From hospitals to Hemisfair, skyscrapers to San Pedro Creek, there’s a lot going on at construction sites all across the city.
Here’s an update on several major development projects we are watching in San Antonio.
Merchants Ice Building
VelocityTX completed its build-out of the dilapidated Merchants Ice complex this spring. The high-tech campus now houses small and emerging bioscience companies looking to operate in affordable and flexible lab space.
Located at 1305 E. Houston St., the building is occupied by TransPecos Bank, which moved its headquarters there and leases some of the space to others, and Scorpius BioManufacturing. Next up is the vacant G.J. Sutton property, which VelocityTX plans to develop over the next several years into a larger, innovation campus on the East Side designed for a military medical research tenant.
“The campus is doing great in a tough commercial real estate environment,” said Brian Peters, director of marketing and communications for VelocityTX.
300 Main
The 32-story residential development under construction at 300 N. Main St. since April 2022 appears to be nearing completion.
Built by developer Weston Urban with Rogers-O’Brien Construction and the architecture firm Page, 300 Main already is one of the tallest buildings on the downtown San Antonio skyline.
Pre-leasing information for the market-rate apartments is available at this link.
Hospitals
Westover Hills Baptist Hospital, a Baptist Health System campus at Loop 1604 and Wiseman Road, opened with a ribbon-cutting ceremony in June. The four-story, 350,000-square-foot general acute care hospital is located on 72 acres, where the $240 million hospital connects to medical offices through a skybridge.
The expanded emergency department at Christus Santa Rosa-Westover Hills will be completed in February. Also in the works is a new four-story tower adjacent to the hospital which is expected to be completed in May 2025 and will expand obstetric, neonatal and adult intensive care services, creating more than 100 added patient beds.
University Health has broken ground for a total of four new clinics and hospitals now under construction across the city. The most recent was at the site of University Health Wheatley which is expected to open on the East Side in late 2025. The others include University Health Vida, University Health Palo Alto Hospital and University Health Retama Hospital.
Hemisfair
Construction on the second phase of Civic Park at the downtown Hemisfair district kicked off in October, according to Hemisfair officials. It is expected to be open early next year.
Zachry Hospitality broke ground in November on the 17-story Monarch San Antonio hotel at 222 S. Alamo St. in Civic Park. It is expected to open in 2026.
The adjacent 10-story multifamily and retail development by Post Lake Capital Partners of Austin and Trube Land Development has a 2027 completion date.
San Antonio International Airport
Planning for a new terminal, likely the largest and most expensive project in city history, is underway with airport officials working toward a completion date of 2028.
Travelers got a recent sneak peek of those plans through documents submitted to the city for design approval.
Meanwhile, a new ground loading facility is under construction with an expected 2025 opening date and work on the runways to improve safety and capacity has begun.
Basila Frocks
The work to renovate Basila Frocks, a historic garment factory at 502 N. Zarzamora St., began following a groundbreaking ceremony in March.
The DreamOn Group and Prosper West are partnering on the redevelopment of the vacant building, with second-floor office space for the economic development nonprofit and co-working spaces. The first floor of Basila Frocks will be dedicated to retail and medical spaces.
“It’s coming together very nicely,” Julissa Carielo, president and cofounder of DreamOn Group, said recently.
Construction is expected to be completed at the end of this year and leasing information is available by contacting the DreamOn Group at 210-821-5858.
San Pedro Creek
The first segment of Phase 1 of the San Pedro Creek Culture Park opened in 2018 after two years of construction.
Two more sections of the urban linear park are now fully open — phases 2 and 4.1, stretching from El Paso to South Alamo streets.
Construction is ongoing for phase 3, a section that spans the creekway from South Alamo Street past Cevallos Street and connect the trail system on Apache Creek Trail.
UIW Founders Hall
The University of the Incarnate Word, which acquired the former AT&T Building at Broadway Street and Hildebrand Avenue in 2019, recently completed interior demolition on what it calls Founders Hall. The full project is expected to continue through December 2025.
When complete, the 9-story building will be home to the Liza and Jack Lewis Center of the Americas, the School of Math, Science and Engineering, and the School of Media and Design.
The student health center and campus police department also will be moved into the building along with other university offices, classrooms, meeting spaces and student services.
