Retail Property With Ties to Texas History Hits Market

A piece of Texas history — and the last privately owned parcel in San Antonio’s Main Plaza — hit the market at 114 East Main Plaza.

The 7,500-square-foot property is one of the oldest commercial buildings in San Antonio, built in 1742. It has three levels, a basement and a terrace over the River Walk. It comes with $1.5 million in historical tax credits, with $1.2 million in tax-increment financing available, the San Antonio Business Journal reported. The asking price wasn’t disclosed.

It is zoned “downtown district,” which means it would be unencumbered by parking, building size and height limitations. However, it’s within the Main and Military Plaza Historic District, meaning any redevelopment would require approval from the city’s Historic and Design Review Commission.

Lisa Wong, owner of restaurants Acenar and Rosario’s, is the seller, according to Bexar County records. Binkan Cinaroglu and Alan Valadez of Kuper Sotheby’s International Realty have the listing.

“This property is more than just a building — it’s a cornerstone of San Antonio’s heritage,” Valadez said in a news release.

The retail building sits on a little over half an acre and has been called Casas Reales since the 1730s, when it was designated as a location for government housing for newly arrived settlers from the Canary Islands under Spanish rule. Later it was a jail, a courthouse and a general municipal building, where Antonio López de Santa Anna was received before his siege of the Alamo in 1836, and where the Council House Fight between Texan leaders and Comanche chiefs occurred in 1840. The city sold the building in 1850.

The landmark property is a blank canvas, being marketed for “a boutique hotel or upscale dining destination … cultural hub or office space.”

— Judah Duke