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Business View Magazine
tend to get spread out. There wasn’t a particular front
door that distributed our patrons throughout the entire
facility. So, by starting over and creating a front door, a
formal entryway, and creating meeting rooms to sur-
round exhibit halls, we were able to have a facility that
now is easy to navigate and is easy to program, as well,
for the conferences that we hold.”
“We created one room in particular that we call the
Meeting Room of the Future,” Sawaya continues. “Ar-
chitecturally, the room cantilevers over two lanes of
Market Street, here in downtown San Antonio. It’s the
only building that does that in the country and it’s the
largest cantilever in the country. And that room is one
that we decided needed to be, not for today’s meeting
planner, but for the next generation. So we had a group
of architects who are young and they sat in a room and
they came up with concepts that would appeal to a
different generation of meeting planner. They came up
with different lighting systems, different technology,
different types of seating throughout the room, and a
different look and feel for a learning environment. So,
our intention is to continue to be on the leading edge
of those things and have a facility that evolves as the
generations of meeting planners evolve.”
In addition to some sophisticated design and construc-
tion, the Center’s renovation also relied upon some
creative financing. “We didn’t increase any taxes, at
all; our tax rate remained the same,” says Sawaya,
proudly. “We were able to refinance the outstanding
debt that we had, look at future projections on collec-
tions, and we were able to finance it. It was a brilliant
move. It’s the only time it’s been done in the country.
We took existing debt and refinanced that debt, issued
new debt, and because the city has a triple-A bond rat-
