DECEMBER 31, 2023 — Editor’s Note: This article was originally published on October 19, 2023.
UTSA celebrated the groundbreaking of San Pedro II, also called the Innovation, Entrepreneurship, and Careers building, Wednesday evening with an interactive event at the San Pedro Creek Culture Park. The event honored innovators and entrepreneurs, while marking the building as a new connection between UTSA and San Antonio’s tech industry during San Antonio Startup Week.
Attendees were asked to name an innovator or entrepreneur to honor at the ceremony as they each placed a floating globe in the creek. In attendance were Bexar County Judge Peter Sakai and San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg, who each made remarks during the event.
“Together, UTSA’s targeted development of San Pedro I, San Pedro II, and the Southwest Campus represent an exciting opportunity for learning, collaboration and innovation for residents of Bexar County,” said Sakai. “This new building and the programs it hosts will make Bexar County an even better place to work and live.”
“The groundbreaking of San Pedro II is another exciting milestone towards UTSA’s vision to expand our downtown footprint.”
Several public leaders and community members celebrated the groudbreaking of San Pedro II in Downtown San Antonio.
San Pedro II also represents that latest progression in a long-term vision for San Antonio, according to Nirenberg.
“Today marks another milestone in the achievement of a vision we could not even fantasize about 15 years ago, and that is having a major Tier One, Carnegie-recognized university in the in the heart of downtown San Antonio,” he said. “Here we are, on the creek, which is a confluence of waterways which we know, form bioscience, that’s where life takes place, is when organisms collide. The collisions that will be happening in our community because of this new school cannot be overstated.”
San Pedro II will allow UTSA to draw on the broad opportunities that exist in San Antonio to address the city’s pressing workforce needs, to connect UTSA students with experiential learning and career-engagement opportunities, and to provide training to prepare students for careers in interdisciplinary fields such as cybersecurity, computer and data sciences.
The work that this facility will house will build on San Antonio’s reputation as a high-technology hub, Nirenberg added.
“This building is going to make our city a great spot on the map when it comes to innovation and entrepreneurship, new technology, cybersecurity, all the things that we want to be a leader in in this world,” he said. “This building and what happens in this building is going to be a major part of that.”
An advanced facility for business, education and career preparation, San Pedro II will offer students additional interdisciplinary and collaborative programs in business, computer engineering, hardware/software development and sciences through immersive, experiential learning and professional development opportunities. Seamlessly integrated into UTSA’s Downtown Campus expansion, San Pedro II will work in tandem with academic programs and research collaborations in cybersecurity and data science offered across San Pedro Creek in San Pedro I by the UTSA School of Data Science and the National Security Collaboration Center, which opened in January of 2023.
“San Pedro II will greatly amplify our rapidly growing data science and cybersecurity programs next door at San Pedro I—creating even more opportunities for career-engaged learning and connectivity between our academic and business communities,” said UTSA President Taylor Eighmy. “We are deeply committed to workforce and economic development, and the collaboration that will take place inside both buildings will advance that commitment by fostering new knowledge creation and growing the talent pipeline for our city, region and beyond.”
The new building will be constructed on land purchased from the county to revitalize this historic area of downtown, which includes the recent redevelopment of the San Pedro Creek Culture Park and the future Continental Hotel revitalization. San Pedro I and San Pedro II will anchor UTSA to San Antonio’s prospering high-tech corridor and serve as a catalyst for economic and community investment in the San Pedro Creek area.
“The groundbreaking of San Pedro II is another exciting milestone towards UTSA’s vision to expand our downtown footprint,” said UTSA Chief Enterprise Development Officer and Senior Vice President for Business Affairs Veronica Salazar. “As part of our strategic investment in downtown, this building serves as an important connection between the existing UTSA downtown campus and San Pedro I as we create a corridor along Dolorosa Street where Roadrunners can learn, work, and make meaningful educational and cultural connections.”
San Pedro I and San Pedro II are part of larger placemaking efforts to connect classrooms and meeting spaces inside with the outdoor venues, public art and greenspaces along the creek, creating an ecosystem that supports students and the community.
Designed and constructed through the partnership of Overland|Gensler and Turner Construction, San Pedro II is expected to be 180,000 square feet with a total project cost of $131 million. With a focus on indoor/outdoor connections and reconfigurable spaces for multipurpose use, the building will be designed with innovation and adaptability in mind to serve UTSA students, faculty and staff downtown for decades to come.
Construction on the new building is expected to be completed in October 2025, with the building opening for students in January 2026.
