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Posted Oct 9, 2017, 9:57 PM
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James
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Join Date: May 2004
Location: San Antonio, Tx
Posts: 2,469
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Found the article online.
Quote:
Dozens of major construction projects are under way in San Antonio as the local housing market soars and developers rush to construct hotels, apartment complexes and office buildings downtown.
There are already a few construction cranes looming over San Antonio’s skyline, and if everything goes as planned there will be almost a half-dozen more within the next year.
So many developments have been announced recently, in fact, that it’s hard to keep track of them all. But many projects are behind schedule due to design changes, unexpected complications in construction, or delays in getting approval from local governments, developers said.
Here’s a look at where several large projects stand.
Essex Modern City
What is it: A $150 million mixed-use development just east of downtown with 80,000 square feet of creative office space, 65,000 square feet of retail, 248 apartments, 160 condominiums, 80 townhomes and a food hall.
Original plans: Local developer Efraim Varga and investment firm Harris Bay of California said earlier this year that they expected to break ground by the end of this year.
Current status: The developers are about six months away from being done with the project’s design, said Jake Harris, co-founder of Harris Bay. They’re negotiating with Union Pacific to create a “quiet zone” along the railroad track that runs alongside the property and hope to break ground around the beginning of next year, he said.
“There’s a brand new mayor and council members, and they’ve been very busy with passing a city budget,” he said.
Harris and Varga plan to finance the project with a combination of bank loans and by teaming up with other partners. They have tentative financing agreements for some portions of the project, he said. It could take 3 years to 5 years to complete, Harris said.
The Arts residences
What is it: A $116 million high-rise with 167 premium hotel rooms and 58 condominiums.
Original plans: When the project was announced in 2016, its leaders said they expected to complete it by 2019.
Current status: The project will break ground in the fourth quarter of this year and is still set to be finished in 2019, said Lesley Hile Ford, a spokeswoman for development firm DC Partners, in an email.
The firm has brought on Jordan Foster Construction as a general contractor, and 35 percent of the tower’s condominiums already have been sold, Ford said. DC Partners is considering adding another floor due to increased demand, she said.
100 N. Main hotel and office tower
What is it: A roughly $45 million tower on Main Plaza with 45,000 square feet of office space and 184 rooms from the boutique Cambria hotel brand.
Original plans: Local hotel development group REM Hospitality said they wanted to break ground in December of last year.
Current status: The developers now hope to start construction around April, said Anand Bhakta, one of the partners in REM. But the groundbreaking could end up later because they are working with the city to make sure the construction doesn’t interfere with festivities for San Antonio’s tricentennial, he said.
The project made it through the city’s historic approval process, but it is awaiting a signature from Mayor Ron Nirenberg to qualify for the federal government’s EB5 program, which allows foreigners to invest at least $500,000 in a development in order to get a green card, Bhakta said. Nirenberg needs to certify that the project is in an area with high unemployment for it to qualify.
Canopy by Hilton hotel
What is it: Chris Hill, the owner of Esquire Tavern, plans to build a 197-room, 138,000 square-foot hotel on East Commerce Street downtown.
Original plans: Construction was expected to begin around August of last year.
Current status: Demolition of a building that was formerly on the property is almost complete, and construction of the tower is set to begin in the next few weeks, said Patrick Shearer, president of Hill’s development company. He expects it to be complete in late 2019.
Hill parted ways with the project’s original general contractor, Harvey-Cleary, which is being replaced by Sundt Construction, Shearer said.
“We just feel like it would be a better fit for the next stage of the project,” he said.
Explaining the delay in the tower’s construction, Shearer said, “this is a complicated building on a tight site, and it’s taken some extra time to make sure we get it right. But we’re ready now.”
Milam building
What is it: Weston Urban, the local development firm that is building the Frost Tower, bought the historic 21-story Milam Building in March 2016 with plans to renovate it, possibly with office space or apartments.
Current status: The development firm is still focused on designing the building’s renovations, Weston Urban President Randy Smith said.
“You’ll see construction activity gin up in 2018,” he said.“A building as unique as the Milam requires an atypical amount of focus and consideration.”
CPS Energy’s new headquarters
What is it: In summer 2016, CPS Energy bought two dormant towers on the River Walk to renovate into a state-of-the-art new headquarters.
Original plans: The utility originally said it plans to start renovation work this year and to move its offices into the towers by 2019.
Current status: CPS currently plans to move into the towers in 2020, said spokesman Jonathan Tijerina. The utility is negotiating the project’s guaranteed maximum price with its construction manager, Sundt Construction, he said. That would set a cap on the project’s cost, after which Sundt would be responsible for cost overruns.
