The Deco District is a small area in the near Northwest area of San Antonio. Its neighbors include Monticello Park, Jefferson District and Balcones Heights.
The Deco District spans a part of Fredericksburg Road (affectionately called Fred Road by locals) inside Loop 410 that has many thriving businesses and lots of room for more as renovations are being made to once-decaying buildings.
The area of Fred Road that the Deco District sits in was once the "Old Spanish Trail" that started in Georgia and went all the way to California.
This trail was used for stagecoaches and wagons that were moving either east or west. In particular, many families and individuals from the east coast rode west on the trail looking for more land and the chance at their own homestead.
Now, the Deco District area of Fred Road is a corridor that leads to the Northwest area of San Antonio and straight through Balcones Heights and onto the Medical Center.
The Deco District is a major thoroughfare that thousands drive down everyday, which is why it is being restructured into a major business area after nearly 50 years of boarded-up shops and empty buildings.
Because the Deco District is a commercial-only area, there are no homes in its small confines. However, it is bordered by such neighborhoods as Monticello Park, which have many older homes and is served by the San Antonio Independent School District (SAISD).
The annual Deco Days Street Festival and Art Celebration starts around Labor Day weekend and runs for two weeks. During this time, people from all over the neighborhoods surrounding the Deco District come out and celebrate the diversity and uniqueness of the area.
More information and a list of events can be found here at DecoDistrict.org.
The Jefferson Woodlawn Lake Community Development Corporation (JWL/CDC) was formed in 1994 in an effort to solve growing questions and concerns over the decaying state of the Deco District.
When the Corporation first met, they decided they needed to find ways to stimulate the area economy enough to attract businesses that would stay and become a part of the neighboring communities. This would also beautify the area and make it safer and more attractive.
Several planned stages were made, with the first being that re-opening of the Fred Rd. HEB grocery store that had been there for several decades. It re-opened with a Deco District theme that now serves as the northernmost anchor for the District.
As part of the aforementioned phases of the JWL/CDC plan for the Deco District, they have outlined several benefits for business owners who want to move into the area.
Amongst them is a credit of up to $15,000 for renovations to your building, up to $3,000 in tax benefits for each employee you hire from the neighborhood, help applying for loans, help developing a business plan, help building or re-designing a web page, help developing HR manuals and policies for your business and much more. Here you can find a full list of benefits.