SAN ANTONIO | 1,000 Unit Mixed-Use Tobin Hill Development | Proposed

[sirkingwilliam]

Harris Bay planning 1,000-unit, mixed-use development in rapidly-growing Tobin Hill

North of downtown, California developer Jake Harris, who has been establishing a strong presence in San Antonio through his company Harris Bay in recent years, is planning to build a 1,000-unit, mixed-use apartment complex on West Josephine Street that would also touch the St. Mary’s Strip.

It would add to the flurry of housing developments that are either in the planning stage or under construction—roughly 2,500 new apartments—in Tobin Hill, making this area the hottest submarket in the downtown area, and perhaps all of San Antonio.

The Harris Bay project would consist of four mixed-use buildings on roughly 5.7 acres with 70,000 square feet of retail space, and 1,075 parking spaces. One of the buildings would abut Nathaniel Hawthorne Academy. Another would be built on West Grayson, across from The Lonesome Rose, and next to Polk Street, which Harris envisions as being closed to traffic and turned into a pedestrian area lined with shops and restaurants.

[jkill34]

This would be a nice addition to the St. Mary's strip. I like it.

[Tornado]

agree. I really like this one too

[JACKinBeantown]

Looks good to me.

[Keep-SA-Lame]

Closing that side street to cars would make this corner really interesting. That plus the relatively large amount of retail included makes this a better project than most of the other modernist mid/lowrise boxes that have gone up here lately. Thumbs up.

The two largest buildings have 25k/22k sf of retail... assuming they're contiguous, each of those would be bigger than a typical trader Joes but smaller than an HEB or even a Whole Foods (SoFlo HEB excepted, but that doesn't seem like a model they're keen to replicate). So, sort of an odd size for a grocer, but there's plenty of other useful neighborhood retail that could use spaces that big.

There's a handful of buildings they want to demolish that I will mourn... but on balance the neighborhood comes out ahead here.

[theOGalexd]

Looks good, I hope it happens and they can get the ball rolling on something here. I'm not sure if I've seen them actually get started on something.

[CWalk99]

It looks like this one is moving forward as demolition permits were submitted for all of the existing properties - they also uploaded the district plan that includes zone restrictions for heights. I think this wasn't supposed to break ground for another year but pretty exciting nonetheless

[jkill34]

Originally Posted by CWalk99

It looks like this one is moving forward as demolition permits were submitted for all of the existing properties - they also uploaded the district plan that includes zone restrictions for heights. I think this wasn't supposed to break ground for another year but pretty exciting nonetheless

When you say Zone Restrictions for heights. Are you saying they reversed that height restriction or enforcing it?

[CWalk99]

Originally Posted by jkill34

When you say Zone Restrictions for heights. Are you saying they reversed that height restriction or enforcing it?

I think they're just enforcing the height restrictions based on the zone the buildings now fall under? That's just my guess as to why these almost all have a max height of 78 ft and why two of them have street setback requirements

What's odd is that in the original article all of the buildings had height limits of 120 - 150 feet

[jkill34]

Originally Posted by CWalk99

I think they're just enforcing the height restrictions based on the zone the buildings now fall under? That's just my guess as to why these almost all have a max height of 78 ft and why two of them have street setback requirements

What's odd is that in the original article all of the buildings had height limits of 120 - 150 feet

Thank you for the clarification. It's pretty ridiculous that we have a height restriction of 78 ft max in that area. Looking at the number of apartments they want to fit in those spaces with a max height of 78 ft and 50 ft is absurd. Those rooms must be 500 sq/ft each and only studios. And the parking spaces must be compact only. Just not sure how they will pull this off with that height restriction.

[jkill34]

https://www.bizjournals.com/sananton...molitions.html
San Antonio Business Journal

Is the demolition supposed to make way for this project?

[Rynetwo]

Originally Posted by jkill34

https://www.bizjournals.com/sananton...molitions.html
San Antonio Business Journal

Is the demolition supposed to make way for this project?

From the article:

Site work is clearing the path for a massive apartment project in Tobin Hill.

Houston-based real estate developer Rockspring is systematically clearing away structures along West Josephine Street, just east of the St. Mary's Strip, to make way for a 900-unit apartment project. The company has applied for several demolition permits in recent months, most recently for structures at 252 and 300 W. Josephine St., according to municipal records.

Plans submitted to the city in 2022 call for four separate apartment buildings with a total of 900 residential units, 950 parking spots and 60,000 square feet of commercial space. The most recent updates, filed for a zoning change request, outline 260 units, 35 parking spots and 5,000 square feet of commercial space for "site B."

https://www.bizjournals.com/sananton...Pos=2#cxrecs_s