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San Antonio’s Tower Life is getting an office-to-resi makeover

The affordable housing redevelopment got an official go-ahead

Tower Life in San Antonio and developer Ed Cross (Google Maps, Vicinia)
Tower Life in San Antonio and developer Ed Cross (Google Maps, Vicinia)

New life will soon be pumped into the 93-year-old Tower Life Building in downtown San Antonio.

Bexar County approved a “memorandum of understanding” for the property at 301 South St. Mary’s Street to be redeveloped into affordable housing, the San Antonio Business Journal reported. The deal, which is the second of its kind in the county, supports a push to convert underutilized downtown commercial properties into affordable housing.

A development group under the name SA Tower Life LP is steering the project. The group includes heavyweights like San Antonio developer Ed Cross, the McCombs family and Jon Wiegand of Alamo Capital Advisors. The developers look to create 230 to 250 residential units in the 240,000-square-foot building. Preliminary plans suggest the makeover will also include ground-floor and river-level retail space.

Bexar County approved the development group’s request to transfer the title to the building to a Public Facilities Corp. that’s run by the county in exchange for a long-term lease as well as some public incentives. The county also stands to collect direct and indirect revenue from the completed project.

SA Tower Life doesn’t have a construction timeline yet. Construction is expected to begin before the end of 2024, but the building is still 40 percent occupied by office tenants.

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“We’re identifying architects and contractors and we’re going to be revving up the development package,” Cross told The San Antonio Business Journal. “We have the luxury of time to analyze and to figure it out.”

The Alamo City is hot on developing more affordable housing. Last month, the city council unanimously approved transferring eight vacant lots on the city’s East, West and South sides to San Antonio Affordable Housing Inc. to build single-family homes.

Shortly before that, the council eased rules for accessory dwelling units in a measure it hopes will quickly expand to affordable inventory.

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— Victoria Pruitt

Tags
Affordable HousingRedevelopmentSan Antonio