Completing the Quarry
Web Posted: 02/26/2007 07:56 PM CST
Rachel Stone
Express-News Business Writer
The final piece to one of San Antonio's most prominent master-planned communities begins taking shape today.
Embrey Partners Ltd. expects to break ground today on a 12.74-acre mixed-use development near East Basse Road and Jones Maltsberger, the last undeveloped tract at the Quarry development.Embrey's new luxury mixed-use development, Quarry Village, comes almost 100 years after Alamo Cement Co. workers first took up residence in "Cementville," a company town that included a Catholic church and an elementary school near what now are Jones Maltsberger and U.S. 281
Redevelopment of the old quarry into a retail center started in the 1980s, and gained a substantial foothold in San Antonio's shopping scene when the Alamo Quarry Market opened in 1997.
The first phase of Quarry Village will open next summer and is slated to include 280 luxury apartments rising three stories atop 70,000 square feet of retail space, built around a concealed parking garage.
The Tuscany-inspired complex is designed to feel like a pedestrian-friendly village, Embrey vice president of development Jeff Booth said. The project's second phase, which begins in 2008, will include office space and 30,000 square feet of retail space.
It is the last piece of a master plan that included the Quarry Golf Club, the Alamo Quarry Market, headquarters of Clear Channel Communications Inc., the Meridian apartments, medical offices and the Quarry Village, Booth said.
San Antonio-based Embrey borrowed more than $59 million to buy the property in December, according to county records. Development companies Bitterblue Inc. and Alamo Gardens Inc. are partners in the project. Alamo Gardens sold Embrey the acreage for the Quarry Village.
The apartments, Artessa at Quarry Village, will range from 600 square feet to 2,934 square feet. As many as 185 of the apartment units will have views of the golf course. The apartments are expected to lease for about $1.55 per square foot, or between $930 and $4,547 a month, substantially more than average, even for Alamo Heights.
The average rent for San Antonio is about $680 per month, according to real estate brokerage Marcus & Millichap. In Alamo Heights and the area around the Quarry, the average rent per square foot is about $1.15.
The Artessa comes with all the luxury standards — granite countertops, garden tubs, wood flooring, designer lighting and walk-in closets.
Plans for the project took about four years to put together, Booth said.
"It's pretty spectacular real estate, so we wanted to take our time and do something that hadn't been done before," he said.
Artessa residents will have access to four courtyards facing the golf course, two of which will have pools.
But the real stunner is a 6,000-square-foot, two-story clubhouse. It's set to include fitness and business centers, two lounge areas with flat-screen TVs, a pool table, a catering kitchen and a wine-storage area with a tasting room.
"We didn't want (the clubhouse) to be a secondary statement," Booth said.
Developers first turned their sights on the Quarry with aims for renovation a year before Alamo Cement closed it in 1985, according to Express-News archives.
Trammell Crow Co. built the 50-acre Alamo Quarry Market retail center. Before that, Alamo Cement's old smokestacks, visible from U.S. 281, had been considered an eyesore.
But Dallas architecture firm Hodges & Associates turned the smokestacks into beacons that draw shoppers from cross-town traffic.
The primary Quarry Village architect is Beeler Guest Owens Architects of Dallas. RVK Architects, a San Antonio-based firm, is the architect of two of the free-standing retail buildings in the project.
Booth expects the Quarry Village to enjoy a similar success to that of the Alamo Quarry Market.
"We wanted a live, work, play type of atmosphere," Booth said. "That was our approach from day one — we maximized all the features of this site with that development."
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