Residents of one of downtown’s last relatively cheap apartment complexes will need to move if the city goes forward with a planned $160 million minor league baseball stadium — which the City Council is expected to vote on Thursday.
On Monday, city officials and developers unveiled a relocation plan for the roughly 200 people living at the seemingly doomed Soap Factory apartments, designed to assuage resident and council concerns.
Weston Urban, which owns the apartments and plans to build a baseball stadium and other mixed-use developments there, pledged to cover relocation costs for residents displaced by the proposed project.
Opportunity Home, San Antonio’s housing authority, is also welcoming residents who qualify for housing subsidies, and offering a free first month’s rent in its mixed-income housing across the city.
But for residents who make too much money to receive subsidies — or for other reasons don’t qualify — finding a similarly priced building in the heart of downtown won’t be easy.
“There’s other options for them,” Assistant City Manager Lori Houston said Monday afternoon at a City Hall press briefing that featured top city leaders and representatives from the Missions and Weston Urban. “We, the city, are concerned about the most vulnerable.”
At a separate gathering with Soap Factory residents later that evening, resident after resident on Monday evening disagreed with that assessment, saying they were so relieved to find a downtown complex they can afford, after doing significant research in their initial selection.
The event outside the apartments drew nearly the entire City Council, as well as representatives from the Texas Organizing Project, who turned out to hear firsthand how residents were receiving the city’s relocation plan.
A rare downtown bargain
Weston Urban acquired the Soap Factory roughly a year ago.
Compared to other downtown apartments, Weston Urban President Randy Smith said the Soap Factory’s unusual construction in the 1970s and 1980s made for some of the city’s smallest, cheapest unsubsidized units, which couldn’t be replicated under today’s building codes.
“If we were to come to the city or to [the Historic Design Review Commission] today and say, ‘We’d like to develop 381 units on nine acres downtown, and it’s going to be wood frame with Hardy siding and window [air conditioning] units,’ that’s [dead on arrival],” Smith said of the Soap Factory’s unique situation. “Not only is it something that couldn’t be done today, but it was even a little bit unique in its time.”
That dynamic has led to some of the last so-called “naturally occurring,” non-subsidized affordable housing developments downtown with rent averaging $900; a studio rents for around $700 and a two-bedroom is just over $1,300.
For comparison, blocks away at the recently opened 300 Main, also owned by Weston Urban, rents start at $1,482 for a studio.
Among the examples of unsubsidized units the city has suggested residents could move to is the Peanut Factory Lofts, which come in at a similar price per square foot as the Soap Factory but have much larger floor plans, making their overall rent much higher.
Moving into subsidized housing
Under the developer’s baseball stadium proposal, the 381-unit apartment complex would be demolished in three phases starting in late 2025.
The city is suggesting vulnerable Soap Factory residents could access the housing authority’s subsidized housing, which would provide them several options for those who want to stay downtown.
“… [W]e hope to provide these families an option for stable housing and bring some relief as they deal with the challenges of relocation,” Michael Reyes, Opportunity Home’s acting president and CEO said in a press release Monday. “It is simply the right thing to do.”
There is currently no waitlist for homes in Opportunity Home’s mixed-income portfolio, many of which have comparable rents to Soap Factory, Reyes said.
The housing authority can accommodate all households affected by phase one, about 200 units, of the proposed development, spokesman Brance Arnold said. Those residents would still need to qualify based on their income, meaning they would need to make less than 80% of the Area Median Income.
“Based on our understanding, phase one will take at least a year,” Arnold said. “We can explore [unit] availability for phase two when it arrives in a few years from now.”
Opportunity Home’s Beacon Communities portfolio includes 35 properties across the city, including Victoria Commons and 100 Labor near Hemisfair that are close to VIA bus lines and within walking distance to downtown workplaces and attractions.
Projects that receive city funding — as the stadium project would — are required to include plans to address resident displacement.
The developer’s plan
As part of Weston Urban’s relocation plan, phase one tenants can move to other parts of the complex, Smith told council last week. Subsequent phases will involve moving tenants to the nearby Continental Hotel development — also owned by Weston Urban and now under construction.
Nearly 150 of the 250 apartments in the Continental Hotel project are slated to have affordable rents based on income. That project is expected to be completed in late 2024 or early 2025.
Weston Urban tasked Building Brighter Communities, a housing navigation and social safety net nonprofit, with helping affected Soap Factory tenants find housing elsewhere.
“No leases will be terminated prematurely,” according to documents Weston Urban submitted to the city. “Phase 1 residents will have the opportunity to renew their existing leases with flexible lease terms until September 2025 with no rent increases. Similarly, residents who choose to terminate their lease early to accommodate a longer term solution may do so without penalty.”
Soap Factory, then known as Soapworks and Towne Center, was at the center of housing affordability and gentrification conversations in 2018 as the San Pedro Creek improvements project and new ownership pushed up rents at the complex in more recent years.
“It is important we offer housing support to these residents who are facing relocation,” said Gabe Lopez, who chairs Opportunity Home’s board. “We are cognizant that this is a delicate situation and so we want to offer an immediate solution that is compassionate.”