Godinez: Yes, I recommended the San Juan Hotel be demolished

2 months ago 81

SAN JUAN, Texas – Brian Godinez, principal and CEO of McAllen-based ERO Architects sought to set the record state regarding his company’s involvement in plans to replace the historic San Juan Hotel with a downtown conference center.

Godinez emceed an event hosted by San Juan Economic Development Corporation titled “Downtown Development Plan Open House.” At the meeting, which was held at the San Juan Memorial Library, planners used a power point presentation to show San Juan residents what a revamped downtown might look like.

The planners, including some from ERO, did not discuss demolishing the San Juan Hotel or building a new conference center during their 45-minute presentation. But when it came to the Q&A with residents in the audience, all that changed.

Godinez opened it up for questions from the audience. But before he did, he said he wanted to set the record straight.

“For the record, the City Commission hired my firm to develop a preliminary design for a downtown conference center. That preliminary design has officially now been presented to the City Commission,” Godinez said.

“We’ve had a series of discussions and meetings with staff, and we are going to be meeting with the City Commission soon to give our presentation report or a preliminary design which would be (along the lines of): What would the floor space look like? How big would it be? How much square footage would it encompass? How much of the land would it encompass? What could it look like? How long would it take to construct? How much would it cost?”

On top of this, Godinez said, “some very nice renders” would be presented to the City Commission, “whenever they are ready for us to come present to them.”

There were no renderings of the conference center on show at the meeting. However, Ben Arjona, San Juan’s city manager and interim director of the San Juan EDC, did show them to the Rio Grande Guardian last week. The renderings, produced by ERO, show the conference center replacing the San Juan Hotel but including some aspects of it.

Godinez said the City Commission will decide what to do once his company has given its report on the proposed conference center.

“So, I wanted you to know that, for the record, that’s where we are. You asked about renders. The City Commission hasn’t officially been presented with any renders officially yet, but they will be presented renders,” Godinez said.

Quizzed by residents in the audience, Godinez confirmed his recommendation is to demolish the San Juan Hotel.

“I was asked by a city commissioner what would our recommendation be after we did inspections on our own. And I said it should be demolished. That was on record when I said that. I’m not denying that I said that,” Godinez said.

Godinez continued: “Okay, just for the record. I want to just establish that because you all have been asking about the conference center… and I’ll say it one more time… the charge and mission of this commercial development plan has nothing to do with the downtown conference center or the San Juan Hotel, or any specific buildings. We are just merely putting a vision out there for areas in the city downtown area, of what’s possible to have built, either by the city or private investors or a combination of both.”

Godinez then asked those in the audience for their input. They were given a maximum of two minutes to speak, although some went longer.

Gabriel Ozuna, a member of the Hidalgo County Historical Commission, was one of those to speak.

“I came to the last workshop that you all had, and I had one singular goal in mind, which is to talk about the importance of preservation as part of any downtown development plan. Now that is a word that did not make it into your presentation. And if that’s an indication, it probably isn’t going to make it into your final report and recommendations. I think that that is a large oversight on the part of everyone in this project.”

Ozuna said he has talked “ad nauseam” about historic preservation tax credits available to the City of San Juan.

“If you own a historic-age building that is eligible to be put on the National Register, you can get a 20 percent federal tax credit and a 25 percent state tax credit through the Texas Historical Commission from the National Park Service to help revitalize those buildings and make them into economic drivers. That’s why the federal government passed the National Historic Preservation Act and amended it in 1980 to be able to do these things,” Ozuna said.

Ozuna pointed out that the City of San Juan already has a preservation ordinance on its books. He said it was passed in 2002.

“There’s so much benefit to a program like that. Taking your heritage, taking your history and incorporating it into this downtown development. Mr. Godinez is right to say that the San Juan Hotel is not the focus of this development project. The problem is it ought to me. Because, when you think of San Juan, when you think of downtown, it’s the number one thing that comes to mind. It is the number one site that pops up when you Google downtown.”

Ozuna said he did not find anything in the presentation by the planners to object to.

“But if you’re not going to include the hotel, you’re most visible landmark, a thing that can draw people, draw visitors, draw tax visitor dollars, heritage tourism dollars, to downtown, then you’re missing a big part of this,” Ozuna said.

“So, I urge you to take another look at your planning, incorporate preservation, make the historical commission, either the County Historical Commission or the Texas Historical Commission, your allies, your friends on this. We want to help you. There is money out there. There are public services out there. And we would love to help. But we feel we are not being invited to the conversation.”

Ozuna won applause from the audience for his remarks.

Editor’s Note: Here is a video recording of the Q&A portion of the “Downtown Development Plan Open House” hosted by San Juan EDC: