On May 9, 2017, San Antonio, Texas Mayor Ivy R. Taylor, District 1 City Councilman Roberto C. Treviño, City Manager Sheryl Sculley, and representatives from AREA Real Estate gathered to celebrate the grand opening of the Maverick Building.
“When we decided to use housing as a tool to revitalize downtown, this is the kind of project that we all envisioned – to take an underutilized and deteriorating building in our urban core and restore it to be used for housing and to develop a downtown neighborhood,” said Mayor Taylor. “The Maverick Building is a great example of how we are rebuilding San Antonio and connecting so many more people to opportunities.”
The Maverick Building, originally designed by the world-renowned architect Lou Harrington in 1922, is one of San Antonio’s original high-rises.
This historic nine-story building with its masonry facade and cut-stone accents is a beautiful testament to the innovative architecture of early America.
The Maverick of today is a historically preserved, recently renovated apartment building in downtown San Antonio. The Maverick consists of 86 workforce apartments, which are a mix of studios, one-bedroom and two-bedroom units. The first floor and basement contain just under 14,000 square feet of retail space.
The building retained a high degree of its design integrity as a 1920s office building for nearly 60 years. The 1996 conversion of the building from office space to apartments required little alteration to the character defining features of the building. The newly renovated building features oak wood floors, LED lighting throughout the entire building, and a Nest thermostat in every unit.
“Downtown is a neighborhood that should have housing that is attractive and affordable to residents with a mix of incomes and backgrounds,” said District 1 Councilman Treviño. “We believe this will supply much-needed workforce housing on Houston Street, the center of the downtown entertainment, as well as preserve San Antonio’s historic character.”
The City is providing nearly $1 million in incentives for the project including a waiver of eligible City fees, a 15-year tax reimbursement grant, a 5-year forgivable loan to support street level retail, and a release of the City’s lien and forgiveness of the CDBG loan balance. Bexar County also assisted with the project and will provide a 10-year, 50 percent abatement of County Ad Valorem taxes, with an estimated value of over $80,000.
“We can imagine what it would be like to work at Geekdom and be able to walk a few blocks home to an affordable apartment in a cool building with a lobby busy with people,” said David Adelman, Principal, AREA Real Estate.
Tech Bloc hosted the open house following the grand opening ceremony as part of their monthly Tech2sDay meet-up event for local techies. Tech Bloc is a grassroots organization of tech workers and companies created to activate San Antonio’s tech industry.
“We’re excited to work with AREA Real Estate to highlight a cool new place for young professionals to live downtown that is right in the heart of our growing downtown tech district,” said David Heard, CEO of Tech Bloc.