New condos and restaurants near AT&T Center?

Could we finally see more development around the AT&T Center?

Last month, a bright red “Sold” sticker was affixed to the aging For Sale sign outside the long-dormant warehouse across the street from where the San Antonio Spurs play. A San Antonio-based husband-and-wife real estate development team look to open a live-work facility on the site complete with retail and restaurants to attract AT&T Center visitors.

Gene Braden says their firm will spend the next two years turning the property into 36 “white boxes”—spaces set up for living and working that will be finished out by individual buyers. The building’s west end—the 42,000 square feet facing the AT&T Center—will be set up for restaurant and retail.

We’ll be tracking the development as it progresses, noting especially its impact on the nearby Jefferson Heights and Harvard Place-Eastlawn neighborhoods. No one has yet attempted such a large-scale development effort near AT&T Center, which opened in 2003 to promises that it could help drive economic renewal on the East Side.

The Bradens do have experience in the area: they recently opened East Commerce Lofts at 3363 E. Commerce, with view of the Spurs’ home from the parking lot (see below). Eighteen of the 20 lofts are currently leased.

East Commerce Lofts is located across the AT&T Center. Victoria Uribe / Folo Media

This article was originally published by the H.E. Butt Foundation’s Folo Media initiative in 2017.