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Charlie and Nina Acu\u00f1a Credit: Courtesy \/ Acuna family<\/p>\nThe man who brought downtown San Antonio\u2019s SoFlo District to life died late last month at the age of 80. <\/p>\n
Charlie Acu\u00f1a played a central role in the development that cascades down Flores Street and into the Southtown area over the past 30 years, turning dilapidated buildings into the mix of housing and commercial property that exists today.<\/p>\n
His family said he had a gift for seeing potential. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhere others saw run-down warehouses, my dad saw opportunities,\u201d said Christa Acu\u00f1a, his daughter.<\/p>\n
Along with Nora Acu\u00f1a, his wife and business partner, the pair worked to build the Cevallos Lofts, now called Trove Southtown, as well as offices and lofts in the area.<\/p>\n
Charlie and Nina Acu\u00f1a Credit: Courtesy \/ Acuna family<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the beginning stages of the revitalization of the SoFlo area, people would still turn their noses up at the thought of living in that area,\u201d Christa Acu\u00f1a said. \u201cTheir attitude didn\u2019t diminish my dad\u2019s vision, though. It only fueled it.\u201d<\/p>\n
State Sen. Jos\u00e9 Men\u00e9ndez (D-26), who was serving on San Antonio City Council at the time, said he was one of the first people to see the possibilities in the area.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a catalyst for more investment in the community,\u201d Men\u00e9ndez said. \u201cHe was a developer, sure, but he was a developer with a vision and a heart for helping revitalize the community.\u201d<\/p>\n
Charlie Acu\u00f1a was born in a Mexican American family in El Paso in 1944, during the segregation era.<\/p>\n
He and his family faced discrimination and he struggled in school, but his daughter says he didn\u2019t let those challenges hold him back. He worked in clothing manufacturing for companies like Levi Strauss and Farah Manufacturing. <\/p>\n
He then went on to open his own manufacturing plant in El Paso doing work for Farah, Calvin Klein and other clothing brands. That\u2019s where Charlie and Nora first met.<\/p>\n
The couple moved to San Antonio to expand their business in the 1980s. Charlie Acu\u00f1a loved the city, his wife said. And he was \u201cgifted with everything production.\u201d<\/p>\n
But when the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) went into effect in 1994, it forced the Acu\u00f1as to close their manufacturing business. That\u2019s when they pivoted, Nora said, finding a new future for the warehouses they owned.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis led him to mobilize his creative mind and repurpose the properties,\u201d she said. \u201cHe coined the name SoFlo District, as we owned several properties on South Flores, and began the new stage of our business. He created beautiful spaces.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/charlie-acuna.jpg\")
Charlie Acu\u00f1a<\/p>\n
Men\u00e9ndez said Charlie Acu\u00f1a brought a personal touch to development, tackling design himself to create livable spaces that people hadn\u2019t thought of.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe could take an old building that had been discarded,\u201d Men\u00e9ndez said. \u201cAnd rehab it so people would want to be there.\u201d<\/p>\n
That signaled to other investors that South Flores was a place to be.<\/p>\n
It wasn\u2019t just what he did, though, but how he did it. Debra Guerrero is another former City Council member, who now works in the housing development sector. She worked with Charlie Acu\u00f1a for two decades.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was always focused on, how do I make the communities that have seen less investment better?\u201d Guerrero said \u201cHow do I reinvest in those communities that, honestly, the private market seems to ignore?\u201d<\/p>\n
He created community spaces, she said, and brought community members and neighbors out to openings. His developments included affordable housing, she said, creating mixed-income apartment and loft complexes.<\/p>\n
\u201cSan Antonio mattered to my dad because it was home. It was where his family lived, and it was our community,\u201d said Christa Acu\u00f1a. \u201cHe wanted San Antonio to flourish\u2014not only for us, but for people who might not have been given a chance otherwise.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The man who brought downtown San Antonio\u2019s SoFlo District to life died late last month at the age…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":222060,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5133],"tags":[5229,120666,120667,120668,120669,48206,31126,77790,120670,7202,7203,120671,120672,17924,358,7453,120673,3187,7593,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,7819],"class_list":{"0":"post-222059","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-antonio","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-cevallos-lofts","10":"tag-charlie-acuna","11":"tag-christa-acuna","12":"tag-debra-guerrero","13":"tag-downtown-san-antonio","14":"tag-el-paso","15":"tag-jose-menendez","16":"tag-nora-acuna","17":"tag-san-antonio","18":"tag-sanantonio","19":"tag-soflo","20":"tag-soflo-district","21":"tag-southtown","22":"tag-texas","23":"tag-top-story","24":"tag-trove-southtown","25":"tag-tx","26":"tag-typefeature","27":"tag-united-states","28":"tag-united-states-of-america","29":"tag-unitedstates","30":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","31":"tag-us","32":"tag-usa","33":"tag-wc-500-750"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115193862276369000","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222059","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=222059"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222059\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/222060"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=222059"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=222059"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=222059"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}