Weston Urban gathers land along San Pedro Creek in northwest downtown
Richard Webner, Staff Writer
Rendering of the tentative design for a segment of San Pedro Creek near the Alameda Theater. The design, which is considered 70 percent complete, was authorized by Bexar County Commissioners Court on Tuesday, July 12, 2016.
Courtesy rendering, Bexar County/San Antonio River AuthorityShow MoreShow Less
2of3TRT Holdings Inc., a Dallas holding company that owns the Omni Hotels and Resorts chain, has joined the development team for the new Frost Tower downtown.Illustration courtesy of Pelli Clarke PelliShow MoreShow Less
3of3The San Pedro Creek project has attracted the interest of other developers: local real estate firm Casey Development recently submitted plans to build a hotel tower and multifamily, office and retail space on more than 7 acres of land owned by the city and county in the area just south of the Frost Tower./Courtesy Casey Development Ltd.Show MoreShow Less
Weston Urban has been gathering up properties along San Pedro Creek in the northwest corner of downtown over the last year and a half, adding to its substantial holdings in an area that the city and county are trying hard to revitalize.
The developer, co-founded by local tech magnate Graham Weston, has accumulated 3.3 acres at the southwest corner of the intersection of Kingsbury and Flores streets, county property records show. Most recently, it bought a sliver of land there in late June.
Weston Urban doesn't have specific plans for the properties yet, President Randy Smith said in an email.
"Future plans will undoubtedly align with our company's mission and purpose of creating special places to live downtown," he said. "We decided long ago that the northwest quadrant of downtown was our best chance to be catalytic in the urban core. I believe properties perched along San Pedro Creek have an abundance of latent potential, especially as it relates to the residential sector."
The site is close to the northwest limit of downtown, a relatively sleepy area of the district two blocks west of the Central Library and across the street from the future site of CAST Tech, a charter high school that will train students for technology careers. The school is seen as an important part in efforts to attract more tech companies to San Antonio, where some local entrepreneurs say a tech district is emerging on a stretch of Houston Street downtown.
The site is also few blocks north of the cluster of properties spanning 9.1 acres that Weston Urban is set to receive through a complex deal with Frost Bank and the city of San Antonio that includes the construction of the 23-story Frost Tower, downtown's first new office tower in more than 25 years.
Weston Urban's holdings in the area are all within a few blocks of San Pedro Creek, which the city and county are rehabilitating at a cost of $175 million.
The San Pedro Creek project has attracted the interest of other developers: local real estate firm Casey Development recently submitted plans to build a hotel tower and multifamily, office and retail space on more than 7 acres of land owned by the city and county in the area just south of the Frost Tower.
rwebner@express-news.net
@rwebner
Richard Webner
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Richard Webner is the real estate reporter for the Express-News. He moved to the beat in spring 2016, after spending about a year covering retail, hotels, tourism and manufacturing. Before coming to San Antonio, he was a business reporter at the Florida Times-Union in Jacksonville, and he had internships at the Chicago Tribune and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, as well as the Express-News in summer 2013. He earned a graduate degree in journalism from the University of Missouri and an undergraduate degree in History from Northwestern University. He grew up in Columbus, Ohio but has had the good fortune to live all over the United States.