The 120-year-old Commerce Building downtown has entered a new chapter in its colorful history with its purchase by Weinritter Realty, a local firm known for rehabbing and expanding the Best Western hotel in St. Paul Square.
Weinritter bought the eight-story, 44,000-square-foot building — built in 1902 as the headquarters for Alamo National Bank — on Dec. 1 from Harris Bay, a California real estate firm that has been juggling several ambitious projects in San Antonio, Bexar County property records show.
Marc Weinstein, a partner in Weinritter, said in a phone interview that the firm would renovate the building but hasn’t decided if it will preserve it as office space or convert it into condos or a hotel. The current occupancy rate for the building’s offices is around 40%, he said. He declined to disclose the purchase price.
“This is a passion project for us,” he said. “This is one where you’re going to see some of our blood, sweat and tears in this. We’ll insert some of our personality into this project, unlike an investor that would look at it from a financial perspective.”
The firm decided to buy the building, at the intersection of Commerce and Presa streets, as part of a like-kind property exchange — a form of property exchange allowed by the IRS that brings tax benefits — after it sold another property, he said.
“When it was presented to us, it was almost instantaneous that we decided it was something we were interested in,” he said.
The building’s history was part of the appeal, he said. In the early 1910s, the 8,000-ton building was lifted off its foundation with 1,800 screw jacks and moved nearly 17 feet on steel rollers to escape demolition as the city of San Antonio widened east Commerce Street. The move took three months, according to the U.S. National Park Service; during that time, the bank continued to operate inside.
“We found it very intriguing,” Weinstein said of the history. “That, coupled with the beauty of the architecture. I think it’s definitely a treasure in San Antonio.”
The building was designed in the Renaissance Revival style by architect James Wahrenberger, who worked in San Antonio and Austin and also designed the Hummel house in King William, the Reuter building on Alamo Plaza and part of the campus of Our Lady of the Lake University. The park service describes the building as “an important example of Wahrenberger’s later work.”
In 1920, three floors were added to the building’s top. By the 1960s, much of it was vacant. It later underwent rehabilitation under a new owner in the ‘80s. In 1984, the park service added the building to the National Register of Historic Places, where it is listed as the “Alamo National Bank Building.”
Harris Bay upgraded the building’s lobby and common areas after buying it in 2017, according to the leasing firm CBRE. Jake Harris, co-founder of Harris Bay, didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Harris Bay had offered the building for sale in October with a listing price of $5.35 million, according to the San Antonio Business Journal.
In recent years, Weinritter renovated the historic George Icke & Bros. building in St. Paul Square, which had functioned as the Best Western Sunset Suites, adding a new lobby and a fifth floor with 15 rooms as part of its conversion into the boutique Aiden by Best Western brand. The revamped hotel opened in May.
Work is ongoing for a speakeasy-style live music venue planned for the hotel’s basement, to be managed by Stanley Shropshire, owner of The Big Bib BBQ chain. The speakeasy is set to open in March, Weinstein said.
Weinritter still owns the hotel, he said. “Summer was very good, and popularity has picked up,” he said. “We’re more long-term investors. We enjoy owning and managing.”
Weinritter consists of Weinstein, who lives in Dallas but spends much of his time in San Antonio, and local residents Tibor Ritter and Ritter’s wife, Daniella. The firm largely invests in shopping centers and ground-level offices, Weinstein said.
The office market is struggling with high vacancy rates in San Antonio and other Texas cities, but Weinstein said that helped attract Weinritter to the project. He quoted the old business saying, “When there’s blood in the streets, that’s when you buy.”
Harris Bay, based in Roseville, California, has proposed several large-scale development projects in San Antonio over the last decade.
In 2017, it partnered with local developer Efraim Varga on plans for Essex Modern City, a mixed-use development set in the Denver Heights neighborhood east of downtown. But it was never built; last year, the 7.7-acre site was listed for sale.
The firm has since set its sights on Tobin Hill, the historic neighborhood north of downtown, where it wants to build a mixed-use development with 1,000 apartments. Last year, Harris told the Report that he wanted to begin construction in 2024.
For years, Harris Bay has been working on plans to build an eight-story Artista Hotel on a tiny parcel at 151 E. Travis St. downtown. Earlier this year, it submitted a filing to the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation saying it expected to begin construction in July and complete it in 2025.
