Wondering what will emerge from the cranes and bulldozers around downtown San Antonio?
Apartments, hotels and headquarters are in the works for neighborhoods in and around the city’s urban core. The final touches are being put on some developments, such as CPS Energy’s new headquarters, while residents may have to wait longer to see others materialize.
Here’s an update on major projects in the area.
The Soto
Local developer Hixon Properties and the Cavender auto family are constructing a six-story office building on the site of the former Cavender Cadillac dealership on Broadway.
Dubbed The Soto for the Spanish word for “grove of trees” or “small forest,” it’s the first large-scale mass timber project in Texas and the fourth in the U.S., according to John Beauchamp, chief investment officer at Hixon.
The building will have roughly 140,600 square feet of tenant space and ground-floor retail. It should be finished in April, Beauchamp said.
Credit Human’s new headquarters
The shell of Credit Human’s new headquarters at Broadway and Pearl Parkway will be finished in the first or second quarter of 2020, said Elizabeth Fauerso, a spokeswoman for the Pearl complex. The finish-out process will begin then and the 12-story building should open late next year.
Credit Human, which is moving from 6061 W. Interstate 10, is working with Pearl developer Silver Ventures on the project and developing the building with the help of $8.8 million in tax abatements and rebates from the city and Bexar County.
A second eight-story tower with a mix of office, retail and restaurant space is being constructed next door for Bank of America and other tenants. It’s expected to be finished in the second quarter of 2020.
The two towers will share a plaza, fountain and park area and will be the first commercial buildings in San Antonio to use geothermal power for heating and cooling.
Jefferson Bank’s new headquarters
Jefferson Bank is planning to build a 12-story tower downtown to house its headquarters. Executives bought 1.7 acres at Broadway and East Grayson last year, kitty-corner to the Credit Human complex.
The land has already been cleared and the bank plans to break ground in the first half of 2020, spokeswoman Lindsay Armstrong said.
Jefferson Bank will continue using its current headquarters on the North Side as a banking center, but executives and lenders will start moving downtown in April 2022, she said.
Hotel Sul Fiume
This summer, the city’s Historic and Design Review Commission gave its initial approval to plans to tear down the rectory at St. Mary’s Catholic Church downtown and construct a 14-story, 147-room hotel dubbed Hotel Sul Fiume, or Hotel on the River in Italian.
The group proposing the project, SMS-SAR Hospitality LLC, includes developer Anthony Byron and the U.S. Province of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate. The Archdiocese of San Antonio would lease the property next to the church to the developer, and a new rectory and office with a separate entrance would be built for the church inside the hotel.
An unidentified hotel brand would manage the property, and renderings also show a restaurant and a cafe or retail space in the building. The archdiocese directed questions to Byron, who didn’t respond to inquiries.
Riverview Towers hotel
Winston Hotels plans to convert much of the 20-story Riverview Towers building downtown into a dual-branded AC Hotel by Marriott and an Element Hotel by Westin.
The North Carolina firm received final approval for the project in October and expects to close on the purchase of the property at 111 Soledad by year’s end, vice president of development Mathew Jalazo said at the time. Winston, which is buying it from Primera Partners, will likely benefit from the site’s location within a federal opportunity zone.
The building has roughly 280,000 square feet of office space, and the developer is keeping about 70,000 square feet of it as such. Work on the renovations, which will include a restaurant and rooftop bar, will start next year, Jalazo said previously.
GrayStreet’s Broadway tower and downtown renovations
Local firm GrayStreet Partners plans to build a 20-story hotel and office tower on Broadway near the Pearl. Nearly a year ago, the HDRC gave GrayStreet approval to start site work on the project, which will also include ground-floor retail.
Luxury chain W Hotels wants to open a 195-room location in the building. The hotel is in the planning stages, parent company Marriott International told data firm STR, which tracks the hospitality industry.
Farther down Broadway Street, GrayStreet is in the process of rehabilitating the former San Antonio Light building into offices. The firm is also renovating the Kress and Grant buildings on Houston downtown for co-working giant WeWork and a food hall.
Ownership of the Kress building was recently restructured, but GrayStreet remains the developer, city spokesman Carlos Valenzuela said. City Council members OK’d about $1.3 million this summer to help GrayStreet make cosmetic changes to the buildings.
The firm’s development director, Peter French, didn’t respond to multiple inquiries.
CPS Energy’s new headquarters
The local utility’s new headquarters at McCullough and Avenue B is expected to be finished next summer and employees will start moving in soon afterward, spokesperson Melissa Sorola said.
Construction crews are working to turn buildings formerly occupied by AT&T and Valero Energy Corp. into the utility’s new $210 million hub. The exterior is 98 percent complete and interior work is underway, Sorola said.
