\u201cThere wasn\u2019t as much of a call for downtown office space,\u201d Brodnitz said. \u201c[Housing] is what San Antonio needs.\u201d<\/p>\n
Less than a mile away, downtown developer Weston Urban is building another mixed-use development, in the Continental Hotel, built around 1896.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Continental Residences offers a variety of floor plans, including studios, one- and two-bedroom units, and even townhomes. And there is significant variety within those categories,\u201d said Mary Ullman Japhet, who is serving as a spokesperson for Weston Urban on the project.<\/p>\n
The Continental Residences are even closer to completion and pre-leasing for those 290 units has already started.<\/p>\n
Is there a market for more apartments?<\/p>\n
Between the Continental Block and Tower Life Residences, 500 units of upscale apartments will hit downtown San Antonio over the next year. Rents in the area have dropped over the last 12 months by 1.4%, but people still want to move into downtown, said Danny Khalil, associate director of market analytics for CoStar Group.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve seen pretty strong demand downtown, really in the last decade, for multifamily living,\u201d Khalil said.<\/p>\n
CoStar Group owns marketing websites homes.com<\/a> and apartments.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n Downtown San Antonio tends to have higher demand and occupancy rates compared to other parts of San Antonio, Khalil said. While rents dropped slightly over the past year in downtown, Khalil said, the cost of rent dropped by 3.4% throughout the wider San Antonio-New Braunfels area.<\/p>\n Khalil expects to see construction downtown decrease in the near future.<\/p>\n Residential development increased after the pandemic, he said, when interest rates were low and it was easier to acquire capital for large projects. Developers started gathering funds and designing projects in 2021 and 2022, Khalil said, and those projects are only arriving now.<\/p>\n It might not be the same in two or three years.<\/p>\n \u201cSince 2023, there aren\u2019t that many apartment complexes getting off the ground,\u201d Khalil said. \u201cYou\u2019re not going to see much get [built] in 2027.\u201d<\/p>\n Who will live in these new communities?<\/p>\n People like Brodnitz see these new buildings as communities.<\/p>\n \u201cThe idea is to activate the space and activate the neighborhood,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Both the Continental Block and Tower Life Residences will include commercial space. McCombs is still trying to figure out how best to use its large basement and River Walk-facing space, Brodnitz said, but he wants those to be more oriented toward residents rather than tourists.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not going to be tourist T-shirt shops,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Tower Life Residences hasn\u2019t established monthly rents yet, but Continental Block has. Half of the units there will be reserved for residents who make less than San Antonio\u2019s area median income, roughly $62,000 for a one-person household.<\/p>\n \u201cThe price for income-restricted apartments ranges from $1,200 to $1,932.00 per month. All other apartments reflect the downtown residential market rate,\u201d Japhet said in an email.<\/p>\n Fair market rent for a one-bedroom apartment in downtown San Antonio is around $1,260 and would require someone to earn more than $24 an hour, according to the National Low-Income Housing Coalition.<\/p>\n Kayla Miranda, the housing and justice organizer for the Coalition for Tenant Justice, said she is concerned about downtown affordability for low-income residents.\u00a0<\/p>\n The federal government defines any renter that spends more than 30% of their income on housing as cost-burdened. That includes rent, utilities and other charges. <\/p>\n People making a median income of around $62,000 would be able to spend around $1,550 per month on housing. Miranda said utilities and other monthly housing costs could total between $200 and $400.<\/p>\n Miranda said she is concerned that the costs of construction and financing capital projects through borrowing from banks are driving up rents in new buildings and that other landlords will follow suit.<\/p>\n \u201cThe people who live in San Antonio will not be able to afford to live in downtown,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Some of downtown San Antonio\u2019s oldest buildings will become its newest homes. Developers are turning old hotels and…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":403451,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5133],"tags":[852,5229,190748,190749,190750,132587,99138,48206,190751,190752,190753,190754,7202,7203,358,7453,190755,3187,7815,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,7819],"class_list":{"0":"post-403450","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-antonio","8":"tag-affordable-housing","9":"tag-america","10":"tag-coalition-for-tenant-justice","11":"tag-continental-block","12":"tag-continental-residences","13":"tag-costar-group","14":"tag-danny-khalil","15":"tag-downtown-san-antonio","16":"tag-downtown-san-antonio-housing","17":"tag-kayla-miranda","18":"tag-mccombs-residences","19":"tag-national-low-income-housing-coalition","20":"tag-san-antonio","21":"tag-sanantonio","22":"tag-texas","23":"tag-top-story","24":"tag-tower-life-residences","25":"tag-tx","26":"tag-typedaily","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\/115610034816150931","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403450","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=403450"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403450\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/403451"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=403450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=403450"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=403450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/TowerLifeBuilding_DowntownApartments_HousingMarket_05_10.29.2025_AmberEsparza.jpg\")
Peter Brodnitz, chief marketing officer for McCombs Enterprises, shows floor plans for one of the Tower Life penthouses that will occupy the 29th and 30th floors of the historic downtown building. Credit: Amber Esparza \/ San Antonio Report<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/TowerLifeBuilding_DowntownApartments_HousingMarket_06_10.29.2025_AmberEsparza.jpg\")
The northern wall of the historic Tower Life building, pictured on the right, faces the San Antonio Riverwalk. Its owner McCombs Enterprises says this area could be home to retail space targeted to residents. Credit: Amber Esparza \/ San Antonio Report<\/p>\n