By Edmond Ortiz
While population explosion across the San Antonio area continues, so does the growth of commercial and residential developments around the tri-county region.
Below is an update on nearly 20 select residential, commercial and mixed-use projects that are in various phases of ongoing development in and around San Antonio.
The projects range from the redevelopment of renowned structures, such as the Basila Frocks manufacturing building in west San Antonio, and a former Alamo Heights medical facility, to new home construction on the South Side, and the formation of a massive master-planned community in New Braunfels.
Elsewhere, East Side San Antonians envision a makeover of the Freeman Coliseum/Frost Bank Center complex, notable retailers and restaurant chains head for a new Schertz shopping plaza, and a proposed Buc-ees faces an uphill battle in Boerne.
SAN ANTONIO
Villaret Commons
Gilley Properties International, attached to Gilley International Group, announced last November that it is building Villaret Commons, at 1519 W. Villaret Blvd., close to Palo Alto College and Kazen Middle School.
Villaret Commons, which is part of the residential growth that has taken hold in the South Side over the last several years, will offer 80 multi-family units, 19 duplex lots, 42 single-family lots, and a wealth of amenities for future residents.
Gilley Mendoza, Gilley International’s real estate team leader, said Villaret Commons is the first of many residential communities that his company plans to develop on the South Side.
Sunset Ridge
Just two days before Christmas, San Antonio-based firm Headwall Investments announced it finalized the purchase of Sunset Ridge Shopping Center in a joint venture with Houston-based Fifth Corner.
Located in San Antonio city limits but tucked at the corner between Terrell Hills and Alamo Heights, Sunset Ridge has accommodated countless mainly small, locally owned businesses since its establishment in 1951. This is only the second time that ownership of Sunset Ridge has changed since 2003. Ironwood Real Estate was the most recent owner.
Headwall CEO George Wommack said he feels his company can further diversify the tenant mix at Sunset Ridge in the coming years, and attract more Texas-based businesses. The retail center currently has nearly 30 tenants, such as Sunset and Co., a hardware and home improvements shop, Mike’s Dog Store, Boss Bagel, and Seazar’s Fine Wine and Spirits.
Headwall will look to fill the lone vacant space, the former home of Twin Sisters Bakery and Cafe, with another culinary venture, company representatives said.
TPC Town Center
The fledgling $2.7 million retail center near JW Marriott TPC Resort is now in Phase II of development, with upcoming tenants such as Pan Dulce Mexican Kitchen, Core 45 Pilates, and Ginger’s Bistro. The shopping plaza is located at 4250 TPC Pkwy.
Basila Frocks
The DreamOn Group,a property management firm, and Prosper West, a grassroots organization, partnered to spearhead the restoration of the historic Basila Frocks Co. building on the West Side.
The two entities are now promoting newly created spaces, which are currently available for pre-lease for office, medical and retail use at the Depression-era structure at 502 N. Zarzamora St.
Around 1929, Syrian natives Nicholas and Marie Basila built and used the structure to house garment manufacturers.
Later on, different owners had the Basila Frocks building accommodate everything from restaurants, clinics, a grocery store and a gym to community events such as quinceañeras and wedding receptions.
As a result of a $7 million renovation project that ended last fall, the Basila Frocks can now house between 15 to 20 existing businesses. It also contains a community meeting space, and new headquarters for Prosper West.
According to the redevelopment project partners, the vision for Basila Frocks is a mixed-use commercial hub, and a destination for community art, music and entertainment.
The Portico at Shaenfield
The Dominion Advisory Group is pre-leasing space at Phase II of its Shaenfield Ranch Center retail plaza on the far West Side. Called “The Portico at Shaenfield,” the $20 million Phase II development offers 54,000 square feet of space for retail, neighborhood services and dining.
