dozen dining options, including locally owned restaurants.

“What we don’t want is for Heritage Square to look like Valley Mills Drive,” he said. “We’ve met with half a dozen local businesses about relocating down here, and we’re in serious negotiations with three or four. Having some local flavor really adds to the project.”

He also hopes to work with the city and other businessmen to create a regular lunchtime trolley service between Baylor University and downtown Waco.

A phase between Austin and Washington avenues that is supposed to begin next year will include a 25,000-square-foot green space that he envisions as a venue for concerts and other public events.

Wray is an investor and managing partner for the mixed-use project on the two blocks west of City Hall, working with local investors, Community Bank and Trust and a Houston development team called SWB Heritage Square Partners.

SWB, headed by Sugar Land Mayor David Wallace, has a contract with the city of Waco to develop the 17 acres the city owns near City Hall. As an incentive, the city is giving Wallace’s group a long-term lease at a nominal rate but gets to sign off on all designs.

Wallace’s group also is developing the student housing component across Washington Avenue from the mixed-use project, next door to the Courtyard by Marriott.

Wallace pulled permits on the $22.3 million student housing project this week and plans to begin work in the next 30 days. The complex is set to open in fall 2009.

The five-story student housing complex will have several rows of parking in front, as well as parking under the building. City planners had urged Wallace’s group to move the building closer to Washington Avenue to create a more urban feel, but decided to compromise on that point.

City planners and the Greater Waco Chamber of Commerce have advocated for downtown development that is both dense and pedestrian-friendly, with parking tucked away from sight and buildings fronting on sidewalks.

Chamber of Commerce urban development planner Chris McGowan said the development around Heritage Square fits that model perfectly. But he said he would have preferred to see the student housing built closer to the street.

“In the future it’s important to create that streetscape with a human scale,” he said. “But it’s still a great project.”

McGowan said the mixture of residential, commercial and office development now in the works is a good start to the chamber’s goal of re-establishing downtown as the business and social hub of Waco.

Tom Chase, head of Insurors of Texas and the chairman of the downtown Public Improvement District, said the new construction is spurring others to take a chance on downtown.

“I think what’s so amazing is it’s caught on so fast,” he said. “So many people are recognizing it. So many people are starting to buy up and develop some of these old buildings, and that will will add so much to the feeling of vibrancy and safety.”

jbsmith@wacotrib.com

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