Restaurants in an iconic San Antonio destination have been struggling in recent summers. The city is making moves to address that.
SAN ANTONIO — With so many corners of downtown San Antonio experiencing change, from the Alamo grounds to the site of a potential new Spurs arena, officials are now taking steps to ensure one of the city’s most iconic attractions isn’t left behind.
Thursday brought the deadline for development and consultant firms to respond to a Request for Proposal (RFP) issued by the city this summer as it looks to develop a new strategic plan for the downtown River Walk, a key cog in the city’s tourist economy.
While the process is in the very early stages – officials hope to have a blueprint finalized by this time next year – any changes aren’t expected to be wholly transformational so much as upgrades to entice steadier business at a time when restaurants along the River Walk are struggling.
“There’s been a loss of business the last three summers in a row,” says Marco Barros, a board member with the River Walk Business Group.
Formed during the pandemic, the group is made up of business owners along the River Walk who haven’t just felt the pinch, but have worked to endure it. Barros is a founding member, bringing years of experience in consulting for the hospitality and restaurant industries; he also helped develop the Rivercenter Mall.
He says a group of River Walk restaurants surveyed about the current economic conditions have seen an 11% to 12% drop in sales over recent summers, and he isn’t just blaming the sizzling reputation of being outside in San Antonio’s summer heat.
“We’ve got to improve the lighting. We’ve got to improve the sound. We’ve got to beautify the landscape,” Barros said. “I have seen, since 1987, the good, the bad and the ugly of the River Walk. I think we have a lot of opportunities right in front of us.”
That starts with the city’s RFP, issued three years after San Antonio finished executing a 2008 masterplan that yielded $18.7 million in improvements largely related to accessibility.
“The River Walk is an extremely important component of downtown and a top tourist designation in the state,” Shanon Miller, director of the Office of Historic Preservation, told City Council in a briefing last week. “Moving forward, we want to be sure there’s a plan in place that guides future funding decisions along the river.”
Miller said further accessibility upgrades, improved shade, additional public art and modernized sustainability could be addressed through those decisions. The RFP specifically solicited proposals to accomplish four things:
- Review current conditions
- Coordinate a public input campaign
- Review potentially outdated ordinances
- Formulate a strategic plan
The RFP is a tangible starting point, but discussions with stakeholders have been happening for months, according to City Manager Erik Walsh. He indicated council could be asked to sign off on things like infrastructure or signage improvements in the future.
Barros says he’s been working with the Office of Historic Preservation for the past year himself, while also collaborating with the Visit San Antonio and Centro San Antonio.
“It takes a village to really make things happen,” Barros said. “I think we’re on the right track right now.”
He knows a little bit about what “the right track” looks like: The River Walk Business Group issued a survey in 2023 to gather public opinion about the state of the attraction. Nearly 240 people responded – most of them locals – and painted a picture of it as a static, dirty and unsafe downtown destination in need of lighting and better parking.
No ‘one thing you can point a finger at’
Bill Lyons’ restaurant legacy ripples back through generations: His grandfather first opened Casa Rio, an enduring River Walk eatery, in 1946. The restaurant struggled for some time before the River Walk properly came into its own some years later.
Now Lyons is working to shepherd Casa Rio through another downturn in business. He says his staff are serving an average of 811 customers a day this year, down from 1,100 in 2024.
“I don’t think there’s any one thing you can point a finger at,” Lyons said. “But I think some of the negatives don’t have to do necessarily with the ambience on the River Walk… we’ve had horrible construction for a long time.”
He still praises the unique atmosphere of the River Walk, saying it’s like “stepping into a whole different environment” when you descend from street level. But he also acknowledges that fewer people are coming down the stairs these days.
Lyons points to multiple factors, including parking, foot traffic congestion and construction, that he believes are keeping locals away.
“I’ve got friends that just say, ‘I’m not coming downtown,'” he says. “The street situation is horrible.”
For Casa Rio, the effect of fewer customers is further compounded by the challenges of higher property taxes, rising food costs and difficulty retaining staff. At the restaurant’s last Christmas party, Lyons says, more than half of his staff had been there less than a year.
The turnover has forced him to scale back menus at Casa Rio and his other restaurant, Schilo’s, to keep things simple for his employees. Lyons is hopeful the city can make just enough changes to keep consistent business coming between major events like conventions and the Valero Alamo Bowl.
Barros is hopeful too, emphasizing how Nashville has been able to attract more tourists in recent summers. He and Lyons are also both optimistic about Mario Bass, Visit San Antonio’s new CEO, and his understanding about the importance of growing downtown.
Some changes, Barros hopes, are simple ones, like doing away with outdated laws that modern times have rendered moot. Those include existing ordinances forbidding the use of LED menus and visible speakers.
“We have about five city ordinances that are very, very old that need to be updated,” he told City Council.
Council members shared their own preferences for what a strategic plan would address, including a lack of art, limiting paper that could be tossed into the river and more policing.
Whatever plan ends up bring formed out of the RFP, Lyons hopes the River Walk doesn’t lose its identity.
“There’s a certain character that needs to be preserved,” he says. “I would hate to see the River Walk ever become a Bourbon Street or a Las Vegas.”