Feature Photo (above): The lawns just north of the Embassy Suits by Hilton-Brooks Hotel & Spa, corner of SE Military Drive and South New Braunfels Avenue, is being considered for a new retail development. Image: Google Streets.
Posted: 4-16-2019
by Adolfo Pesquera
San Antonio (Bexar County) — The Brooks Development Authority has directed staff to execute agreements on three commercial real estate projects designed to bring new retail, office and mixed-use development.
At its regular meeting Tuesday, the Board of Directors for Brooks came out of executive session to pass resolutions intended to further negotiations with Franc, a joint venture between Varco Real Estate Holdings, a Brownsville-based company, and Orange Investments, a firm based in Monterrey, Mexico.
Three separate contracts are in the process:
- Retail Center–a build-to-suit lease agreement for the construction of a real estate center on approximately 11.56 acres. The site is located off the southeast corner of South New Braunfels Avenue and Southeast Military Drive, adjacent to the northernmost end of The Greenline linear park.
- Office Building–a build-to-suit lease agreement for the construction of an office building on approximately 5.78 acres. The site is located east of Mission Trail Baptist Hospital at the northeast corner of Inner Circle Road and Research Plaza.
- Mixed-Use–a binding letter of intent to be subsequently codified in a development agreement for the south part of The Hill. An exact amount of acreage has yet to be agreed upon. The north part of The Hill is where the University of the Incarnate Word has a branch campus and it is also considered the historic district of Brooks.
The south end of The Hill is also the area where Brooks announced last fall that OKIN BPS agreed to locate a 130,000-square-foot corporate campus for 1,400 employees.
The office building is to be located on a site where Brooks had attempted to construct a spec office building a few years ago. That effort was not successful.
Franc recently completed an office building project in Stone Oak. They were the developer behind Venture X, 18911 Hardy Oak Blvd., a co-working office environment designed for startups, entrepreneurs, freelancers, and small to medium-size businesses.
Once the lease agreements come back to the board for approval, Franc will begin pre-development. Only then will estimates on the gross square footage of each project will be determined.
“They’ll do due diligence on the sites. They’ll create their conceptual designs,” said Amber Gilbert, Brooks director of business development.
Brooks has an architectural control committee that must review any conceptual designs to make sure they comply with the architectural guidelines of the Brooks master plan.
adolfo@virtualbx.com
