The work that began two years ago to renovate a neglected 1930s-era apartment tower for low-income seniors and people with disabilities is nearly complete.
Each of the 105 units at the Aurora Apartments, at 509 Howard St., has been modernized and residents have returned to their apartments in what was once a luxury hotel.
The project in Tobin Hill is expected to be completed this spring but it’s already clear the Aurora has come a long way in a few short years.
A spokeswoman for the New York-based real estate developer Fairstead, which owns the affordable housing complex, said improvements include new kitchen appliances, bathroom fixtures, flooring and heating and air conditioning systems.
Alamo Architects is the design firm and Oregon-based Pavilion Construction is the general contractor.
“Everything’s new,” said Benito Martinez, who said he’s lived at the Aurora for 21 years and pays $280 a month in rent. Before the renovations, the appliances were old and so was the bathroom, he said. “It needed repair.”
Construction crews are now restoring the building’s ornate facade and upgrading the building’s systems, the final components of a top-to-bottom renovation, said the Fairstead spokeswoman.
Built in 1930, the 11-story neo-Gothic tower with views of downtown San Antonio was once a grand hotel where the wealthy, including Hollywood elite and First Lady Mamie Eisenhower, stayed.
The Aurora, situated on the western edge of Crockett Park, features hand-carved fireplaces, mosaic tile floors, an elegant lobby and a sun room. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places but had in modern times begun to show its age.
In 1982, the building was converted to apartments with federal funding, and bought by Mitch Meyer of Loopy Ltd. in 2007.
In 2017, San Antonio Code Compliance and Metropolitan Health District notified the Housing and Urban Development office about an infestation of bedbugs and cockroaches in the building.
Meyer said at the time that he was complying with a corrective action plan to clear the infestation. In 2022, he sold the building to Fairstead, which announced plans for a major overhaul of the Aurora.
Fairstead financed the rehabilitation with help from Opportunity Home San Antonio, the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs and other private financing groups.
In June 2022, the board of Las Varas Public Facility Corporation, a nonprofit managed by Opportunity Home, approved the issuance of $20 million in tax-exempt bonds for the estimated $31.7 million project.
Half of the building’s units are reserved for residents making less than 50% of the area median income (AMI), which is $30,750 for one person, and the other half are for households making up less than 60% AMI, or $36,900.
Fairstead contracted with the nonprofit Rainbow Housing Assistance to provide social services to Aurora residents through an online program accessed by residents in a computer room that’s still under construction.
During renovations to the apartments, the company relocated Martinez and other residents like Demetrio Tovar to a hotel and their belongings to storage.
While resting on the front steps on a recent afternoon, Tovar said he’s lived at the Aurora for two years, moving there from a men’s dormitory following his release from prison. He uses a walker to get around.
Tovar’s studio apartment on the fourth floor is much nicer now that it’s been upgraded, he said, though he occasionally notices a cold draft when the outside temperatures drop. The bed bugs are gone now, too.
The renovation project, which included accessibility upgrades, had been expected to be completed in August 2023 when regulatory paperwork was filed. But work outside the original scope was discovered.
“The project had some unexpected delays, but nothing particularly unusual for a building of this age,” said Katie Blitz, a spokeswoman for Fairstead. “Once we started opening up the walls, we determined the domestic water lines were in very poor condition and required replacement.”
Blitz said a ribbon-cutting event will be held to celebrate when the project is completed but a date has not been set.
