Former Joske's building could see return to retail

The landmark downtown Joske's building this year could see the start of construction that would return retail to the space for the first time since 2008.

The New York-based company that owns Rivercenter mall plans to divide the department store space into smaller retail spaces and restore the building's original faade. Interior demolition could start in the year's second quarter.

We hope to start construction midyear and be 70 percent leased at that time, said Joe Press, senior vice president of Ashkenazy Acquisition Corp.

Ashkenazy also will remake the Blum Street pedestrian corridor between the mall and the Menger Hotel into a set of fast casual restaurants with outdoor cafes.

It will be like a promenade, said Michael Alpert, president and vice chairman of Ashkenazy.

And as soon as it signs a lease with a new tenant, it plans to continue renovating the lagoon area of the mall to add more upscale restaurant space, similar to the Brazilian steakhouse Fogo de Cho, which opened in 2009.

The changes will help move the mall more in the direction of being an entertainment and dining hub, aspects considered more important at Rivercenter than at traditional suburban malls.

But general manager Chris Oviatt said the mall must continue to balance the retail and dining needs of local shoppers (about 45 percent of mall customers) while serving the 55 percent of its visitors who come from outside Bexar County.

It's not a large mall in terms of leasable space. We have to be really careful about how we segment that in terms of the type of retailing we go after, he said.

The mall has about 565,000 square feet of leasable space, and the changes to the Joske's building will add more than 100,000 to that, he said.

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Former Joske's building could see return to retail