The Pearl is about to get a new neighbor, and we’re finally finding out what it’s all about.
The owners of a long-vacant Broadway Street property in one of San Antonio’s fastest-growing corridors recently filed for a necessary review by the city’s Historic and Design Review Commission (HDRC). revealed plans to receive
Renderings show a 3.4-acre shopping mecca packed with luxury brands, which developers are calling Broadway East San Antonio (BESA), a dining-focused development in a former brewery. It is said to be equivalent to .
“Silver Ventures has developed a great project for the city and has done a great job curating local retail and restaurants for Pearl,” said Benjamin, president and partner at Fulcrum Development. Dreser said. “The overall success of their project and the impact it has had on the city has made national and regional tenants want to be as close to Pearl as possible.”
According to a package prepared for HDRC, the project will include an individual building bounded by Broadway Street to the west, Casa Blanca Street to the south, North Alamo Street to the east, and 1,800 Broadway Apartments to the north. It is said that it will be built on a block of land.
The parcel is owned by Besa Land Partners, a foreign limited liability company registered by San Antonio-based real estate developer Fulcrum Development.
GrayStreet Partners is listed as one of the partners working on the project. Kevin Covey, the company’s general manager, did not respond to a request for comment.
Gray Street previously had plans to build a 23-acre mixed-use community on the site before putting the land back on the market in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. The company subsequently sold most of the land to Fulcrum.
Dreser cited inflation, high interest rates and environmental cleanup from the land’s previous use as other causes of delays.
Documents submitted by the partnership to the Office of Historic Preservation on Jan. 15 for conceptual approval by the HDRC propose a multi-story building with an acute roof pitch and storefront windows within the expansive shopping center. are.
Perspective drawings show Pearl Parkway extending east from Pearl, along Broadway Street, to North Alamo Street.
Additionally, the plan states that one fire-damaged house on the property fronting North Alamo Street will be demolished and removed, and another will be relocated with approval. shown.
But the development will incorporate the ornate facades of the former commercial buildings, which still stand as remnants of Broadway’s pre-suburban heyday.
Fulcrum’s other local projects include Aron Town Center, developed in 2010, 10003 Northwest Military Highway, and the 60-acre Culebra Commons on the Far West Side in 2021.
Renderings of BESA by design architect Kohn Pederson Fox of New York City and noted architect Ford Powell Carson of San Antonio show a large tract of land behind BESA until future phases of the project are developed. is shown to be used as a parking lot.
The building’s design scheme appears to be inspired by Pearl’s palette of colors and materials, with restaurants dominating the mixed-use mix within a walkable campus that has attracted burgeoning residential developments to Tobin Hill.
But while the proposed Broadway East, located on the edge of the Government Hill neighborhood, is hardly your average strip center, it is mostly marked as retail.
According to the sales brochure, the stores could include luxury furniture, high-end fashion stores such as Gucci, Peter Miller and Rolex, wellness and beauty such as Chanel, and luxury heritage brands such as Lucie and Ralph Lauren.
“Broadway East offers these tenants the opportunity to literally be at Pearl’s front door,” Dreser said.
The first phase of the project will feature 175,000 square feet of retail space, and the second phase will include mixed-use space including office, retail, hospitality and other retail, according to the brochure.
Dolether said he expects the project to be completed within two years of starting construction, with the first retail tenants opening in late 2027.
BESA’s properties are located within an area designated as River Improvement Overlay (RIO)-2, which stretches from Highway 281 North to Lexington Avenue in downtown San Antonio.
In August 2022, the owner sought and obtained a RIO development node zoning overlay on the property from the city.
Development nodes allow developers to design buildings that are more than 10 to 15 stories tall without setting back from all property lines.
Other development nodes in the area include an eight-story Oxbow office building developed by Silver Ventures and a 12-story tower that will serve as Credit Human’s headquarters.
Another nearby development approved in 2018 is located just south of these properties at 1611 Broadway, where Gray Street once advertised plans to build a 20-story hotel tower. be.
In 2020, Gray Street completed a $47 million renovation of the former San Antonio Light newspaper building at 420 Broadway Street into a mixed-use office and retail space.
