| sirkingwilliam |
Mar 28, 2008 5:28 AM |
{SA} The Town Center at La Cantera - 178 Acre Mixed-Use Adjacent to The Shops
The Town Center at La Cantera
This is the phase III I was talking about. Though it is bigger than I thought and is actually going to be marketed separately from The Shops as a new development in La Cantera. Although phase I of Town Center will not have a high-rise component, eventually it will.
Quote:
Latest La Cantera project is mixed-use Town Center
Web Posted: 03/27/2008 11:08 PM CDT
Creighton A. Welch and Melissa Monroe
Express-News Business Writers
Last week, USAA Real Estate Co. unveiled its expansion plans for Phase II of The Shops at La Cantera. This week, the new projects continue to roll out.
USAA Real Estate Co. announced today that it is taking its 1,700-acre La Cantera development to the next level, and soon will start building The Town Center at La Cantera, a 178-acre mixed-use development along Interstate 10 and Loop 1604.
"This is the future of long-term development in the U.S.," said James Loyd, executive managing director at USAA Real Estate Co.
The first phase of the project, on about 40 acres, will have 500 loft-style apartments built on top of 200,000 square feet of neighborhood retail space, plus nearly 1 million square feet of office space and a 200-room boutique hotel.
Details about the developer and brand of hotel were not released. The first phase is expected to take five years to complete.
"The significance of the project is that it's a continuation of bringing retail and office and providing that commercial development to an area that has had a pent-up demand for quite a while," said Kimberly Gatley, senior vice president and director of research with NAI REOC Partners, a local real estate firm. "They're really servicing a need that has been there for some time."
The Town Center will focus on walkability and will have several parking garages rather than huge surface lots. Each building is expected to be Leadership in Energy Efficiency and Design certified for green building.
"If you look at it in terms of the environment, it should have a much less negative impact than other projects," Loyd said. "Due to our financial strength, we can afford to do this right, and will do it right."
Development in La Cantera has been unfolding slowly over the years, beginning with such landmarks as Six Flags Fiesta Texas and the Westin La Cantera Resort.
"It has always been kind of a long-term vision and focus for us," said T. Patrick Duncan, president and CEO of USAA Real Estate Co.
In 2005, The Shops at La Cantera opened as an open-air retail village with a Texas Hill Country architectural theme. High-end retailers at the center include a Nordstrom, Neiman Marcus, Tiffany & Co. and Anthropologie — which are all a first for San Antonio.
"Pointing to the hugely successful Shops at La Cantera, the next natural step is to have further development that complements all of that," Gatley said. "They're really going for this 24-hour lifestyle center, and the apartments are a big component of that."
In the last three years, The Rim shopping center has risen across the highway with midscale retailers such as Best Buy, JCPenney and the hunter's paradise of Bass Pro Shops. The Rim also is expected to have several hotels added to the mix in the next several years.
Just north of the La Cantera property, a Dutch company has broken ground on éilan, a 120-acre development that eventually will have about 1,400 apartments, 200,000 square feet of office space, a 150- to 200-room hotel and spa and 30,000 square feet of retail space.
More hotel developers are scouting the area around Interstate 10 and Loop 1604 for spots because of the increased activity from The Shops at La Cantera and The Rim, said Doug Sutton, executive vice president of San Antonio-based Source Strategies, a hotel consulting firm.
Sutton, who's familiar with the proposed boutique hotel at La Cantera, said there's a lot of interest from many hotel brands wanting to be in the area.
In addition to a new Staybridge Suites and Drury hotel under construction near La Cantera, Sutton said, he's heard talks about a possible Sheraton Four Points and Embassy Suites.
"Historically, that area used to be just a good stopping point," he said. "It's a different economy now with The Shops at La Cantera, The Rim and Bass Pro."
Sutton cautioned that he didn't think the area could support too many high-end hotels. He added hotel developers still have to compete with hotels downtown — typically the prime spot for visitors.
The office component at The Town Center at La Cantera should be successful because of all the residential development that's taken place in the outskirts of San Antonio, Gatley said.
"You have some very affluent neighborhoods around there, and it makes it a very easy commute to have office buildings," Gatley said. "The people who live out there are the decision-makers in the city."
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