(Seguin) — The vision for the city of Seguin’s newly purchased Wells Fargo property begins with you.
The city will not have one but three opportunities to hear public input.
The city recently purchased the Wells Fargo property located at 101 E. Nolte in downtown Seguin.
The city council also approved a partnership with TBA Douglas Architects who will help sell the property to a qualified developer. The goal is to select a developer who will then redevelop the site based on the community’s vision.
Kyle Kramm, the Seguin Main Street and CVB director, says the next step in the process is to begin creating the vision for the redevelopment of the property.
“The city has officially purchased the property and so we are now the owners of the Wells Fargo bank building and the whole block that it sits on and so right now, we are in phase two of our process which is the public input process where we are wanting to hear from the public and what uses they want to see at the site, what they want it to look like, how it will fit into the overall downtown character. We will enter phase three which will be more work on getting the site ready for a developer and then phase four will actually be working with our consultant to find qualified developers who the city will ultimately negotiate with and sell the property to the qualified developer,” said Kramm.
Each of the three subsequent meetings will build upon the previous meeting and will go from broader topics to more defined subjects.
He says the meetings are designed to hear the logistics of all the possibilities.
“What restaurants do they want to see, would they prefer it to be hotel or multi-family or office. There’s a variety of uses that could fit on this site so we want to hear from the public of what their ideal uses would be as well as what it is going to look like. Some of the ideas being proposed are a four and five tower with hotels or multi family. Is that too high for us? Or do we want to keep it lower? So, what are the design standards that the community really wants to see? It’s also going to be somewhat educational. If we go up one more floor, this could be the economic impact on the community by adding this additional floor of residential or hotel or office so it is really a great opportunity for the community to share what their vision is but also to hear from consultants about what the impact this project could have on all of Seguin,” said Kramm.
All meetings will be held at the Seguin Public Library starting at 6 pm.
The first public meeting is on Wednesday, Feb. 21 where discussions will focus on downtown character, design, use of the public right of way, amenities and more.
Meeting #2 will be Thursday, March 7. Discussions will focus on the appropriate program, preliminary development studies completed, and economic impact of the different development scenarios.
The last public meeting will be Wednesday, March 20 with a focus on development standards. Discussions will include appropriate materials, scaling, setbacks, uses and streetscape.
Kramm says he hopes the community begins to plan now and will get these meetings marked in their calendars.
He says it’s not only about locking down the idea but narrowing in on the benefits for the entire community.
“What is it they want to see. Is it where there are people downtown 24/7. With a hotel, you will have people there all the time. With an office, it will be more 8 to 5 so it’s kind of what your vision is for downtown and for all of Seguin. This significant investment of downtown will be a couple of million to $30-40 million depending on what gets developed there. It will have a significant impact on the whole community,” said Kramm.
City officials say the public is encouraged to attend all three meetings or as many as they possibly can just to get a better idea of the city’s direction. A project website has also been created for the public to stay up to date on the development.
The website is available at visitseguin.com/wellsfargo.
