What's under construction in downtown San Antonio?

Cranes popping up all over downtown show signs of growth

SAN ANTONIO – If you take a look at the San Antonio skyline, you'll see multiple cranes and construction flooding the downtown area.

Downtown San Antonio is growing and has significantly changed over the past 10 years. Since 2010, there have been over 80 housing and commercial developments downtown.

Recommended Videos



The nonprofit Centro San Antonio broke down what has been built and what is currently in the works for downtown.

A push came in 2017 when voters passed an $850 million bond, and $200 million of those funds was budgeted for transformational downtown projects along Broadway within Zona Cultural, which includes the west end of downtown, San Pedro Creek, Hemisfair and the Alamo. 

More people are also calling downtown home. An SA 2020 report shows that since 2010, the number of people living in downtown increased by 57%.

In 2017, more than 10,000 housing units were in downtown, compared to 3,000 in 2011. The number of people working downtown has increased to 74,000 from about 50,000 in 2010.

Some of the most notable projects include the Frost Tower, which started construction in 2017.

Centro San Antonio says the Frost Tower is the first high-rise building built in downtown in 30 years.

Another notable project is the $325 million expansion of the Henry B. Gonzales Convention Center completed in 2016.

A huge project was also the $2.5 million Yanaguana Garden in Hemisfair. It opened in 2015 and averages more than 650,000 visitors a year.

Here’s a look at what currently is being built, as there are five cranes seen in the downtown skyline:

Two of those cranes are for residential housing. The one on Lexington Avenue and North St. Mary's Street is for a high-end residential living complex called The Arts.

The second crane is for a 260-unit apartment building at the northern corner of McCullough Avenue and Augusta Street. This project will be strictly residential with no retail.

The crane on Brooklyn Avenue is remodeling the former AT&T building for CPS Energy.

The crane on Brooklyn Avenue to Ninth Street on Broadway is building a mixed-use development on multiple lots called The SOTO.  

The SOTO will be an eco-friendly building mostly made out of timber that will house restaurants, shops and office spaces. This includes multiple lots and a handful of renovated older buildings within the site.

How has all this change impacted the downtown economy?

SA 2020 says in 2012, $9.7 billion was brought into downtown San Antonio. By 2015, spending jumped to $14.4 billion.

More improvements are coming to the Broadway corridor.

People are invited to a meeting that will explain the plans and reconstruction of Broadway from East Houston Street to I-35. Everything from curbs and sidewalks to pedestrian and traffic improvements will be discussed at Central Catholic High School at 6 p.m. Thursday.


About the Authors:

Sarah Acosta is a weekend Good Morning San Antonio anchor and a general assignments reporter at KSAT12. She joined the news team in April 2018 as a morning reporter for GMSA and is a native South Texan.