SAN ANTONIO, TX - San Antonio-based Embrey Partners, Ltd. has sold San Antonio’s first urban main street development, Quarry Village, for an undisclosed amount to a Dallas-based real estate private equity fund advised by Crow Holdings Capital Partners, L.L.C. (“CHCP”). The 10.7-acre, mixed-use property includes The Artessa, a 280-unit luxury apartment community, and a 70,785-square-foot retail development. The transaction closed on August 31, 2011.
At the time of sale, the apartment community was 98.5 percent occupied and the retail development, with completion of current tenant finish work and leases under negotiation, will be 90 percent leased by year-end. Craig LaFollette of Holliday Fenoglio Fowler, L.P., represented Embrey and equity partner Nationwide Insurance in the transaction. This is the second Embrey development a CHCP-advised fund has purchased and the third San Antonio apartment purchase since the institutional buyer started investing in the market 12 months ago. The purchaser has retained Embrey Management Services to provide property management for the Embrey developments as well as The Preserve on Fredericksburg, a San Antonio asset owned by an affiliate of CHCP.
Artessa features floor plans that range from 682-square-foot, one-bedroom apartments to 3,000-square-foot penthouses, some facing a vibrant internal main street while others overlook the soothing backdrop of the Quarry golf course. Interiors come in a variety of traditional and urban signature finishes with high-end amenities, including wood floors, granite countertops and stainless steel appliances. The development also features an award-winning, two-story, 6,700-square foot clubhouse and leasing center, demonstration and catering kitchen, climate-controlled wine-tasting room with wine storage, two oversized public terraces overlooking the main street, multi-level bocce ball courtyard, two pools, two five-story parking garages and 46,000-square-feet of balcony space in the unit plans.
The retail development is anchored by national tenants including boutique retail shops, upscale restaurants, casual eateries and service-oriented businesses.
Original lender on the project was BBVA Compass - Phil Nelson.
“We spent four years from concept to ground breaking as we looked for the highest and best use for this amazing piece of property – the very last tract in the redevelopment of the old Alamo Cement quarry,” said Jeff Booth, Embrey Partners senior vice president of development. “We traveled from coast to coast doing research for the design, took best practices and observed what could be improved. We took great care in applying architectural techniques to take the large buildings and bring them down to a more comfortable human scale. This, in combination with timeless, classic, old world design, custom quality materials and scrupulous attention to detail have created a unique sense of place that is largely responsible for the project’s success. Not surprisingly, these happen to be some of the key elements of the Embrey brand that continue to separate our developments from the crowd.”
In taking the time to understand how to create and promote an urban infill living environment – a concept fairly new to San Antonio -- Embrey developed a project that defied the odds of a challenging economy.
San Antonio-based Embrey Partners, Ltd., is a developer, builder and manager of market rate and affordable multi-family and commercial assets in select markets across the United States. Over the past 37 years, Embrey has developed real estate projects totaling nearly 30,000 apartments and more than six million square feet of commercial space. Partnering with major financial institutions, pension funds, individual investors and Fortune 500 companies, Embrey as the general partner has completed these developments for individual investment purposes, and through joint venture transactions.
Crow Holdings began the fund business in 1998 and subsequently sponsored five real estate private equity funds. CHCP, an affiliate of Crow Holdings, serves as the investment adviser to the funds. The funds have received total equity commitments of approximately $3.0 billion from investors, $600 million of which was committed by affiliates of CHCP. Private equity funds managed by CHCP actively acquire existing properties and development parcels of all types both independently and with operating partners. CHCP currently oversees a portfolio of existing assets and assets under development totaling over 9.6 million square feet of retail, office and industrial properties, approximately 8,000 multi-family units, more than 1,900 hotel rooms and approximately 1,700 acres of lot development through its real estate private equity funds.