This story has been updated.
Transit-oriented developments number in the hundreds across the country, in cities like Dallas, Denver and Philadelphia. By late summer, San Antonio could see plans for its first such community start to take shape.
The proposed commercial and residential development will center around VIA Metropolitan Transit’s Centro Plaza on the city’s West Side in the nearby Scobey Complex.
A former industrial site at 301 N. Medina St., the Scobey property will be remade into a residential and commercial development, according to the terms of an agreement approved by VIA’s board in February.
Officials hope the multimillion-dollar project will pay off for both VIA and the community.
Details around how the redevelopment will be financed and built are expected from private developer DreamOn Group by late summer, said VIA President and CEO Jeffrey Arndt.
First, the developer wants to know what the neighbors expect to get out of it, and is inviting the public to an open house at the site on May 13 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
“We’re trying our best to listen to all the voices in the community,” said Julissa Carielo, co-founder and partner of DreamOn.
In addition to planning the redevelopment and seeking financing, Carielo has been contacting business owners and residents in the area in an effort to talk about the project.
“It’s a transformational project for the community,” Carielo said. “We thought because of the area where it’s located and because it’s been abandoned for so long … we can bring it back to life in a way that can impact the community by helping provide a place to live, a place to work and a place to enjoy and have fun.”
The terms of the agreement between VIA and DreamOn call for 54 residential units to be offered at market rates and 54 below market, at varying rates of affordability per area median income.
In addition, there would be office space for VIA to consolidate its operations and retail space.
“What we’re trying to identify is, is there a grocery store that would be interested to go in there? Is there a food court that we can establish to allow an area for small businesses to come in and serve the same community?” Carielo said.
A ‘transit-rich hub’
VIA opened Centro Plaza in 2015. The transit center provides air-conditioned indoor waiting areas and outdoor seating, bike racks, vending machines and free wifi. A space planned for retail or community services remains empty.
It is also the busiest “transit-rich” hub in all of Bexar County, Arndt said, serving over 800,000 boardings a year, down from about 1 million a year prior to the pandemic.
In 2017, VIA bought the 2.6-acre Scobey property that sits just northwest of Centro Plaza for $5.2 million.
The West Side is one of the poorest areas in San Antonio and has long suffered from disinvestment. The Bexar County jail is just across the railroad tracks from the Scobey Complex, and Haven for Hope, a nonprofit serving people experiencing homelessness, sits to the north.
As groups like economic development nonprofit Prosper West and others work to attract development while preserving the area’s rich history and culture, at least one resident said she wants to see VIA make further investments in the neighborhood where it plans to develop.
Housing advocate Uel Trejo-Rivera said she expects VIA to repair the sidewalks and streets near the Scobey complex. She also wants VIA to “guarantee all nearby residents priority hiring at the new shops the Scobey building will host,” pay them a living wage and offer them free bus passes.
District 5 Councilwoman Teri Castillo has heard from residents voicing concerns about the development hastening displacement and gentrification, she said.
“A handful of constituents have expressed concerns around the affordability piece as well as the need for tenant protections and property tax relief,” Castillo said.
“They understand that if it is a high percentage of market-rate [apartments] and luxury goods, that it wouldn’t be accessible to them [and] it would destabilize their neighborhoods with the increase in property taxes.
“At the same time, there is an understanding that this property has been sitting vacant for a while and needs to be activated.”
Funding the Scobey project
The Federal Transportation Administration started awarding grants to transit-oriented development planning projects in 2015, with over $13 million handed out to 19 projects in 14 states in 2022.
A VIA spokesman said the agency was awarded two such grants, though neither directly relates to the Scobey project. But a 2021 grant to VIA is helping fund planning for the east-west corridor of the Advanced Rapid Transit network system, known as the Silver Line, which could line up with the Scobey Complex.
To help finance the project, which could cost up to $60 million, DreamOn Group plans to seek federal funding from the Department of Housing and Urban Development and private investment.
“We’re doing our best to figure out how to make the numbers work because VIA is also looking for this project to become an income stream for them to be able to do more services,” Carielo said. “I think a lot of us are going to be disappointed if this project doesn’t go through.”
The Scobey redevelopment could qualify for historic preservation tax credits from the state.
The developer will also ask for funding support from the City of San Antonio and Bexar County.
Castillo said she would support such a request, but only if the residential units serve VIA’s ridership and District 5 residents. She views Scobey as one solution to the systemic factors perpetuating poverty in the district.
“One project isn’t going to address the inequality,” Castillo said.
But if VIA enters into community benefits agreements — a contract between a developer and an organization representing residents’ interests — offering jobs at living wages with access to benefits and providing housing at rates that area residents can afford, she added, “it would uplift the community and address inequality and poverty.”
If not, she said, “it’s essentially perpetuating the issues that we’ve been trying to solve.”
On Friday, VIA announced that the U.S. Department of Transportation has awarded the agency two years of no-cost technical assistance through its Thriving Communities Program.
The designation will better position VIA and the community to attract more federal funding for its Advanced Rapid Transit project, according to the statement from VIA. There is currently a $100-million funding gap for the planned east-west corridor before work can be started.