Incoming tenants slated to arrive at The Portico at Shaenfield include: Box Street Social, a local brunch restaurant chain with existing locations at Hemisfair and La Cantera Heights; Crepeccino Cafe and Creperie, which already has four San Antonio-area spots; Cedar Park, Texas-based eatery Bitelo Brazilian Steakhouse; Black Swan Yoga adding a third local place; and Salon Suites of San Antonio.
Soun Retail Center
Construction begins this month on a $1.5 million, 7,176-square-foot shopping plaza in the Encino Park area, according to a filing with the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation.
The new retail center at 21555 Bulverde Road will sit close to existing businesses such as Sprouts Farmers Market, HTeaO, Smokey Mo’s BBQ, the Fossil Creek shopping center, and down the road from Johnson High School. Construction is to conclude at the end of 2026.
Arboretum San Antonio
Organizers of Arboretum San Antonio have said they are making progress in turning the former Republic Golf Course on the Southeast Side into a 200-acre educational and recreational public garden. The master plan calls for a nature center, a new Bexar County public park, a welcome center and cafe, a research center, and an amphitheater area for community events.
The arboretum will also have a pond, wetlands, a canopy walk and trails, all of which will be designed to help preserve the area’s diverse ecology, and give visitors and researchers a chance to explore flora and fauna.
According to planners, the arboretum will be accessible via an extended Salado Creek greenway trail, and will connect with nearby park spaces.
With support from the Urban Tree Co., arboretum planners developed a temporary children’s natural play area in 2025. Other organizations and businesses extended financial gifts toward the arboretum’s development last year, including H-E-B’s donation.
East Side
With the San Antonio Spurs planning to relocate from the Frost Bank Center to a new downtown arena in the early 2030s, locals are turning their attention to the fate of the FBC/Freeman Coliseum complex.
Local officials and East Side residents had heard promises of economic revival in the early 2000s when the then-AT&T Center opened, hosting Spurs games, the San Antonio Stock Show and Rodeo, minor league hockey matches and concerts.
Alas, the envisioned redevelopment never materialized around the immediate area. But Bexar County voters’ passed a proposal last November to allocate $311 million in county hotel and rental car tax revenue toward helping to support a reimagining of the Frost Bank Center/Freeman Coliseum property – something one development team promises will lead to an economic rebirth on the East Side.
The county is working with a coalition led by Texas-based Hunt Development Group and Lincoln Property Co., who propose up to 3.6 million square feet of new development over 15 years across 400 acres on the county-owned arena/coliseum complex, and possibly the city-owned Willow Springs Golf Course, and properties owned by the San Antonio Livestock Exposition organization.
The development team promises such new mixed-uses along the East Houston Street corridor will reflect and accommodate programming eyed for the arena/coliseum complex, which after the Spurs’ departure, will become a year-round home for rodeo-related activities, concerts and other amenities.
“Year-round hotel, retail, entertainment, dining venues, parks, plazas, outdoor flexible event spaces and a connected network of well-lit, walkable streets, and hike-and-bike trails will complement and amplify the two-week rodeo celebration, creating a thriving destination for residents and visitors alike,” the development team stated in their pitch.
River North
McCombs Family Partners, the late Red McCombs’ development company, is seeking a rezoning change as part of its mixed-use development proposed for the River North neighborhood.
The city’s zoning commission is due to soon consider the firm’s request to reclassify 6 acres around 326 W. Jones Ave., next to the San Antonio Museum of Art, to a zoning designation that would better accommodate more high-intensity infill development.
The developers specifically envision 783,110 square feet of new construction involving a 17-story, 390-unit apartment complex, new office, shopping and dining spaces, a new gym and parking garages.
If realized, McCombs’ new development will add onto the redevelopment that has been taking place in recent years along the San Antonio Riverwalk Museum Reach and adjacent to Pearl. The property in question once was part of the original Lone Star Brewery.
Landmark North
A surge of restaurants and other businesses is headed for Landmark North, Fulcrum Development’s newest phase of commercial development at the southeast corner of Interstate 10 and Loop 1604.
