The Future of Downtown West — J.R. Hernandez & Mark Jensen | Ep. 8

For years, the west side of downtown San Antonio was mostly parking lots. Now it is Downtown West. In this episode of The Cilantro Diaries, recorded 32 floors up inside 300 Main, Lorenzo Gomez III joins The Clutch Podcast with host J.R. Hernandez and Mark Jensen, Vice President of Multifamily Development at Weston Urban, to break down how a parking lot district becomes a real neighborhood. In this episode we go deep into: • Why the old "parking lot district" is becoming Downtown West • 300 Main, the city's first high-rise apartment tower, 32 stories and 354 homes • The two moments a big development can die, financing it and then filling it • "Sell the vision before you sell the facts," the rule behind the whole bet • Third spaces, walkability, and why downtown wins young singles and empty nesters • The Missions ballpark as the entertainment anchor of Downtown West • San Pedro Creek, Legacy Park, and the case for reinvesting in the urban core • What J.R. sees on the ground as an investor, from the East Side to Five Points At its core, this is a conversation about building a downtown that a city's kids will come back to, one building at a time. This episode is a collaboration with The Clutch Podcast. Find J.R. Hernandez on Clutch on YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok. Lorenzo writes The Urban Nerd column at VoiceofSanAntonio.com. If this episode helped you see San Antonio a little differently, subscribe to the channel. It genuinely helps. And if you want to go deeper, join me on Patreon for first look at upcoming guests and to support the show directly:   / lorenzogomeziii   #DowntownWest #SanAntonio #300Main #WestonUrban #DowntownSanAntonio #SanAntonioRealEstate #UrbanDevelopment #Walkability #SanAntonioPodcast #TheCilantroDiaries #CilantroDiaries #LorenzoGomez #ClutchPodcast #MarkJensen