Beneath the watchful spires of the Alamodome and Tower of the Americas, bulldozers churned through a light rain and trucks moved earth out of a gaping hole on the corner of Commerce and Cherry streets.
Construction has started on a modern, seven-story apartment complex less than a mile from a proposed downtown arena for the San Antonio Spurs.
These 279 new apartments aren’t meant for tourists or wealthier downtown residents, though. They’re set aside for low-income residents who qualify for affordable housing.
Central at Commerce, as the new apartment complex will be called, is supported by Opportunity Home San Antonio, the City of San Antonio’s 2022 Affordable Housing Bond and The Annex Group, an Indianapolis-based housing developer.
The project will wrap up in late fall 2027, said Tom Tomaszewski, president of the Annex Group, which wants to build more affordable housing in San Antonio.
When completed, 42 of the apartments will be leased out to households making less than 30% of the area median income (AMI). That’s $26,100 per year for a family of three, according to a city website. Another 31 units will be designated for households making 50% of the AMI, 67 units will be for those making 60% of the AMI and the rest, 139 units, will be for households making 70% of AMI or up to $60,000 a year for a household of three.
Haven for Hope will use 30 of the apartments to house its homeless clients and will provide additional services for those residents.
Michael Reyes, president and CEO of Opportunity Home, said the project helps meet a community need.
“When we heard all the community conversation around Project Marvel and building affordable housing downtown, we said, ‘We’ve been doing that for years,’” he said.
Opportunity Home owns the land for Central at Commerce, allowing the property to benefit from a tax exemption. The nonprofit is also issuing bonds for construction and providing $64 million in loans for the project.
Reyes said Opportunity Home can’t give preferential treatment to any prospective tenants that meet the income requirements, but he expects Central at Commerce to be an affordable option close to those who work at the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center, the River Walk and at other downtown developments.
“Residents who work downtown deserve to live downtown,” he said.
Opportunity Home is working on more than 600 new units in the area, between Central at Commerce and 400 additional units at new housing complexes at Victoria Commons, on Labor Street in the Southtown area. Reyes said the nonprofit is also working to preserve affordable housing at HemisView Village.
Officials have discussed downtown affordable housing as multiple megaprojects hit San Antonio’s core. Demolition of the Soap Factory Apartments to make way for a mixed-use project near the new San Antonio Missions Ballpark garnered attention and outcry as the outdated naturally-occurring affordable housing would be eliminated. The developer worked with the city to provide tenants funding and support as they move out.
City leaders have touched on affordable housing as the Spurs plan their new arena and a surrounding mixed-use district. The Spurs did not comment on Central at Commerce specifically, but the team’s mascot, the Coyote, attended the groundbreaking Tuesday morning and lent its support for the project.
The new apartment complex will cost more than $107 million, according to officials. Every piece of funding is important for getting an affordable housing project across the finish line, Tomaszewski said.
Central at Commerce is utilizing state tax credits for affordable housing, federal tax credits for solar panels and $6 million in loan funds from the city’s housing bond, which was passed by voters in 2022.
“These projects are so fragile and so tight, every little bit helps,” Tomaszewski said.
The Annex Group develops affordable housing across the country, added Ryan Clark, the company’s senior vice president of development. This is its first project in Texas, he added, and the Annex Group was attracted by gap funding from the city and VIA’s rapid transit Silver Line that is being built nearby.
“We want to be a long term partner in the city of San Antonio,” Clark said, adding that the infrastructure that the city has in place appealed to the developer.
While housing bond dollars aren’t specifically targeting projects around the Spurs’ new arena, the area does check boxes for that city funding.
“Affordable Housing Bond developments are selected through a competitive procurement process which prioritizes housing communities in the urban core near jobs, transit, schools, and services,” said Veronica Garcia, director of the city’s Neighborhood and Housing Services Department, in an email.
Rents have dropped in San Antonio over the last several years. Between 2023 and 2024, monthly rents dropped by 2% to $1,282. In the last year, rents have continued to fall, according to Apartments.com, dropping by 3.3% to $1,076 per month today.
The 2022 Affordable Housing Bond has doled out $150 million to dozens of projects in San Antonio over the past four years. But affordable housing advocates say more units are still necessary.
Opportunity Home has a waitlist of more than 57,000 people for affordable housing units, Reyes said. That might be an overestimate — it combines applicants for public housing and housing choice voucher programs, but Reyes said it still indicates the need for housing.
