Bexar County Commissioners approved staff negotiations with Encore Multi-Family LLC on Tuesday, after the Dallas based-developer presented plans to build a mid-rise apartment complex in downtown San Antonio with capital investments worth $60 million.
The proposed Encore Riverwalk would include 338 apartment units, parking spaces and a 7,000 sq. ft. leasing and amenity center. The mixed-use development, proposed for 304 and 308 S. Flores St., would break ground later this year and finalize construction in 2018. The project site is located between San Pedro Creek and the San Antonio River, less than five blocks away from the coming Frost Bank office tower, and joins at least a dozen planned hotel, residential, office, and mixed-use projects downtown.
County staff will review the developer’s proposal for a 10-year, 50% property tax abatement valued at nearly $900,000, before Commissioners put it to a vote.
The apartment community would complement ongoing County and City efforts to expand housing downtown, and be second only to Agave in number of apartment rental units in downtown.
“The project will offer our employees an opportunity to live across the street from where they work,” County Judge Nelson Wolff stated on Tuesday. “It is also a step forward in linking Southtown to downtown.”
The County also approved negotiations with W.W. Grainger, Inc., a Fortune 500 industrial supplies company looking to open a new location in the Medical Drive area. The Chicago-based company promises to bring $3.9 million worth of investments to San Antonio, and 246 new, full-time jobs with an average annual salary of $43,463. W.W. Grainger employs less than 70 individuals locally, but the company opted to bring its new regional inside sales facility to San Antonio rather than Chicago for the city and state’s overall lower cost of living and potential tax abatements.
“Anytime another major national company chooses Bexar County as a place to expand, it shows how vibrant our economy and community is,” Wolff said. The Grainger expansion could attract similar companies, as they look to expand their operations.
*Top Image: Rendering of the proposed Encore Riverwalk. Image Courtesy of Encore Multi-Family LLC
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need more new high rises
Need some housing for people to buy – condos & townhomes
All these southtown and pearl area developments are just sprawling out our inner core making a truely dense cbd seem impossible at this point..
This really is news. Besides the performing arts center, there has been almost zero new construction inside the downtown loop. All of the construction just outside the downtown loop I think gives people the wrong impression that downtown is building up when actually the ring around downtown is what is being built.
Need some housing for people to buy – condos & townhomes
This should free up housing stock as people opt to rent so as to move to that area.
All these southtown and pearl area developments are just sprawling out our inner core making a truely dense cbd seem impossible at this point.
I disagree. I’m glad we’re “saving” that space in downtown-downtown for when there’s really serious pressure on the city around 2040. Better than completing infill with these 3- and 4-story projects—which are nice, don’t get me wrong! But they aren’t what will house the million-plus people projected to be headed this way in the next two generations.
need more jobs
Can our city fix some side walks and roads first or nah?
Express News reported that the site is a parking lot. There are existing buildings as well.
Where is IKEA??
Lol. Love this comment. I have my fingers crossed and hope that they lobby for an Ikea and build it right in the middle of the Lone Star Brewery complex.
Please change the design. We don’t need another ugly ant farm.
What infrastructure upgrades will the developer be providing? Add 300+ cars to the S. Flores area will definitely affect traffic and access, for starters.
seems like putting the cart before the horse… why subsidize overpriced downtown apartments?
most of the demographic i see moving downtown are empty nesters/retirees that can afford the higher rent and who don’t really have a need for additional jobs which seems better indicator of the economy of our city. i don’t see it as a true investment in our downtown because heavily subsidized apartments =/= tax revenue, infrastructure, or additional jobs/commerce. our young population is the future of this city and needs jobs and affordable residences and if we really want growth to come from the center (downtown) we need investment in job growth to make it happen. exploit the resources we already have downtown (government, medical, riverwalk, utsa, BEER, etc…) to promote growth. the tax payers pay for this tax subsidy and don’t seem to really see much benefit. seems like we should be focused on bringing another downtown college campus, mls, mlb, football team, corporations, start-ups and tech firms, law/legal and fed jobs, hospitals and medical, etc…
sure we could use housing downtown, but we need COMMERCE and INDUSTRY downtown to really attract people. it feels like we are subsidizing and incentivizing the wrong things… maybe if we get enough people that live downtown they will attract more business? everything has risk and pros/cons, but it seems like we should be going directly after job growth, which i don’t see as much happening with all the lofts/apartments/hotels going up… maybe because there is plenty of existing commercial space for jobs in the vacant buildings…
don’t get me wrong, it’s great to see growth downtown with more density and less sprawl. i think san antonio is desperate and it seems like we’ll kind of take anything during this decade of downtown. for every one apartment complex going up downtown, there are a dozen going up outside 1604… i just think it needs to be balanced with the job growth and investment into the city.