Landmark North is the latest part of Fulcrum’s development of land at the busy Northwest Side intersection, where chain restaurants such as Cheddar’s, Chuy’s, Pluckers, and Rock and Brews are well established along Landmark Parkway near Methodist Hospital | Landmark.
Fogo de Chão Brazilian Steakhouse, PNC Bank, and Italian eatery The Sicilian Butcher have already opened up shop at Landmark North.
Other tenants due to open this year at Landmark North include: Landmark Nail Lounge; McAllen, Texas-based Mexican seafood restaurant La Costa Grill; Austin-based Pinthouse Brewing; and Arizona-based brunch eatery Hash Kitchen, which is also opening an Alamo Heights-area locale.
Broadway East
Fulcrum Development and Graystreet Partners are partnering to develop Broadway East, a 15-acre mixed-use destination across Broadway Street from Pearl. According to plans, Phase I will contain 170,000 square feet of development featuring upscale dining and shopping opportunities, diverse architecture, and surface parking.
The project partners also plan to include a boutique hotel, new residences, and public gathering areas. The spaces are tentatively scheduled to open up in mid-2027. Broadway East will join an area that private companies and the city have sought to revive through redevelopment and the opening of locally owned dining and entertainment options, especially along Grayson Street, and the addition of Alamo Colleges District’s new headquarters, in recent years.
The Merc
California firm Schumacher Interests broke ground in October 2025 on The Merc, a 112-acre, $350 million mixed-use development along UTSA Boulevard. According to developers, The Merc’s name is a tribute to San Antonio’s early history has a hub for pioneering merchants.
The first phase of development, featuring eight acres of retail and dining spaces across three buildings totaling 35,000 square feet, is due to open this summer, according to Schumacher.
One of the first planned tenants will be Park Golf, from Austin-based Butler Pitch and Putt. Park Golf will be a par-three, 25-acre course designed to be accessible to people of all ages who want to play golf for fun. Park Golf will be highlighted by a 10-hole course, a putt-putt sector, and a green space for live music and community activities.
Park Golf will be located along a public trailhead connecting to the Leon Creek Greenway. Plans for The Merc – which the developers describe as a walkable, lifestyle destination – also call for a pickleball/ beer garden venue, an ice house, and other spots meant for community members to enjoy artistic and wellness events. Schumacher already owns two apartment complexes that sit next to The Merc property.
ALAMO HEIGHTS
5307 Broadway St.
Local real estate company Ridgemont Properties is redeveloping a former medical building at 5307 Broadway St. with an eye toward bringing the structure back to its retail origins.
Alamo Heights City Council last December approved an economic development agreement with Ridgemont, extending to the company a maximum of $2 million in incentives, a 10-year, 100% property tax rebate, and a 15-year, 75% sales tax rebate.
According to plans, Ridgemont aims to reopen the building’s historic breezeway, and bring two neighborhood restaurant/bar concepts to the first floor.
The second floor will have office suites ranging from 1,086 to 2,783 square feet, along with a 6,870-square-foot private office space offering meeting rooms, a luxury lounge, and a hospitality-style kitchen.
Ridgemont officials said they will spend at least $9 million on renovating the structure, and improving the exterior and outdoor features, including landscaping and sidewalks. The company expects to have one restaurant/bar concept by the end of 2027.
BOERNE
Boerne has multiple residential, commercial and mixed-use developments in the works.
Local private equity company Escalera Capital is getting into the healthcare real estate landscape. The firm announced last December that it will build a 47,000-square-foot, two-story medical outpatient building on a vacant lot at 701 N. Main St.
No other details have been provided about the upcoming medical outpatient clinic, but the Escalera development will join an expanding healthcare scene that reflects Boerne’s population growth.
Last summer, Baptist Health System began preparing a site northwest of the Interstate 10/Texas 46 intersection where it will build a $50 million hospital campus. Meanwhile, construction is wrapping up at One 7 Business Park on Coughran Road, a nearly 40,000-square-foot medical and professional office complex.
