Web Posted: 03/29/2006 12:00 AM CST

Adolfo Pesquera
Express-News Business Writer

If real estate developers and investors needed anyone to pinch them to make sure the rush of big deal making in 2005 wasn’t a dream, they just had to stand next to Ed Cross.

Speaking before 515 real estate professionals at a Commercial Real Estate Women forum in the Crowne Plaza Hotel, Cross noted developers are at a rare and privileged point in a boom cycle.

“Every bank in the city is represented in this room and wants to lend us money,” said Cross, president of Cross & Co., a broker of office and warehouse properties.

There is a surplus of cash chasing after real estate deals and multiple offers being made on commercial properties before the “For Sale” sign goes up, Cross said.

That is a far cry from 15 years ago, when the real estate crash got so bad, brokers couldn’t give away heavily discounted properties, even with seller financing.

“I don’t think it’s going to last,” Cross said, concluding enthusiasm will wane when investors regain confidence in the stock markets.

Cross doesn’t believe real estate will tank; other fundamentals are holding strong.

“What you may have, instead of several offers before you put the sign up, is you’ll have to put the sign up before you sell,” he said. “I don’t think there is going to be as much cash as we are experiencing right now.”

For this year, and in some sectors for years to come, the city should continue to see phenomenal growth. Retail developer Mark Granados and downtown champion Ben Brewer noted a greater proportion of the overall growth than in the past has come in the inner city.

A resurgence of retail in neglected inner-city corridors like Austin Highway, Southeast Military Drive and Vance Jackson Road, and the appearance of high-end residential in or near downtown are two trends unique to this decade.

If local developers do what they do best and there aren’t too many outsiders flooding the area with speculative deals, the boom should be sustainable for years, Granados said.

Office buildings have only recently recovered to the point where rents are meeting the projections developers hoped for in the early 1980s, said Chuck King, a partner in Travis Commercial Real Estate Services.

“I’ve never been more excited about the fundamentals of our market,” King said. “We’re sustaining the highest rates we’ve ever had.”

Leasing has been in the black for eight consecutive quarters and construction has been strong, King said.

The one drawback he noted was that rents aren’t keeping pace with construction costs, which are being driven up by a scarcity of materials.

In residential, there will be water rights and utilities capacity to meet demand for about 10 years, said Kelly Leach, a land dealer whose clients are national home builders.

Over the past year, the large tract builders have carved up rights to virtually all of the developable land — tens of thousands of potential lots — in West Bexar and Comal counties and East Kendall County.

To the north of San Antonio, Leach said, there will be the equivalent of another three or four developments on the scale of Stone Oak.

“This is something we’ve never seen before and it’s probably something we will never see again,” Leach said, explaining there aren’t enough water rights left in this region to build much beyond that.

David Hendricks
Express-News Business Writer

The Atlanta-based developer of a planned northwest San Antonio retail complex is pushing ahead with an expanded high-end hotel-condominium project valued at $130 million, despite the withdrawal of its luxury hotel management partner.

Thomas Enterprises will break ground this summer on the 13-story project named Hotel Talavera, with 152 hotel rooms and 133 condos at The Rim, on the northeast corner of Interstate 10 and Loop 1604. The opening is slated for spring 2008.

The expanded project was announced Thursday after news earlier in the week that Atlanta-based West Paces Hotel Group and its planned luxury chain brand, Hotel Solís, had withdrawn from the Mexican colonial-style project.

West Paces left the project after Thomas Enterprises expanded the hotel from its original four-story hotel design to include condos, said Thomas Enterprises President and Chief Executive Stan Thomas.

“It will be among the nicest hotels in Texas,” said Hal Thannisch, president of Thannisch Development Services Inc. in Atlanta, the developer for the Hotel Talavera project. “It will be notable in Texas among other luxury hotels.”

The Talavera name comes from the distinctive tile and ceramic arts that originated from the Mexican city of Puebla during the French Army’s occupation in the mid-1800s and spread throughout Mexico in varying interpretations.

The hotel’s ground floor will be common space, including the lobby. Hotel rooms, averaging 500 square feet, will occupy the next three floors. The condos will fill the remaining floors, ranging from one-bedroom units at 1,200 square feet to three-bedroom units at 2,500 square feet.

Penthouses with rooftop terracing will be larger. Condo prices will range up to $1 million or more, Thannisch and Thomas said. Condo residents will be entitled to the same services and hotel amenities as the hotel guests, including room service and the planned 11,000-square-foot spa.

“This will be a little oasis,” Thannisch said. “We’re trying to strike a prominent landmark for that corner of San Antonio. It’s exciting to make that addition to San Antonio’s dynamic growth.”

Hotel Talavera will operate two restaurants, an 80-seat restaurant with 40 seats outdoors and a casual poolside taqueria. A culinary center will allow for “food and fun” activities in which guests and residents can learn about cooking from chefs and match foods with wine.

A 4,600-square-foot ballroom also is planned, along with a 2,000-square-foot meeting room and two smaller meeting rooms.

The hotel-condo project will be on the caliber of the Thomas Enterprises’ Las Ventanas al Paraiso resort in Los Cabos, Mexico. The San Antonio hotel “will have the same design team. Mexicans know Las Ventanas as the market leader in their country,” Thannisch said.

The design team consists of Dallas firms HKS Inc., the architect SWA Group, which will do the landscaping, and Paul Duesing Partners, which will do the interior design.

Thomas Enterprises has developed or plans to build similar projects in the Atlanta area, in Orlando, Fla., and in California, the Caribbean and Europe. “Our desire is that each project express their own individuality and provide authentic experiences for guests,” Thannisch said.

Hotel Talavera will provide the residential anchor for The Rim, which is called a “lifestyle center” based on the idea that residents will not have to leave the residential-retail complex for shopping or entertainment.

The Rim’s retail center will cover 2 million square feet on 150 acres of the 800-acre site. The retail anchor will be Bass Pro Shops Outdoor World store. Other retail tenants have not been announced.

A new $15 million apartment community is about to be unveiled on San Antonio’s Southeast Side.

The NRP Group LLC, a national real estate development, construction and property management firm based in Cleveland, will open its newest community, Costa Cadiz Apartment Homes next week.

The 172-unit complex is located at 2819 South W.W. White Road in Southeast San Antonio — an area, NRP Assistant Vice President Debra Guerrero says, is in need of new development.

“The W.W. White corridor has been slowly deteriorating,” Guerrero says. “We feel like this $15 million investment will spur new investment.”

NRP Group officials demolished two dilapidated homes to make way for the apartments — which will have a mix of market rate, affordable and Section 8 housing.

Costa Cadiz was built through a public-private partnership. The city of San Antonio contributed $350,000 in housing funds from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development in support of the project.

Local residents will also have access to social services through NRP Group’s partnership with the American AGAPE Foundation. AGAPE — which is the Greek word for love — will offer case management services, advocacy, health screenings, a computer lab, a scholarship program and an after-school homework program.

In San Antonio, NRP Group also owns Costa Biscaya and Costa Dorada apartment communities. Three more projects are being planned for San Antonio.

Besides its headquarters in Cleveland, NRP Group also has offices in Corpus Christi, Houston and Irving, Texas.