Just a year ago, word broke of a swanky new retail destination parachuting onto UTSA Boulevard. While promises of development booms are often left idle and unfulfilled for years, major progress for this endeavor is visible from the busy street.
The area around San Antonio’s largest university has looked pretty much the same over the past 10 years. Despite a California developer snatching up 114 acres along the corridor, bankruptcies and investor changes had left a huge chunk of land across from Costco near vacant. But there’s a new builder in town, and they’re not wasting any time bringing their vision to life.
Schumacher Interests acquired the land and is moving quickly to build up what’s notably been missing from the Northwest Side: A holistic destination with communal spaces, shopping, recreation and greenery.
“This is going to be a complement (the apartments already built) – the first retail component to start to make it a truly mixed-use district,” the spokesperson told MySA last May when we broke the news of the latest plans.
The spokesperson continued, saying, “There’ll be this really beautiful kind of pedestrian network that connects the adjacent neighborhoods and all the rest of the 115 acres together. So, our pitch is really that this is a very different place than what else exists in that crazy 1604, I-10 area. It’s not The Rim, it’s not La Cantera. It’s not a glorified shopping mall. It’s truly meant to be a living, breathing district.”
Within a year of confirming the plans, steel frames have gone up and roads have been demolished and are in the process of being rebuilt. What has sat as a gravel and grass lot for years is quickly transforming, emerging as the forefront of what is slated to be a boom along UTSA Boulevard.
Crews are on site plastering walls inside. The renderings shared with MySA nearly a year ago are coming to fruition as buildings are erected in a modern style where massive storefront windows will span floor to ceiling encased in steel and concrete framing.
The Merc will soon be the commercial piece of a larger project, anchoring the Lyric apartments across the street. While tenants haven’t been named yet – though there’s promise of announcements coming soon – the developers say it’ll be a welcome and previously devoid addition to the side of town, featuring a humble concert space, an icehouse, retail fronts centered around wellness and outdoor recreation and even a small three-par golf course.