Brooks housing growth accelerates with Dallas firm’s 450-unit redevelopment of officers quarters
Madison Iszler, Staff writerJuly 20, 2021Updated: July 20, 2021 5:17 p.m.Comments
Aging rental homes at Brooks, a former Air Force base on the South Side, are being replaced.
The 163-unit Heritage Oaks community, which was built in 1962 as officers quarters, will be razed to make way for about 450 single-family and duplex rental homes.
The project will include a clubhouse and pool, dog and recreational parks, and walking paths.
Preston Hollow Capital, a Dallas-based finance company, is leasing the land from Brooks Development Authority. The investment is expected to total about $85 million, said Ramiro Albarran, Preston Hollow’s co-head of originations.
Preston Hollow has invested in projects at Brooks since 2015, and funded real estate and infrastructure developments on the roughly 1,308-acre campus, Albarran said.
A Preston Hollow representative did not respond to an inquiry about the latest project, including what rents are projected to cost and whether Heritage Oaks tenants will be given the option first to lease the new units.
The project comes amid an expansion of housing options at Brooks.
San Antonio-based Terramark Urban Homes announced last winter that it plans to build the first for-sale housing at the campus.
The company bought nearly 5 acres for $1.8 million from the Brooks Development Authority and will construct 60 single-family homes, with prices starting at $270,000. Terramark borrowed $1.5 million for the purchase from the organization, which is overseen by an 11-member board of directors appointed by the mayor and City Council.
On ExpressNews.com: Terramark to build first for-sale housing at Brooks
Brooks was recommended for closure by the Base Realignment and Closure Commission in 2005 and decommissioned in 2011. Since then, it has been converting to a mix of businesses, apartments, stores, restaurants and hotels.
There are now more than 40 businesses at Brooks, and more than 3,200 people work at the campus, which includes 1,337 residential units.
Japanese manufacturer Nissei Plastic Machinery America Inc., food packaging company Cuisine Solutions and business processing services company Okin Process have set up facilities there.
One attraction for businesses: The land at Brooks is exempt from property taxes.
The former base is also a Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone, which reimburses developers for infrastructure improvements from property tax revenue, and it is designated as an “opportunity zone.”
The zones, established by then-President Donald Trump’s 2017 tax overhaul, provide tax breaks on capital gains to investors who put capital in long-term investments within designated areas.
The program is intended to generate investment in underserved neighborhoods but has been criticized for primarily benefiting wealthy investors rather than residents. Research also has shown mixed economic conditions within the designated areas, and suggests that Brooks and other local zones already were seeing investment.
Brooks got Texas’ first project under the program in 2019: a self-storage facility with flex space built by DPR Investments. Amazon, which plans to open a delivery station at the campus, also is using the designation.
Apartments at theater site
Work on an apartment complex that will replace a shuttered theater is expected to begin early next year.
On ExpressNews.com: Closed Fiesta 16 theater in Northwest San Antonio could be replaced with apartments
San Antonio-based Koontz Corp. is building a 300-unit complex on a roughly 10.4-acre site at 12631 Vance Jackson Road. The discount Regal Fiesta Stadium 16 movie theater there permanently closed during the coronavirus pandemic.
The developer recently bought the property from Houston-based Weingarten Realty and had it rezoned to allow for the apartments.
The complex will include one- and two-bedroom units, two swimming pools and a dog park, and is expected to be completed in 2024.
“We are excited to bring a first-class multifamily residential development to this vibrant area of San Antonio,” Koontz Corp. President and CEO Bart Koontz. “Its infill location with plenty of nearby grocery, retail and restaurant choices make it an ideal site.”
Koontz develops apartments, as well as office, retail and industrial buildings.
Bart Koontz and B.J. “Red” McCombs founded the company, then known as Koontz McCombs Ltd., in 1997 and added a construction company in 2000.
Koontz bought McCombs’ interest in 2015 and rebranded as Koontz Corp., then sold the Koontz Construction commercial division to Joeris General Contractors the next year.
madison.iszler@express-news.net