SAN ANTONIO | Urban Core Development Thread

[Spoiler]

"A Public Facility Corp. will enter into negotiations with the owners of the Tower Life Building over the potential redevelopment of the 30-story downtown structure. The move comes after the Bexar County entity's board approved those talks on Tuesday.

Bexar County commissioners, who make up the PFC board, are hopeful those negotiations will lead to a memorandum of understanding and the delivery of more affordable housing in the heart of the city.

The Business Journal reported in May that a group including the McCombs family, veteran San Antonio developer Ed Cross and Alamo Capital Advisors’ Jon Wiegand had purchased the more than 240,000-square-foot building, constructed in 1929, for an undisclosed sum. That group, SA Tower Life, wants to transform the structure into more than 230 new residential units."

https://www.bizjournals.com/sananton...Pos=0#cxrecs_s

[JACKinBeantown]

^^ I was up in the crown of the Tower Life Building one time. Those dormer windows would be awesome in an apartment overlooking downtown SA.

[Keep-SA-Lame]

The fact that there's been vacant retail space in that building for decades is a crime in and of itself. It's basically on the damn River Walk. Hope they can make apartments work rather than a hotel!

[kingkirbythe....]

As pair of historic San Antonio buildings change hands, new owner aims to bring new life to both

https://www.expressnews.com/business...s-17360073.php

Developer Mitch Meyer has purchased two historic buildings — one downtown and the other on the South Side — with plans to renovate and bring in new tenants.

“I just love old buildings,” he said.

Last week, the San Antonio developer bought the 10-story Exchange Building along the San Antonio River. It includes about 41 apartments and space for commercial tenants on the ground floor. It comes after his acquisition last winter of the Toudouze Building, where he’s seeking a retail tenant.

At the Exchange Building, Meyer has begun making cosmetic upgrades to the apartments as a step to get it fully leased. Currently, it’s about 65 percent occupied.

He plans to replace windows, add new mechanical systems and convert part of the vacant ground floor to provide amenities for residents. He’s seeking a tenant for the remaining space.

The building, at St. Mary’s and Pecan streets, was constructed in 1925 for the San Antonio Builders Exchange and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

[LSP]

Anybody catch this?

https://www.mysanantonio.com/busines...o-17362111.php

[kingkirbythe....]

Nearly 1,200 new apartments coming soon as neighborhood west of the Pearl evolves

https://sanantonioreport.org/new-apa...earl-district/

Public relations professional Jonathan Gurwitz has worked his entire career along the Broadway corridor, long enough to remember when the Pearl Brewery was derelict.

Like many others today, he often walks across the river to the Pearl for lunch or to meet friends for drinks after work. He looks forward to a new music venue opening within steps of his office at KGBTexas on East Locust Street.

“The transformation is really remarkable … and I’ve had a front row seat to it,” Gurwitz said. “There’s just construction going on everywhere.”

Along with the growing number of restaurants and office space, four new residential developments are in the works west of the Pearl, bringing more residents into what was once a mostly single-family and light industrial Tobin Hill neighborhood.

But multifamily options are increasing in Tobin Hill and the president of the neighborhood association welcomes it.

“We are excited to get more multifamily living in the area here,” Parker Dixon said. “It’s a big need. There’s not enough housing in San Antonio in general so we’re excited to be contributing … especially in an area that’s so walkable.”

[ajarreguin3]

Quick question: do you think the downtown "boom" is here? Or will we ever get one?

[texboy]

Originally Posted by ajarreguin3

Quick question: do you think the downtown "boom" is here? Or will we ever get one?

I think SA will continue to see stable development in the downtown core/NoBro area, but I don't think its going to be a torrid boom like the neighbor to the north. At least I hope so. It would take something akin to a tech boom to do that to SA. Relative to SA's past, SA had a boom of skyscrapers in the early 80's that matched the boom period of Dallas and Houston. That would be probably the last boom I would say SA had, and I don't think what is currently happening now is equal to that in relation to the population of the city now versus back then.

[jkill34]

Originally Posted by ajarreguin3

Quick question: do you think the downtown "boom" is here? Or will we ever get one?

The lack of projects in our pipeline suggests to me that it is not a boom. IMO

[kingkirbythe....]

A new tower on Broadway? City panel clears the way for developer to build as high as 15 stories

https://sanantonioreport.org/broadwa...height-zoning/

The owners of several city blocks near the Pearl could put up buildings as tall as 15 stories due to a recommendation made Wednesday at a meeting of the Historic and Design Review Commission (HDRC).

That exception to the rules governing development near the River Walk, which limits building heights to 10 stories, came at the request of BESA Land Partners, an affiliate of local real estate company Fulcrum Development.

