In June 2016, when DC Partners closed on the property at 123 Lexington Avenue in downtown San Antonio, we knew we were investing in a winning project.
We’ve been in the real estate development business for a long time.
As we see it, smart, forward-thinking investment in downtown San Antonio real estate is a non-zero-sum game; it is mutually beneficial to everyone involved.
DC Partners is bullish on San Antonio, and with good reason. It is a dynamic city with the kind of robust, diverse economy that signals enduring growth and prosperity. San Antonio’s thriving business community boasts the headquarters of two Fortune Global 500 firms and seven Fortune 1000 companies. Its city government is focused on attracting and growing businesses that foster innovation and lure talent in key industries that complement the region’s strengths—aerospace, biosciences and health care, defense, energy, information technology and cybersecurity, and manufacturing.
No, we aren’t the first company to recognize the San Antonio market’s enormous investment potential. But we are leading the way in innovative financing as the first developers to use the federal EB-5 program to attract international investors in a large, high-end, downtown residential project—The Arts Residences at the Thompson Hotel. This $118 million, 20-level mixed-use hotel-condominium tower on the San Antonio River Walk is set to bring the first luxury living accommodations to the downtown area.
The federal EB-5 program helps foreign investors obtain U.S. citizenship by investing in profit-yielding, job-creating commercial real estate investments in America. It provides investors and their families with the freedom to live, work, study and retire anywhere in the U.S.; an expedited permanent green card process; U.S. citizenship for the investor’s spouse and children under age 21; and other significant benefits. And there has never been a better time for EB-5 investment.
The Arts Residences and the Thompson San Antonio Hotel are an EB-5 investor’s dream. Located at the epicenter of San Antonio’s vibrant performing arts district, this 337,000-plus-square-foot mixed-use development will include 66 luxury-living condominiums atop San Antonio’s first Thompson Hotel and a restaurant with a world-class chef. Developed by DC Partners and San Antonio-based Universal Service Group, and designed by Powers Brown Architecture, the project is scheduled to be completed in 2019. Centrally located in San Antonio and positioned with a view across the River Walk toward the Tobin Center for the Performing Arts, this matchless project will be ideally located to serve the needs of the north River Walk, central business district, residential development zone and the surrounding areas.
The Arts Residences and Thompson San Antonio development will create approximately 1,319 jobs, creating a safe cushion over and above the 880 jobs required by the EB-5 program for a project this size. The Arts Residences at the Thompson Hotel is already 20 percent presold, indicating surging interest in condominium living in the downtown San Antonio market. It has the enthusiastic blessing of San Antonio elected officials, including Mayor Ron Nirenberg and Bexar County Commissioner Tommy Calvert, who see it as a way to augment activity in the downtown area and fill an upper-income housing niche that will be highly enticing to business people.
Over the past seven years, DC Partners has employed a range of creative investment strategies to pursue acquisition and development opportunities through Houston EB5, our own private fund and institutional investment partners. DC Partners and Houston EB5 have several flourishing projects in Houston, which—like San Antonio—has a vibrant downtown cultural and business district, and is experiencing an increasing demand for sophisticated residential living accommodations in its city center.
Houston EB5 has completed successful raises totaling more than $80 million for our Astoria, Eighteen 25, District Lofts, Marlowe and Arabella projects, and has a 100 percent success rate on both I-526 approvals and I-829 approvals. For example, one of our Houston EB-5 success stories is Astoria, 74 condominiums and 29 floors of superlative high-rise living in an A+ location in the heart of Houston with spectacular views and within walking distance of high-end designer boutiques, prestigious bars, and fine restaurants. This project sold out one year before construction was completed, and 50 percent of the EB-5 investors in Astoria have received I-829 approval, which removes conditional green card status and confers permanent U.S. residency. Another, Arabella, is a 33-story, 99-residence tower positioned next to the highly anticipated River Oaks District and three blocks from the Galleria. Marlowe is our 20-story, 100-residence contemporary tower in downtown Houston, representing the finest downtown living experience the city has to offer.
With The Arts Residences at the Thompson Hotel, DC Partners and Houston EB5 are replicating their successful EB-5 blueprint in the cultural powerhouse market of San Antonio. We see it as a logical fit and a huge opportunity, literally at ground zero of San Antonio’s growth and investment center. This won’t just be a good project located in a great market, it will be a blockbuster project in a thriving market—a solid win for Houston EB5 investors.
Individuals wishing to obtain more information about The Arts Residences at the Thompson Hotel and investment opportunities through Houston EB5 should visit (www.houstoneb5.com), call (281) 565-1067, or email us at ([email protected]).
