When it comes to the developers, the planners and the people who dream up the building projects in a growing San Antonio, there’s a fairly short list of names to know.
The real estate development community is actually quite small for the city’s size when compared to other major metropolitan areas, according to one local real estate developer.
Hunter Kingman is vice president of acquisitions and development for Hixon Properties and district council chairman of the Urban Land Institute of San Antonio (ULI-SA), a real estate professionals organization.
“It’s not a long bench,” Kingman said of his industry — but it’s a collaborative one, he added. “I’d love for there to be more outside players. If there were outside players, that means there’s opportunity here, and that’s good for San Antonio.”
Kingman is among a handful of professionals active in the city’s downtown real estate development community. Hixon Properties developed the Soto Building at 711 Broadway, the first true mass timber building of its size and scale in Texas. The Soto office building is among the growing and catalytic projects on South Broadway Street.
The upside of the short list is that San Antonio is home to many of its downtown developers.
“If you’re doing it in your own hometown, you’re not going to put a crummy product on the ground — you got to answer for it to your friends and family,” he said. What’s lacking is equity, or the kind of deep pockets that makes building something doable, Kingman said.
“I wish people understood how risky real estate is … it takes a bunch of money and it takes forever,” he said. “These urban core projects, if you’re doing them quickly, they take half a decade.”
Long timelines make it all the more risky, introducing economic factors beyond a developer’s control that squeeze the bottom line. A downtown baseball stadium on the northwest side of downtown and a multifaceted sports and entertainment district at Hemisfair are good examples.
When officials debated and agreed to move forward on a new Missions baseball stadium and the Spurs-centric sports and entertainment district, local developers were in the room. The two mega-projects brought out some of the city’s most prominent names in development — and highlighted the challenges in making such ideas come to life.
“They’re complex, they’re extremely hard, they’ll take forever, but if these folks can make this happen, it would be incredibly impactful,” Kingman said.
Knowing who the top builders are helps San Antonians get a lay of the land in our fast-growing city — so we decided to round up a list of who’s who in development. Here’s our list of some of the most prominent developers building downtown San Antonio and the projects they’re involved in:
Randy Smith is president and CEO of the development firm Weston Urban, founded by Smith and Graham Weston. The developer owns several buildings in the central business district, including Frost Tower, and recently completed the luxury residential highrise, 300 Main. Smith is part owner of the San Antonio Missions and behind the deal to build a new baseball stadium in the northwest quadrant.
Lori Houston is assistant city manager of the City of San Antonio and former director of the Center City Development Office which is responsible for renewed investment in the downtown area. Houston assisted in creating the HemisFair Park Area Redevelopment Corporation and is overseeing the downtown San Antonio sports and entertainment district project.
James Lifshutz is the developer behind the Blue Star Arts Complex and Hot Wells, and is currently working to redevelop the Zona Cultural west of City Hall and several parcels along Roosevelt Avenue and East Southcross Boulevard.
David Adelman is president of Area Real Estate, a company he founded in 2011. He has overseen development throughout downtown San Antonio, including residential developments The Maverick, The ‘68, and 1221 Broadway, and other mixed-use, industrial, and office properties, such as The Creamery and Midtown Station.
Mike Shannon is director of development services for the City of San Antonio, which regulates land and building development and enforces property maintenance and building-related codes.
Thad Rutherford is president and CEO of Southstar, the developer behind Mission de Lago and Vida on the South Side of San Antonio. Rutherford is vice chairman and chairman of mission advancement for the ULI-SA.
Veronica Salazar is the chief enterprise development officer at the University of Texas San Antonio. Working with UTSA’s Corinna Green, vice president for real estate and property management and chief real estate officer, Salazar leads real estate development for the university, including initiatives like the Campus Master Plan and the expansion of the UTSA Downtown Campus.
Andres Andujar is president and CEO of Hemisfair, the public-private partnership that is turning the site of the 1968 World’s Fair, and a former neighborhood, into an urban park and amenity space adjacent to the convention center downtown.
Bill Shown is CEO of Oxbow, the development arm of Silver Ventures, which transformed an abandoned brewery in Tobin Hill into the Pearl, a mixed-use destination anchored by food and hospitality. Shown has expanded the footprint and portfolio of the Pearl in recent years, and with Omar Gonzalez, director of development, Oxbow has spread its wings to Lavaca with the Southtown Aldea project.
Daniel Ortiz is an attorney and founding member of the law firm Ortiz McKnight and practices municipal land use, planning, zoning, public law and development permitting.
Olivia Travieso is founder and partner at OCI Development, a “social purpose company” with a real estate development company focused on social impact to the housing industry and providing quality, affordable housing throughout Texas.
Trey Embrey is president and CEO of Embrey, a 50-year-old San Antonio-based development firm with recent downtown projects that include the Tin Top Flats at the Creamery and 7600 Broadway.
Debra Guerrero is senior vice president of strategic partnerships and government affairs at NRP, an affordable home developer. Guerrero is credited with opening the firm’s Texas office in 2004 which has led the development of over 30,000 multifamily units throughout the state.
Kevin Covey is general partner at the development firm GrayStreet Partners, which has bought — and sold — numerous properties east of Broadway and the Pearl, and owns several other downtown properties and the decrepit Lone Star brewery site.
Trebes Sasser Jr. is vice president at Ridgemont Properties, a 40-year-old San Antonio-based development firm with numerous properties along Broadway Street but a newcomer to the urban core with its acquisition of the Schaum and Frost Bros. buildings from GrayStreet.
