Amid the fence panels circling entire blocks and a soundtrack of machinery and workers in a neighborhood west of the Pearl are several new multifamily developments also under construction.
Houston developer Urban Genesis broke ground in late summer on three new residential projects that will add another 170-plus new units to the hundreds already completed or in progress in Tobin Hill.
Drawn to the success of the Pearl, developers like Embrey, Lynd and Oxbow have opened or planned several multifamily properties in the formerly light industrial and residential downtown neighborhood in recent years.
Like them, Urban Genesis saw an opportunity where there wasn’t one before, said Matt Shafiezadeh, CEO.
“San Antonio is a market you can’t ignore … and Tobin Hill and the Pearl district, all that entire area is one that we think is a really irreplaceable part of San Antonio, and more importantly, the best part of San Antonio,” Shafiezadeh said. “It just has all the great elements and that’s why I think you see so much activity there.”
But all that activity led Tobin Hill residents to worry in 2021 about the project planned for East Locust, near developer Steven Yndo’s SoJo Commons development, to protest the developer’s rezoning request.
Urban Genesis had initially planned to build its Highline concept there, and sought a change to IDZ-3, a high-intensity use that would allow up to 113 units and a parking garage with space for 122 vehicles.
With pushback from the neighbors and a traffic study requested by the District 1 councilman at the time, the developer instead changed its plans to rental townhomes.
“We think it’s a great opportunity for someone that doesn’t want to have the burden of homeownership to be able to live in that same area without having to carry a mortgage property,” Shafiezadeh said.
Urban Genesis is also developing a build-to-rent community in Stone Oak. The company has about 6,000 units in development across the state totaling about $1.4 billion.
The SoJo project at 719 E. Locust St. will have 50 townhomes in four buildings between Locust and Grayson streets. It is an $8 million project, according to Construction Journal, and is expected to be complete in about nine months.
The Elmira Highline and St. Mary’s Highline projects are similar to the three- and four-story multifamily developments Urban Genesis has built in Fort Worth and Austin. Located at 857 E. Elmira and 1610 N. St. Mary’s St., both sites are in Midtown where activity has increased in recent years.
Renderings of the Urban Genesis Development projects currently under construction in Tobin Hill. Credit: Courtesy / HEDK Architects 
Renderings of the Urban Genesis Development projects currently under construction in Tobin Hill. Credit: Courtesy / HEDK Architects 
Renderings of the Urban Genesis Development projects currently under construction in Tobin Hill. Credit: Courtesy / HEDK Architects
The Elmira site sits at the corner of North St. Mary’s and East Elmira streets, with two newer townhome developments on either side and across the street from Midtown Station, which was built in 2018.
The St. Mary’s project is being built next to the climbing gym Armadillo Boulders and across from a former CPS Energy facility bought earlier this year by McCombs Enterprises for redevelopment as a mixed-use development.
Each will be comprised of just over 60 units each, all one-bedroom apartments with market-rate rents.
The average rent for a one-bedroom apartment in Midtown San Antonio is $1,397, slightly higher than the average rent for all of San Antonio, according to rental listing service RentCafe. The least expensive one-bedroom unit in one of the newest Tobin Hill developments, Tin Top Flats at the Creamery, rents for $1,550, according to the property website.
The Highline projects are expected to be completed in spring 2025. But progress to this point has been slow until now, delayed by what the developer blamed on a slowed supply chain of human capital.
During the pandemic, “everything got harder and permitting and designing and all that stuff that you normally do got harder, and then with the economy shifting and the interest rate environment shifting … it took a little bit time to put it all together,” Shafiezadeh said.
He predicts development to slow down in Tobin Hill overall despite how much he likes the neighborhood as an investment. Landowners there are willing to wait for a buyer and their higher asking prices, he said.
“We love San Antonio, but we are cautious with San Antonio,” Shafiezadeh said. “We want to be in the very best locations.”
