Mayor’s Message Dan Reese

A New Chapter for “The Mall”

The endeavor to take the old “Windsor Park Mall” property and convert it into the Headquarters for Rackspace Technology was arguably one of the most important economic developments in the history of Windcrest. The project not only revived a dead mall, but it also added commercial property to the City of Windcrest. Rackspace and other commercial property South of Walzem contribute millions of dollars of revenue to the City of Windcrest. At the time, I believe it was the only time in the history of San Antonio that they de-annexed a portion of their land and allowed the City of Windcrest to annex the area.

The City of Windcrest entered into a Master Economic Incentive Agreement (MEIA), which put the sixty-seven (67) acres in the name of our Economic Development Corporation (EDC), thus taking it off the property tax rolls. The benefit of the MEIA to Windcrest was the guarantee of revenue from the Rackspace Headquarters.

On October 21, 2023, I was called to the Rackspace Headquarters by one of their leadership teams. The leadership team informed me that Rackspace made the decision to move out of the mall property. Like most employers, COVID forced them to shift to a remote workforce. The nature of the Rackspace business model allowed the company to operate efficiently in this manner. Like many businesses post-pandemic, they struggled with getting their employees to return to the office. So, on October 21st, we began steps on finding a replacement for Rackspace.

One of the first meetings I set up after being elected as Mayor was to visit Rackspace. My goal was to cultivate a positive relationship and effective communication. We hated to see Rackspace leave because they have been an excellent corporate partner with our city. Because it was their property to sell, Rackspace did not have to involve the City of Windcrest in the process to find a replacement.

During the sales process, Rackspace met with City leadership and strongly encouraged potential buyers to meet with the Windcrest leadership as they began the negotiations for the purchase of the property. In mid-February, a representative of Industrial Commercial Properties (ICP) personally contacted me out of Cleveland Ohio, to discuss the Rackspace property and their interest in it. Since our initial discussion, the leadership of ICP has made three trips from Ohio to Windcrest. The city leadership, as well as our Economic Development Corporation (EDC), has been working tirelessly to find a suitable replacement, and I believe we found it with ICP.

On May 31, 2023, the EDC held a Public Hearing and Notice of Type B Project that highlighted the tentative plan by ICP. I am excited about the plans outlined by ICP. They not only plan to develop the current “mall” building, but they also shared plans to develop additional pad sites on the sixty-seven acres, which will increase the revenue generated on the site. The EDC meeting on May 31st is available on the city website; please take some time to watch it.

The final paperwork for the purchase has not been completed by the deadline for this Newsletter article. Based on our assessment of the project, we believe this will be finalized soon. What we feared would take years (replacement of Rackspace), is coming together in six short months. The EDC and City Council are considering economic incentives for ICP in the form of a new MEIA. The new MEIA is anticipated to provide economic incentives to ICP, with the number of years in reduced by half.

I want to personally thank City Manager Rafael Castillo, EDC Executive Director Mario Hernandez, EDC President Jennifer Newman, and the attorney teams that were instrumental in getting Windcrest to this point. Rackspace was a great partner with the City of Windcrest and I am confident that ICP is the right choice to start this new chapter!

“The credibility of the message is intrinsically tied to the integrity of the messenger.”

~Chip

Ingram