Developers see need for S. Side community
Web Posted: 06/26/2007 08:26 PM CDT
http://www.mysanantonio.com/business...O.2c3c1df.html
Rachel Stone
Express-News Business Writer
When developer Bernie Glieberman told builders about his plan to create a master-planned community on the South Side of San Antonio, they snickered.
The chief executive officer of Michigan-based Crosswinds National LLC is accustomed to naysayers.
People couldn't believe it in the late 1990s when he wanted to build new houses on 43 acres in downtown Detroit, he said. But now homes there are among the city's most expensive landlocked residences. "We proved them wrong," he said.
Glieberman intends to do the same thing with the Preserve at Medina River, a 532-acre master-planned project near Texas 16 and Watson Road. In such a community, all the development plans and sites are set aside before work begins.
The Preserve at Medina River is expected to be the largest master-planned community on the city's South Side.
"You can't get a better site than this," Glieberman said Tuesday at a preview for the development.
The project will include 1,560 single- and multi-family homes, 65 acres of commercial property, a school and a 160-acre park that will connect to the Medina River Natural Area.
Crosswinds and its San Antonio-based partner, Presto Capital, are expected to start readying the first home sites this fall. Lots are expected to be available for builders in 2008, and homes could be ready in 2009.
The homes are expected to sell for between $150,000 and $350,000.
"There were people building single-family housing" on the South Side, said Fermin Rajunov, president of Presto Capital. "But I see the need for a master-planned community."
The development is near the Toyota manufacturing plant, Brooks City Base, Port San Antonio and a planned Texas A&M University campus.
The city created a Public Improvement District for the development, which means the developers can get reimbursed for infrastructure costs, including streets, sidewalks, public utilities and drainage.
The Preserve at Medina River is within the area that former Mayor Ed Garza targeted in the City South Initiative, which sought to answer North Side growth with new development and "housing diversity" on the South Side.
South San Antonio Chamber of Commerce President Cindy Taylor said she was on a committee that preceded the City South Initiative. "We're here, baby. We're here," she said Tuesday. "Diversity in housing can be marked off our list."
She presented a trophy to Mark Singerman, Western region president of Crosswinds National. It reads "Welcome to the 'Hood."
Henry Cisneros is familiar with the neighborhood and similar developments. The former secretary of Housing and Urban Development now runs CityView, a housing investment firm.
"This will ensure that San Antonio will grow in a more balanced way than ever before," Cisneros said of the development.
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