To help cover the cost of its new headquarters, CPS put more than $50 million worth of its properties up for sale in April, including its current headquarters on Navarro and the Villita Assembly Building. CPS is still reviewing proposals, Sorola said.
DC Partners’ luxury hotel and condominium tower
Construction of The Arts Residences at the Thompson San Antonio hotel is expected to wrap up in the second quarter of 2020.
The $116 million project at 123 Lexington includes 59 luxury condominiums and 162 premium hotel rooms along with a restaurant, spa and other amenities. Eighty-five percent of the condos have been sold.
The high-rise, developed by DC Partners, received a $10 million incentive package from the city through the Center City Housing Incentive Policy, a program intended to spur downtown development. The initiative offers developers property tax rebates and construction loans, forgivable under certain conditions, to build housing downtown.
The package for DC Partners was the largest ever awarded under the policy before it was overhauled by City Council last year. Changes to the program are intended to expand the program’s reach beyond downtown and establish affordable housing requirements for developments that receive incentives.
Main Plaza hotel, retail and office building
REM Hospitality wants to build a tower at Main Plaza with a 184-room Cambria hotel, office and retail space and a restaurant.
The local firm bought the land at 100 N. Main in 2016 and partner Anand Bhakta previously said REM was working on securing financing. REM didn’t respond to recent inquiries.
Burns building
Work on the five-story Burns building at 401 E. Houston is nearly done.
Local developer David Adelman of Area Real Estate turned the upper floors into roughly 40,000 square feet of creative office space. PricewaterhouseCoopers and Aptum, formerly known as Cogeco Peer 1, are leasing several floors; the fifth floor is still available, urban development manager Luis Martinez said.
Commonwealth Coffeehouse & Bakery recently opened a kiosk in the lobby near Traveler Barbershop, and construction is underway on a tasting room, bottling facility and other space for Devils River Whiskey. Work is expected to wrap up in March, Martinez said.
Canopy by Hilton hotel
Chris Hill, who owns Esquire Tavern, is constructing a 197-room hotel near the downtown bar on East Commerce.
The Canopy by Hilton hotel is expected to open next summer, said Patrick Shearer, president of Crockett Urban Ventures, which is building the hotel. It will be managed by White Lodging, an Indiana-based hotel management company, he said.
Hill is also redeveloping the nearby Witte building.
Essex Modern City and boutique hotel
California investment firm Harris Bay is planning two projects around downtown: a $150 million mixed-use project at Essex and South Cherry, dubbed Essex Modern City, and a 112-room hotel on Travis.
Essex Modern City could include office space, retail, apartments, condominiums, townhomes and a food hall, but progress has been held up by efforts to have the area designated as a quiet zone, Harris Bay co-founder Jake Harris said previously. Local developer Efraim Varga ended his involvement in the project earlier this year.
In the meantime, Harris Bay has been hosting events at the property, which is decorated with colorful murals.
The firm has also proposed building a boutique hotel on a 0.2-acre lot it bought this spring and will likely benefit from the property’s location within a federal opportunity zone. Harris previously said the firm was in talks with companies to manage and operate the hotel.
He didn’t respond to inquiries about both projects.
Floodgate apartments
Construction on an apartment tower on East Commerce next to Esquire Tavern is is expected to start by the end of 2019, according to city documents.
The project, spearheaded by local developer Keller Henderson, will include 63 rental units and roughly 10,000 square feet of commercial retail space, per an amended agreement under San Antonio’s Center City Housing Incentive Policy.
The developer plans to put $43 million into the project, with construction wrapping up by Nov. 30, 2021, and will receive $3.9 million worth of incentives.
The city initially OK’d incentives for the tower in 2017, with the developer planning to build 53 units and 15,000 square feet of commercial retail space, invest $40 million and finish construction by the end of October 2020.
The Floodgate Tower was first proposed in 2016 as a 10-story building and was later amended to reach 17 stories. Messages left for Henderson weren’t returned.
Twin towers
The San Antonio Housing Authority and Dallas-based JMJ Development are teaming up to build a 24-story, $62 million tower downtown, just across the street from a second tower JMJ is planning.
SAHA commissioners voted in August to work out an agreement with JMJ to construct a high-rise at the corner of Villita and South St. Mary’s. Half of the building’s 250 apartments would be set aside for renters making 80 percent or less of the area’s median income — which ranges from $39,800 to $75,000 depending on family size — with the rest offered at market rates. In return, the project would be exempt from property taxes.
Tim Alcott, SAHA’s real estate and legal officer, said at the time the organization and JMJ were looking at financing options such as tax credits and bonds. The developer hasn’t found financing, a SAHA spokesperson said recently. SAHA’s board will evaluate the project again after JMJ comes back with financing.
The firm wants to build a second $70 million apartment building nearby without SAHA’s involvement. The project, which is expected to include 226 apartments along with office and retail space, received initial approval from the HDRC in January.