Commissioners approved BESA’s request to place what’s known as a development node overlay for properties within the River Improvement Overlay (RIO) in order to increase the allowable building height.

A development node in this area would allow the developer to exceed the building height by 50%, which could mean BESA could build up to 15 stories. It also allows zero setbacks from all property lines.

Adopting development nodes within a RIO district requires a review by HDRC and the Zoning Commission, according to a proposed amendment to the Unified Development Code that will be considered by City Council this fall.

“But just because you get the development node approval doesn’t mean that your design is going to be approved,” said Ashley Farrimond, an attorney representing BESA. “It just gives us the ability to have the additional height. But that’s still subject to HDRC approval.”

The area considered during Wednesday’s HDRC hearing consists of 22 individual parcels bounded by Broadway Street to the west, Casa Blanca Street to the south, North Alamo Street to the east and the 1800 Broadway apartments to the north.

[theOGalexd]

Originally Posted by ajarreguin3

Quick question: do you think the downtown "boom" is here? Or will we ever get one?

Like Austin? I wish, but I doubt it. Maybe rental towers will start to sprout up more if Floodgate/300 Main do well, but as far as I know The Arts hit it out of the park sales wise, and there hasn't been anything else since. So who knows.

^^ The fact that there's height limits on Broadway is insane to me. I guess I can understand the whole Joske's/Alamo situation but Broadway?? Not sure if I'll ever understand the HDRCs thinking process. I really hope someone picks up the 1603 site, such a bummer that one got shelved.

[Keep-SA-Lame]

Originally Posted by theOGalexd

Like Austin? I wish, but I doubt it. Maybe rental towers will start to sprout up more if Floodgate/300 Main do well, but as far as I know The Arts hit it out of the park sales wise, and there hasn't been anything else since. So who knows.

^^ The fact that there's height limits on Broadway is insane to me. I guess I can understand the whole Joske's/Alamo situation but Broadway?? Not sure if I'll ever understand the HDRCs thinking process. I really hope someone picks up the 1603 site, such a bummer that one got shelved.

I think the RIO districts need to be revised. A few weeks ago there was an agenda item for a P Terry's restaurant at the corner of Natalen and Broadway in Mahncke Park. It was an agenda item because even that far up, in a totally bombed out wasteland of a stroad commercial strip, those parcels along Broadway are all still within a RIO district and need HDRC review! You can't convince me a P Terry's located a fifteen minute walk from the river would have an impact and should therefore be subject to special RIO rules. There's a similar situation along like Roosevelt on the south side, near the mission reach. I'm all for RIO along the river corridor but it just seems like the actual boundaries weren't created with much thought.

[JACKinBeantown]

"A development node in this area would allow the developer to exceed the building height by 50%, which could mean BESA could build up to 15 stories."

Could the stories be 20 feet each, for a height of 300 feet? Or is there an unmentioned absolute height limit?

[jkill34]

Originally Posted by JACKinBeantown

"A development node in this area would allow the developer to exceed the building height by 50%, which could mean BESA could build up to 15 stories."

Could the stories be 20 feet each, for a height of 300 feet? Or is there an unmentioned absolute height limit?

Good point, and how were they able to propose and approve something that was 20 stories before a block over?

[wwmiv]

Originally Posted by jkill34

Good point, and how were they able to propose and approve something that was 20 stories before a block over?

Presumably, it wasn’t in the RIO overlay.

[kingkirbythe....]

Redevelopment of run-down Friedrich complex could begin this fall

https://www.expressnews.com/business...t-17392293.php

After languishing for years, redevelopment of the industrial Friedrich complex on the East Side appears set to begin soon.

The group behind the latest effort — Dallas-based Provident Realty Advisors and the San Antonio Housing Trust — expects to begin work this fall.

A U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development committee recently gave conditional approval to begin overhauling the property, a spokesperson for the housing trust said.

A HUD loan is being used to finance the development, called Friedrich Lofts. Removing hazardous materials and stabilizing structures could start next month, according to a timeline the spokesperson provided. The next steps would be environmental testing and review by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. Construction could begin in a year.

Friedrich Lofts has been in the works since at least 2018.

[babysal]

Seeing ‘ton of opportunity’ in downtown San Antonio, Weston Urban plans more apartments

San Antonio Report
by Shari Biediger
August 26, 2022

The high-profile owner and developer of several office buildings in the central business district has plans to continue changing the downtown skyline. But with more residential properties in the future.

Downtown developer Weston Urban has turned its entire focus to residential development in the urban core, said Mark Jensen, vice president of Weston Urban, speaking to a group of San Antonio commercial real estate professionals on Thursday. And that’s not about to change anytime soon.