Alamo Plaza and Plaza de Valero
The Alamo Trust, entrusted with overseeing the $510 million preservation and redevelopment project at the Alamo that began in 2021, has made major strides.
The Mission Gate and Lunette are open for viewing despite some ongoing work to complete utility connections and grading in Alamo Plaza.
The Alamo Annex has been demolished so that construction on the Texas Cavaliers Education Center could begin. An opening date is planned for fall 2025.
Scaffolding and a screen cloak the Woolworth and Crockett building where construction has begun on the Alamo Visitor Center and Museum. On Monday, crews closed Houston Street, between Losoya and Alamo streets, due to work on the museum, which is on track to open in 2027.
Despite some delays, sections of Plaza de Valero, the area just south of the Alamo church, are expected to open later this summer with full completion set for fall 2024.
La Villita Historic Village
Merchants and artisans in La Villita are feeling the pain of construction from roadwork on Alamo Street, from Market Street to Cesar E. Chavez Boulevard, a project that is expected to continue through summer 2025.
While improvements to Maverick Plaza that added an outdoor kitchen and kiosk, and made space for three planned restaurants, were completed last year, more upgrades could be coming for the historic arts village.
The architecture firm Ford Powell Carson has submitted to the city its plans for a complete overhaul of the La Villita Assembly Hall building. The rotunda with an inverted dome was designed by O’Neil Ford in 1958 and acquired by MLSA Ventures in March.
Pearl
The Pearl continues to expand its boundaries and offerings. In addition to opening Pullman Market in May, the Pearl’s development division Oxbow also has a hotel, two pedestrian bridges and three multifamily projects in the works.
Two of the planned apartment buildings are located on East Elmira Street and a third is on East Josephine Street, west of the main Pearl campus. The multi-level residential developments are expected to be completed in the next few years, with one — known as Mira — to provide additional parking for Pearl visitors.
The new pedestrian bridges spanning the River Walk open this summer.
Oxbow also plans to break ground this year on the Grove Hotel project opposite Hotel Emma, across the river.
Rental housing
More than 13,000 rental units, both apartments and single-family houses, are currently under construction in San Antonio, according to data from the real estate analysis firm CoStar, bringing the total number of rentals in the market to nearly 221,000.
The wave of supply in the area the past few years has pushed landlords to reduce vacancies by offering renters cost-saving perks. It’s also contributed to decreasing rental rates. But with construction slowing, this may soon change as demand catches up to supply, said Danny Khalil, associate director of market analytics at CoStar.
“We saw very little break ground in terms of new construction projects for multifamily over the past two quarters,” he said. “We may begin to see the effects of this upcoming ‘supply cliff’ in a couple of years’ time, as it takes approximately 24 months to build your typical apartment complex.”
Agri-Life Urban Farm
Bexar County commissioners on Tuesday approved a contract for construction of an administration building at the Agri-Life Urban Farm on the East Side.
The one-story, 18,000-square-foot structure with offices and community meeting space will add to a number of construction projects in various stages across the city.
The $10.9 million project to be built by Nunnelly Construction at 1615 Sherman St. is expected to be completed within 15 months of the notice to proceed, which could be within 30 to 45 days.
The farm building is the third phase of a project that began in 2019 to establish Greenies Urban Farm and grow produce intended to address “hunger gaps” in San Antonio. County, health, and Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service officials celebrated its full harvest in late 2020.
JCB factory
In June, Great Britain-based equipment maker JCB broke ground for a new manufacturing plant at a 400-acre site on the South Side.
JCB makes more than 300 types of construction and agricultural equipment in its trademark marigold yellow.
The 720,000-square-foot San Antonio facility will produce lift and access equipment starting in 2026. The company has not selected a general contractor.
City bond projects
The city’s dashboard shows it has 83% of all 2017 bond projects completed and 3% of its 2022 bond projects done.
Nearly all of the 188 projects for 2022 are on schedule, except for improvements to several streets and fire stations — and Brackenridge Park.
Correction: This article has been updated to correct the estimated opening date for University Health Wheatley and clarify the status of San Pedro Creek Culture Park construction. Two sections from El Paso to South Alamo streets are open.
