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McCombs family moving ahead with project near art museum, Pearl
Plans submitted to the city call for apartments, offices, stores, restaurant space and parking next to the San Antonio Museum of Art.
By Madison Iszler,
The late Red McCombs’ company is moving forward with plans to build housing, offices and stores next to the San Antonio Museum of Art — a major project that would be part of a bevy of development unfolding near Pearl.
McCombs Family Partners Ltd. is seeking to rezone about 6 acres at 326 W. Jones Ave. to allow for the 783,110-square-foot development.
The company's plans call for building 390 apartments, 265,000 square feet of offices, nearly 65,000 square feet of restaurant space, 58,000 square feet of shops, a 33,000-square-foot gym and parking garages across eight buildings, according to documents it submitted to the city in early November.
A 17-story apartment complex would be built at West Jones Avenue and Camden Street, flanked by a seven-story garage and a four-story building along Camden Street, a site plan shows. A 10-story building would be constructed facing the San Antonio River, with four three-story buildings next to the museum.
City staffers are reviewing the rezoning request and preliminary plans, which were released in response to a public records request.
McCombs Family Partners is asking to change the property’s designation from a form-based zoning district to a high-intensity infill development zone with office and commercial uses. That would give the company more flexibility with designs, setbacks and parking and allow for more density.
Rezoning is a crucial early step in the development process and the request is set to be taken up Tuesday by the Zoning Commission. The commission makes recommendations to the City Council, which has the final say on changes.
The property was originally part of the former Lone Star Brewery and was later used as a CPS Energy service center. It includes three vacant buildings as well as a small garage and guard house. McCombs Family Partners bought it from CPS for $29.5 million.
Real estate was a key part of the portfolio of late businessman B.J. “Red” McCombs, who died Feb. 19, 2023, about three weeks after CPS’ board approved the sale. McCombs was a Texas titan, a self-described “car peddler” who became a billionaire with an empire that included auto dealerships, communications, sports teams, oil and gas exploration and ranching and part of a group that helped bring the NBA team that became the Spurs to San Antonio.
The Texas Legislature approved creating a municipal management district for the company’s development the same year McCombs died. The mechanism allows McCombs Family Partners to levy additional taxes and fees on property owners within the boundaries of the district to finance certain improvements and services, such as streets and sidewalks. It also allows the district to issue bonds.
Some aspects of the initial design appear to have changed since 2023, when McCombs Family Partners described a 528,375-square-foot project in documents that the city released in response to a public records request.
That $295.2 million plan showed a six-story building with 179 apartments and retail space wrapped around a 521-space parking garage, a 13-story building with 146 apartments and space for retail, another 383-space parking garage with more retail space, a 146-room hotel and a four-story, 70,000-square-foot office building interspersed with public art and outdoor plazas.
The more recent documents don’t include a hotel and call for more office space and apartments. It’s also unclear whether the cost estimate has changed.
Company leaders have said little publicly about the project, and declined to comment on their plans Wednesday. Managing executive Harry Adams previously said they want to improve the connection between the museum and Pearl.
“We want it to be timeless, to be catalytic, to help change in a good way this particular stretch of Museum Reach, to be approachable by all types and to be well done,” Adams said in an interview in 2023. “It’s part of Red’s legacy, in our eyes.”
The development would be part of an array of projects fanning out around Pearl.
Houston-based Urban Genesis built apartments across the street from the McCombs Family Partners’ site and another complex about two blocks north in 2024. Across Interstate 35 from the property, Oxbow Development Group, the real estate arm of Pearl owner Silver Ventures, is building more apartments, restaurants and hotel rooms across the San Antonio River from the former brewery.
Farther south, in the downtown area, the McCombs family is part of a group that acquired the Tower Life Building in 2022 and is converting it from offices to apartments. It also owns about 4½ acres at 318 W. César E. Chávez Blvd., the site of a former Holiday Inn that was later used as a homeless shelter. The McCombs family had long owned the property, but bought out the ground lease for the shelter in 2024.
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