Chad Knibbe, Principal & Co-Owner, Foresite Real Estate, Inc.
In an interview with Invest:, Chad Knibbe, principal and co-owner at Foresite Real Estate, highlighted San Antonio’s midtier market as ideal for strategic growth. He emphasized strong retail fundamentals, despite rising taxes and insurance costs. “We’re bullish,” Knibbe said. “We’re optimistic across the board, for leasing, sales, management, and the broader market.”
What makes San Antonio an ideal base for Foresite’s operations, and how does the region’s growth align with your long-term strategy?
San Antonio is a dynamic metro area. While city officials often highlight that it’s the seventh-largest city, what really matters in commercial real estate is the MSA. Depending on how it’s measured, we rank between 26th and 33rd nationally. That midtier status works in our favor. We’re not saturated with national brokerages like Dallas-Fort Worth or Houston, so we had a chance to get established and grow before it hit the radar of the national firms.
Now, with San Antonio’s continued growth and proximity to Austin, we’ve developed a strong foothold. It still feels like a small town but offers all the benefits of a primary city. Plus, its strategic location near the Gulf ports and Port of Laredo positions it well for future logistical and industrial growth.
What are the significant trends and challenges in San Antonio’s retail real estate market, and how is Foresite responding?
The fundamentals remain strong. Vacancy is low, and rental rates have continued to rise. That said, two major headwinds are reshaping the landscape: rising property taxes and soaring insurance costs. In some cases, these expenses now exceed the base rent, which is unprecedented and places a significant burden on small businesses.
Unfortunately, until recently, Texas hasn’t seen much relief. More insurers are leaving the state than entering, and property tax reform only recently became a legislative priority. Despite that, retail has fared better than other sectors like multifamily and industrial, which have been overbuilt.
To address these challenges, we’re working closely with our clients to appeal tax assessments and exploring alternatives like group insurance plans and self-insurance models. We’re also monitoring the capital markets. Once interest rates begin to ease and liquidity returns, it will open new opportunities for both investors and tenants.
Are there specific submarkets in the region seeing the most traction?
There’s tenant demand almost everywhere. We track it closely through a proprietary system that maps and vets expanding retailers. While there are high-interest intersections all over the city, it’s easier to identify areas where demand is low, like parts of downtown outside the tourist zones, and older corridors like Perrin Beitel, South San Pedro, and Bandera outside Loop 410. Those areas were overbuilt decades ago and still have legacy vacancies.
Historically, growth moved north and northwest, driven by the Hill Country’s appeal and higher home values. But due to rising costs and regulations in those areas, development has shifted west, south, and east — anywhere with flat land and fewer restrictions. We see a full 360-degree growth pattern around the city.
How does Foresite ensure consistent service quality across its portfolio?
It really comes down to hiring great people. Of course, we have strong processes and technologies, but at the end of the day, it’s our team’s pride in their work that drives our success. We’ve built a culture where people enjoy coming to the office and collaborating, and that makes all the difference.
How are you fostering that culture and supporting talent development in San Antonio?
We focus on making the office a fun, engaging place — not with gimmicks, but by building strong interpersonal connections. One of our biggest community contributions is our CRE Launch internship program. It started during the pandemic when college students needed internships to graduate but couldn’t find any. We developed an eight-week training course that got them their credits.
Since then, we’ve expanded it into a 10-week summer program hosted in five cities: San Antonio, Austin, Houston, Miami, and Los Angeles. It’s not just for students anymore. It helps anyone looking to enter or grow in the commercial real estate industry. It’s one of the efforts we’re most proud of.
How are you using innovation and technology to enhance your operations?
We’ve developed a proprietary CRM system that integrates our communications, mapping, and tenant data. There wasn’t an off-the-shelf solution that met our needs, so we built one. It lets us visualize demand trends and respond faster and more effectively.
What is your outlook for retail real estate and your top priorities moving forward?
We’re bullish. Retail fundamentals are strong, there’s more tenant demand than available space, which will continue to drive rent growth. Leasing looks great, investment sales should rebound as interest rates stabilize, and property management remains a steady revenue stream.
San Antonio is a great business environment. Competition is increasing, but that validates the opportunity here. We’re optimistic across the board, for leasing, sales, management, and the broader market.
