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A couple of historic buildings still stand on the property along Essex Street on the Eastside of San Antonio where a massive project has stalled.<\/p>\n
Zachary-Taylor Wright\/MySA<\/p>\n
A seemingly abandoned set of aging buildings, adorned with massive murals by local artists and locked behind unmanned gates, has loomed over San Antonio\u2019s Eastside\u00a0amid stalled redevelopment plans<\/a>. The developers behind what was pitched as the \u201cPearl of the Eastside<\/a>\u201d are facing an investor lawsuit seeking at least $1 million over the project, which has remained stalled for 10 years.<\/p>\n Essex Modern City<\/a> was sold to investors and the community as a seven-acre lot between Carolina and\u00a0Essex streets along Cherry Street, just across I-37 from Southtown neighborhoods and five blocks from the Alamodome. San Antonio officials rezoned the lot for this project in 2016, and a series of financial investments were secured between 2018 and 2023.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Essex Modern City could include office space, retail, apartments, condominiums, townhomes and a food hall but progress has been held up by efforts to have the area designated as a quiet zone, Harris Bay co-founder Jake Harris said previously.<\/p>\n Courtesy illustration<\/p>\n One of those financial backers, Ken Lindberg, has filed a lawsuit, alleging he was misled by a financial adviser linked to the project. The alleged deception occurred amid loan ownership changes, company\u00a0restructuring and what the lawsuit describes as \u201cambiguous\u201d expenditures.<\/p>\n \u201cToday, as in 2016, the 51 Essex Street site remains undeveloped,\u201d the lawsuit filed in Bexar County District Court on May 8 states. \u201cThe EMC (Essex Modern City) investors, having invested millions of dollars, have nothing to show for their contributions, while the defendants enriched themselves through nearly a decade of excessive management fees.\u201d<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n The lawsuit alleges Lindberg\u2019s $500,000 investment, which he says came from retirement funds, was mismanaged alongside money from other investors. Lindberg also alleges he was led to believe the project was financially stronger than it ultimately proved to be.<\/p>\n The investor is asking for at least $1 million from Anton Bayer, his financial advisor; Jake Harris, a manager of the limited liability company behind the development; and the development company itself, Harris Bay, LLC.<\/p>\n Early project plans called for 160,000 square feet of commercial office and retail space, along with 800 residential units in a largely industrial area of the Eastside.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cEssex Modern City started as an idea and is now more than a mixed-use urban infill project. It\u2019s a social experiment that believes that good design and technology can create a more enriching way to live,\u201d the website for the stalled project read.<\/p>\n Supporters hoped the project would help spur economic development on the Eastside. City leaders have long targeted this area for revitalization through projects such as the Alamodome and Frost Bank Center. But nearly a decade after the project was announced, the site remains undeveloped.<\/p>\n A property planned for a massive Eastside San Antonio development is now home to graffiti and murals.<\/p>\n Zachary-Taylor Wright\/MySA<\/p>\n What was Essex Modern City used for since 2016<\/p>\n The lot eventually became a space for local events. The walls of the old industrial buildings had large graffiti murals spray-painted by local artists, and Ashanti even performed at a small festival in 2019<\/a> after Snoop Dogg backed out of the show.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n There have been plans for car shows and other small events scattered across calendars since then. But the website now appears inactive. The free-admission graffiti park has hours listed on Google, but MySA staff did not observe the site open during those hours over the past year.<\/p>\n Now, the development website is private,<\/a> social accounts for Essex Modern City<\/a> haven\u2019t been updated in years<\/a> and tracking down a contact for the project is challenging \u2014 even for those hoping to rent the space for events.<\/p>\n Local opinions on Essex Modern City in San Antonio<\/p>\n Some San Antonians were happy to see the development fail; others were excited by a new, self-sustaining, walkable space near the city center.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cVery happy to see this failed, would\u2019ve ruined the area for locals. Also, would have been a terrible place to build apartments due to the trains,\u201d one MySA reader responded to a story about the project in August of 2025. \u201cThe [Eastside] has been neglected for so long, it can\u2019t even handle this development.\u201d<\/p>\n When MySA reached out to residents for their thoughts on the stalled project, many were either completely unaware that the development plans existed or were skeptical of their overall feasibility.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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