GrayStreet’s Light Building development
What is it: Local developer GrayStreet Partners bought the Light building complex from Hearst, the publisher of the Express-News, in December 2016 with plans to turn it into creative office space.
Original plans: Construction work on the Light building was expected to begin in spring 2017 and to wrap up within a year.
Current status: GrayStreet expects to go before the city’s Historic and Design Review Commission for final approval of its plans for the Light building in the next two months, Director of Development Peter French said. The firm is currently cleaning up the property. He’s not sure when renovations will begin.
Earlier this month, CaptureRX announced it planned to move its headquarters into the Light building.
GrayStreet’s Kress and children’s museum buildings
What is it: GrayStreet announced plans in July 2016 to turn the Kress building and the former children’s museum on Houston Street into a retail and office hub, with about 80,000 square feet of office space and a food hall.
Original plans: The firm originally planned to start renovation work in November or December of last year.
Current status: GrayStreet is still refining the design of the renovations to the buildings, French said. The start date for construction depends on when the firm signs up tenants, he said. The firm has been in talks with some potential large tenants.
“The number of folks that we’re talking to is increasing, if anything. That’s all very positive,” French said. He said they have interest from suburban retailers “who are feeling more confident about exploring downtown, so that’s encouraging.”
Villita tower
What is it: A tower on the River Walk with 221 apartments and 4,000 square feet of class A office space.
Original plans: The developer, Dallas-based JMJ Development, originally expected to break ground in late 2016.
Current status: Demolition of an existing building on the property will begin on October 15, said Tim Barton, JMJ’s chief executive. He expects construction to begin in about nine months and to take nearly two years.
The firm recently bought a nearby building where it plans to construct a parking garage, he said. That will make it easier to design the tower, he said; previously, the firm planned to build an automated parking garage underneath the apartments.
The change of plans delayed the project, though, because JMJ has to redo design work, Barton said. Removing the parking garage from the main tower will also reduce its height by four stories from its original 32-story height, he said.
Development on city, county land in west downtown
What is it: In spring 2016, the city and county started the process of seeking bids to redevelop more than 8 acres of prime downtown real estate, including a few parking lots, the Central Texas Detention Facility and the 19th century Continental Hotel. It’s unclear how long the process was originally expected to take.
Current status: The city and county are preparing to seek proposals from developers to build on about 6.6 acres of the original footprint, according to an email from Kelly Saunders, a spokeswoman for the city’s Center City Development and Operations department. They are hoping for a developer to build a mixed-use development with workforce housing, office space, retail and parking. The request for proposals is expected to be issued in early to mid-2018, the statement says.
The city plans to issue a separate request for proposals for the Continental Hotel property, Jacks said in the statement.
St. Mary’s Flats
What is it: Local developer Craig Glendenning plans to rehabilitate two derelict historic buildings — the 10-story Hedrick tower and a two-story building — at 601 N. St. Mary’s St. into a complex of 54 high-end apartments and retail known as St. Mary’s Flats.
Original plans: In January, Glendenning said rehabilitation work would take between 18 months and 2 years, but it was unclear when it was expected to begin.
Current status: The developers are almost done removing the 60s-era facade to the Hedrick building, revealing the terracotta decorations from its original exterior from the 1920s. There has been some damage to the decorations, and the developers plan to use imaging technology to recreate the broken portions, Glendenning said.
“It ain’t going to be easy, and it ain’t going to be cheap,” he said. “I’m afraid to even think about it.”
The developers have started demolishing a building in between the two historic buildings to make way for a courtyard. But they still have to go through the Texas Historical Commission and the city’s Historic and Development Review Commission for approval of some aspects of the project, Glendenning said.
He predicted it will be between 60 and 90 days before they commence with renovation work on the Hedrick building. Overall, the project should take between 18 months and two years.
Houston Street tech offices
What is it: Local developer David Adelman of AREA Real Estate plans to renovate the vacant five-story building at 401 E. Houston St. into about 40,000 square feet of creative office space.
Original plans: Renovation work was expected to begin in summer 2017 and to wrap up around the end of the year.
Current status: Adelman said he is working on getting building permits and is bidding construction work to subcontractors. It took longer than expected to finish the building’s design, he said. Renovation work should begin no later than November 1.
He hopes to finish renovating one of the building’s floors by March 1, and to complete the whole building sometime next spring.
Interest in the building from potential tenants is “looking pretty strong,” he said.
Acequia Lofts
What is it: Adelman is also building an eight-story, $25 million apartment complex with 150 units at Hemisfair.
Current status: The complex is currently under construction, and workers are drilling 140 piers into the ground in order to stabilize the building, Adelman said. The piers need to be more than 70 feet deep to go beyond the groundwater below the surface downtown, he said.
The complex is currently set to be complete in 2019, he said.
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