Records show the government awarded the lease agreements this week to a company affiliated with WatersEdge, the name of a pair of office buildings at 7515 and 7611 Inner Circle Drive at Brooks. Brooks is a former Air Force base that the Brooks Development Authority has converted to a mix of businesses, apartments, schools, hotels and medical facilities.
The contracts don’t describe who would be using the space, but the government’s original solicitations for offices described seeking 65,824 square feet for ICE. Rent is $42.5 million for one lease and $8.8 million for the other lease. The deals were first reported by Project Salt Box, a Substack publication focusing on federal immigration contracts and purchases.
ICE has an office at Northwood Tower at 1777 N.E. Loop 410 and another at 1015 Jackson Keller Road in Castle Hills, according to its website.
The new leases are ICE’s latest expenditure in San Antonio.
The agency in January paid Oakmont Industrial Group $66 million for a vacant industrial building on the East Side that it plans to convert to a detention facility. The building at 542 S.E. Loop 410 Access Road would house up to 1,500 people a day during immigration proceedings.
Vienna, Va.-based Cambridge Holdings LLC in 2023 developed the four-story buildings, which total 200,000 square feet and are largely vacant. The Brooks Development Authority leases a portion of the space, as well as a handful of medical and real estate tenants. A listing describes about 121,000 square feet as available.
Cambridge Holdings and the Brooks Development Authority didn’t immediately respond to inquiries Thursday afternoon.