Exclusive: $100 million project aims to be San Antonio’s new ‘front door’
By Mitchell Parton – Reporter, San Antonio Business Journal
Apr 10, 2020, 1:19pm CDT Updated Apr 15, 2020, 8:38am CDT
The typical drive from the airport to downtown San Antonio will soon to change forever once the vision of local developers comes to fruition.
San Antonio-based Embrey Partners Ltd. secured financing of an undisclosed amount with Wells Fargo Bank April 3 to build a 338-unit apartment complex along Route 281, according to a deed of trust filed with Bexar County.
The Borden Park apartment project at 815 East Ashby St., to be built on what is currently a self-storage facility, is part of the revitalization of the adjacent former Borden Creamery property.
The property had been on the eyes of local investors from some time, Jimmy McCloskey, executive vice president for development for Embrey, told the Business Journal.
Embrey finally acquired the property late 2019 after more than a year of talks with the storage facility’s owners. Serving both as a developer and general contractor, the company saw an opportunity to revitalize a property with high visibility, given its close proximity to the highway, Pearl and the St. Mary’s strip.
“To me, it really is the front door of the city,” McCloskey said. “It is what you see before even getting to the Pearl district. As you are driving to downtown from the airport, you pass this, and it’s kind of an eyesore.”
Area Real Estate, led by local developer David Adelman, will redevelop the former dairy plant built in 1929 into a 60,000-square-foot office and retail space. Adelman’s firm recently completed the ’68 near Hemisfair downtown and is known for other historic renovations such as the Maverick Apartments and the Burns Building downtown.
“In my opinion, no one does it better in terms of revitalizing old buildings and historical structures,” McCloskey said. “It was a natural call to reach out to him.”
As for the apartment complex, McCloskey said the design will incorporate features of the Borden building’s art deco architecture.
“We wanted to take some of those elements to our building but with a contemporary look as well,” he said. “We wanted it to have some freshness to it. I think we really hit that.”
McCloskey said the apartments will be geared toward young professionals working in offices around Pearl or on Broadway Street.
The total development cost for the project, including both the apartments and the office/retail project is estimated to be $100 million, according to a San Antonio City Council ordinance passed Oct. 3 in which the city agreed to contribute $4 million to support the river and trail improvements surrounding the project.
Both developments received approval from the Historic and Design Review Commission in February and March.
Construction on the apartment complex portion of the site is scheduled to begin in July, with completion estimated for July 2023.