The company founded by tech entrepreneur Graham Weston broke ground in April on an apartment tower, dubbed 300 Main after its location on a sliver of land between Main and Soledad streets.

The building will be 32 stories, matching the developer’s nearby office building, Weston Centre, and have 354 units ranging in size from studios to three-bedroom penthouses.

Weston Urban also will soon start on a residential project at 332 Commerce St. that will bring 255 units to an area along the San Pedro Creek Culture Park within two years. The developer isn’t stopping there.

Through a public-private partnership, Weston Urban has plans to convert office space into residential units in the Municipal Plaza building above City Council chambers.

“If possible, we’d like to be responsible, just within our footprint [downtown], for a couple thousand [units] over the next decade,” Jensen said. “I think we need way more than that.”

At the start of the year, around 12,000 units in more than two dozen apartment projects were under construction across all of San Antonio, according to a report by real estate analytics firm Yardi Matrix.

But newer multifamily developments in the central business district can be counted on one hand, among them the 86-unit Maverick at 606 N. Presa St. and 61 for-sale units at The Arts Residences at Thompson Hotel at 123 Lexington Ave.

In order to bring “real vibrancy” to downtown San Antonio, the urban core needs more multifamily housing, Jensen said, and estimated Weston Urban could contribute at least 2,000 to 2,500 units downtown in a variety of building types and sizes.

While San Antonio lacks the strong downtown office market that cities like Austin and Houston have, there is a “decent concentration” of office space in the central business district, Jensen said.

In addition to the Weston Centre, Weston Urban owns the Savoy, Rand, Milam and other buildings in the area. Its most recent project was an urban green space known as Legacy Park, completed in 2020. But the developer put the 24-story Frost Tower built in 2019 up for sale in January.

“We are still actively leasing office today, but that’s been slow,” Jensen said, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Downtown San Antonio is very livable, in Jensen’s view. What’s missing is residents, “people on the streets during the week after five o’clock,” he said. “And so we are focused on really changing that.”

The historic Milam building that Weston Urban acquired in 2016 could be its next project, one that would have a mix of uses including apartments.

“We joke that we work on some projects and other projects work on us,” Jensen said. For a year, the Milam has been undergoing a federal historic review so the developer can take advantage of historic tax credits in order to renovate the 1920s-era office building.

If approved this year, “then we would get cranking as fast as we could after that,” he said. “We’ve got a concept we love and a partner on board that likes it, too.”

But Weston Urban also owns several other parcels of land it wants to develop in the near future, he added. And others are looking to do the same.

“There’s a ton of opportunity in San Antonio,” Jensen said, with a lot of underutilized surface lots downtown.

That includes opportunities for owner-occupied housing. There are few condominiums in downtown San Antonio, but that could be changing, said David Robinson Jr., development manager at Weston Urban.

“For a long time … single-family residential housing prices have been so affordable so that it’s hard to justify building condos in that people didn’t perceive San Antonio as that type of market,” Robinson said.

“But I think we’re very, very, very quickly getting there. There’s a ton of demand and people want that lifestyle.”

[JACKinBeantown]

That's very promising. Hopefully the next project is one tall one instead of three mid-rises. Followed by the next tall one.

[Keep-SA-Lame]

Originally Posted by babysal

What’s missing is residents, “people on the streets during the week after five o’clock,” he said. “And so we are focused on really changing that.”

IDK chief, I worked downtown for years, and there's so many people downtown on Friday and Saturday nights that it's actually kind of unpleasant. Houston, Losoya and Presa all turn into comically jammed parking lots, doubly so if there's something going on at the Majestic. DTSA has lightyears more after 5 appeal than almost any other CBD I can think of. Granted, that's driven primarily by tourism. And I welcome the apartments with open arms so we can have a downtown that's more oriented towards locals than folks from out of town. But wherever the bodies are from, it ain't exactly a ghost town.

Anyway, regardless of all that, if even half of Weston's apartment dreams come to fruition, the west side of downtown is going to be dramatically different. West of Main is really developing as a non-touristy quarter of downtown. These apartment plans plus UTSA, San Pedro Creek etc, hopefully it will eventually snowball into demand for a significant amount of retail, and we'll have a bonafide vibrant urban neighborhood on our hands.

Edit: Maybe one day we can make Market Square be an actual market again and not just tourist garbage, once there's more residents in the immediate area. Now if I could just get Ron on the line....

[theOGalexd]

Originally Posted by JACKinBeantown

That's very promising. Hopefully the next project is one tall one instead of three mid-rises. Followed by the next tall one.

Some 5-600 footers would really do wonders for the skyline. Getting a few doesn't seem unreasonable given the fact that Austin is turning those out like clockwork and lots of people are making the move down here from ATX.