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Posted Dec 6, 2025, 6:10 AM
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Registered User
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Join Date: Dec 2011
Posts: 1,004
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Here we go again 
https://www.expressnews.com/news/article...brewery-mission-power-plant-21221828.php
Quote:
Another developer is taking a swing at the former Lone Star Brewery complex — and he has much larger plans than his predecessors.
Southstar, headed by CEO Thad Rutherford, is seeking to buy more than 70 acres on both sides of the San Antonio River south of downtown. That includes the dilapidated Lone Star site, adjacent properties owned by the Newell family and CPS Energy, and the city-owned utility’s defunct power plant on Mission Road.
The New Braunfels-based development company is buying the Lone Star complex from GrayStreet Partners and Midway, a deal that’s expected to close soon, said GrayStreet managing partner Kevin Covey.
Southstar would take the lead on developing the property, while GrayStreet and Midway would remain financial partners in the undertaking, Covey said. Southstar would likely draw on the site plan GrayStreet and Midway proposed several years ago, which featured more than 1 million square feet of apartments, retail and restaurant space, a hotel and outdoor plazas built over the course of a decade.
“We’re really excited about it,” Covey said.
Southstar is in talks to buy land the Newell family owns next to the former brewery, which is occupied by a recycling facility, along with CPS’ sites on both sides of the river, Covey said. Other sources familiar with Southstar’s plans also confirmed the company’s pursuit of the sites.
Rutherford declined to comment, and representatives for the Newell family did not respond to inquiries. A CPS spokesperson said the utility cannot comment on transactions until contracts or sales are finalized.
Southstar is seeking to buy more than 70 acres on both sides of the San Antonio River, including the former Lone Star Brewery complex and CPS Energy's defunct Mission Road Power Plant.
The purchases would give Southstar a broad canvas — 70-plus acres — to transform a quiet stretch of the river that borders industrial buildings and modest single-family houses in the Roosevelt neighborhood. By comparison, the footprint of the former Pearl brewery is about 22 acres and Hemisfair is about 40 acres.
But multiple attempts by previous developers to overhaul the Lone Star complex and power plant site have failed, and residents of the area have grown increasingly skeptical that either property will be redeveloped.
Southstar has a track record of amassing hundreds of acres — in some cases, land where other owners’ plans have stalled — and creating communities with a variety of housing, stores, schools, restaurants and parks.
The company’s projects include Vida near Texas A&M University-San Antonio and Mission del Lago, both on San Antonio’s South Side, along with Mayfair and Vintage Oaks in New Braunfels.
With Vida, Southstar acquired land that Verano Land Group failed to develop around A&M and is building housing, commercial space and a plaza for events. Mission del Lago’s construction was also at a standstill in the hands of another owner until Southstar took over and added single-family homes, apartments, an elementary school and a municipal golf course.
Southstar used tax increment reinvestment zones to pay for roads, streets, utilities and other infrastructure for those projects. The Lone Star complex and the other properties are part of San Antonio’s Inner City and Westside reinvestment zones.
The one-time brewery is in Councilwoman Teri Castillo’s District 5. She said she’s had preliminary conversations with Rutherford about the acquisitions, and that she highlighted the need for affordable housing, in alignment with the city’s housing goals.
She said area residents are eager to see something finally done with the vacant Lone Star site.
The brewery closed in 1996 and gradually fell into disrepair, attracting vagrants, thrill-seekers and graffiti artists. At least five attempts to remake the property have been stymied by financial problems, bankruptcies and environmental issues.
San Antonio-based Graystreet and Houston-based Midway were behind the most recent effort.
The companies bought the 32-acre site for $14.45 million in 2020 and proposed building housing, stores, restaurants and parking to create a $709 million development called the “Lone Star District.”
But in 2022, they put the property on the market. Covey attributed the lack of progress to elevated interest rates and construction costs in the wake of the pandemic and sluggish rent growth in the multifamily sector, challenges he said are starting to ease.
GrayStreet and Midway executives are “picky” about who they will sell the property to, but Rutherford’s experience spearheading “holistic” developments appealed to them, Covey said. Other prospective buyers wanted to build warehouses.
“Thad’s got the energy and excitement to move it forward. He’s the right guy,” Covey said. “That place and that neighborhood need a cohesive community tie.”
Covey said he initially planned to acquire nearby properties, like Rutherford is doing now, because it would give GrayStreet and Midway more control over what’s nearby. People might not want to rent an apartment or visit a store next to a recycling plant, he said.
“The scare is always having someone come in and develop something that detracts from (a project),” Covey said. “It’s a risk-mitigation effort.”
The Newell family sold the Lone Star complex in 2015 but held onto adjacent properties along Steves Avenue and Probandt Street, where it operated a recycling business for decades. It sold its recycling assets to CMC Recycling in 2014 and leases the land to the company.
CPS owns land along Gugert Street next to the Lone Star and Newell properties and decommissioned its power plant across the river in 2003. The utility said in 2015 that it would create a hub for energy innovation dubbed EPIcenter, but the center pulled the plug on the project in 2020 after struggling to raise enough money. CPS put the property up for sale in 2021.
Whether the Lone Star complex will finally be revitalized is a question now hanging over the area.
“It’s been in the making for three decades, and I was just the last fool to attempt it,” Covey said. “There’s a reason this is happening now. The environment is starting to change.”
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