Elsewhere in Boerne, popular travel center chain Buc-ees cleared a major bureaucratic hurdle last December in its effort to develop a 54,000-square-foot facility with a 100-pump gas station at 33375 I-10 W. near the Menger Springs subdivision.
The Boerne Zoning Commission voted to recommend to City Council to approve Buc-ee’s rezoning request, which includes an additional parking lot on a 5-acre plot next to the main development site.
Buc-ees’ plans for a new travel center has met with considerable opposition or questions by city leaders and community members who have voiced concern over the development’s potential impacts.
Meanwhile, construction is beginning this month on the long-anticipated Boerne Station Business Park at 209 Ebner St. near River Road Park.
The project, which has been in the works for years, involves the construction of new office buildings that are modeled after the San Antonio and Aransas Pass railroad depot that opened in the neighborhood in the early 1900s.
According to the developers Robert Thornton and Travis Roberson, the style of the new office buildings will pay homage to Boerne’s past and its current architectural aesthetics and small-town charm.
Initial construction will include a 3,800-square-foot, $500,000 building dubbed “Ice Haus” in a TDLR filing. The construction project is slated to take two years. Another 3,800-square-foot, $500,000 structure, dubbed “Freight Room” in a separate TDLR filing, will be built simultaneously.
NEW BRAUNFELS
Mayfair
Various kinds of construction continue on Southstar Communities’ master-planned, 1,900-acre, mixed-use development, which the developer calls a walkable miniature-city that is evolving in north New Braunfels.
Notable ongoing commercial construction projects at Mayfair include wholesale retailer Costco building a 158,000-square-foot, $33.8 million warehouse, which will include a gas station. The Costco project kicked off last September and is slated to wrap up this spring at 235 Kohlenberg Road.
Also, Texas-based convenience store chain Food|Box is scheduled to start a one-year construction project this April on its first New Braunfels location. The $1.5 million store will be located at 5746 I-35 N.
Residential communities that are going online at Mayfair in 2026 include homes for sale by DR Horton; The Village at Mayfair, a series of homes-for-rent from The Empire Group of Cos., and Wes Peoples Homes’ Gallery at Midtown, which will feature houses, townhomes and cottages up for sale.
On the educational side, Comal Independent School District opened Mayfair Elementary School last August. CISD is presently building its ninth middle school in Mayfair – a nearly 185,000-square-foot facility that is scheduled to open in fall 2027. The new campus will be located at 6004 Guthrie Trail.
Regarding recreational amenities, Fairway Park – Mayfair’s first public park – opened in March 2025, featuring trails, a bicycle pump track, a playscape and an 18-hole disc golf course at 137 Ransom Drive.
The following month, construction crews broke ground on Midtown Mayfair, a recreational and retail town square that will include: Midtown Swim Club, a private swimming pool and pool house for residents; Celebration Hall, an open-air pavilion that will accommodate Mayfair community events, social gatherings, market days and programming; and the official Mayfair Welcome Center, which will host small activities, house neighborhood homeowner association offices, Southstar’s headquarters, and serve as a community information hub and social hangout.
Overall, Mayfair is planned to include 6,000 residences, 300 acres of commercial space, 300 acres of park space, 35 miles of trails, a community lake, a third CISD campus, and other developments and amenities for residents. All planned construction is estimated for completion in 2030.
SCHERTZ
Schertz Station
Local developer Merit Commercial Real Estate is signing up tenants for Schertz Station, a 72-acre, master-planned, mixed-use development located at Interstate 35 and Cibolo Valley Drive.
With EVO Entertainment Schertz nearby, Schertz Station has already lined up major retailers and dining chains such as The Home Depot, Hopdoddy Burger Bar, Cava, Panera Bread, and Portillo’s, a popular Italian beef sandwich eatery. California-based chain Dave’s Hot Chicken opened its third San Antonio-area restaurant at Schertz Station on Jan. 9.
