Business View Magazine | March 2020

304 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE MARCH 2020 Houston, pointing his finger toward the San Jacinto Monument, the birthplace of Texas independence.” The 15-foot-tall, 16-foot-long piece, sculpted by legendary artist David Adickes, and titled “Onward,” has Houston, the former president and governor of the Lone Star State, sitting on Saracen, his horse that was killed at the San Jacinto battlefield in 1836. “Hunt Road was also expanded and improved as part of this project and it provides a critical east/west route for us, all the way from Main Street to John Martin Street,” Davis adds. “Also exciting about this project is the final phase – a ramp reversal project that we are executing in cooperation with the Texas Department of Transportation,” Davis continues. “That project, out on I-10, will switch the uses of an on-ramp and off-ramp. We’re going to take an off-ramp and turn it into an on-ramp, and vice versa. What this does is orient the lion’s share of eastbound I-10 traffic to San Jacinto Blvd. instead of dumping it off at Garth Road. That is critically important. I refer to the ramp reversal project as that ‘cherry on the top’ that makes San Jacinto Blvd. relevant, because now, I’ve not only connected the west side of my city to San Jacinto Blvd., I’ve also connected it with one of the largest and busiest interstates in the nation.” As an added benefit, the ramp switch will direct more traffic to the repurposed San Jacinto Mall, “The Old San Jacinto Mall is 75 percent gone, now,” Davis reports. “The demolition of the old mall concluded in October 2019; the next phase we anticipated was the building portion in 2020, but that has always been contingent upon the developer’s ability to secure agreements from the anchors. Since last year, we have one less anchor and another one - JC Penny – we don’t really know whether they’re going to be part of the picture. But Sears is gone, officially, and their building is gone. JC Penny is negotiating, right now, with the developer to either build a new concept store or to exit this market, altogether. That would leave Macy’s.