Face Off: How San Antonio’s leaders see the future of historic buildings, downtown investment
Writer: Andrea Teran
July 2025 — San Antonio’s historic core is approaching a pivotal moment. With downtown office vacancy rates hovering over 26%, more property owners are looking to adaptive reuse as a practical strategy to convert underused towers and heritage buildings into productive, community-focused assets. High-profile projects like the proposed IBC Centre hotel conversion, the Tower Life Building’s transformation into mixed-income apartments, and the community-led revival of the Basila Frocks Co. building reflect this growing momentum.
Nationally, adaptive reuse is becoming a significant trend: according to CBRE, 42 office conversions were completed in 2022, with another 217 projects either underway or planned across the United States. Multifamily and life sciences continue to lead as the top reuse categories. While feasibility depends on factors like local market rents, existing building conditions, and construction costs, San Antonio’s combination of cultural legacy and development potential makes it a city to watch for meaningful reuse opportunities.
To better understand how this trend is unfolding on the ground, Invest: sat down with Adam Reed, principal at Ford Powell & Carson, and Bobby Magee, managing partner at Escalera Capital, to hear how two organizations rooted in historic preservation are approaching this new wave of growth.
What have been the biggest shifts in your work and business focus over the past year?
Adam Reed: San Antonio has long been a vibrant epicenter of global and cultural influence, shaped by centuries of rich heritage, diverse communities, and international exchange. This legacy has been a source of pride and strength in our firm’s work, as our projects promote the city as a unique gateway between multi-faceted traditions and celebrations.
In recent years, however, San Antonio has increasingly found itself navigating the challenges of global and cultural uncertainty, not so much in terms of its people, but in the shifting tides of policy, trade dynamics, tourism patterns, and the influx of residents who bring their own brands. As external factors become less predictable, our firm has tried to adapt thoughtfully to protect our role as an institutional, hyper-local design firm while also finding the right projects and clients that can bring thoughtful, transformative vision to our beloved hometown.”
Bobby Magee: We are seeing the community rallying toward investing in the Downtown area. Escalera Capital has several projects happening in Downtown San Antonio. This is a main area of focus, and there is a ton of support for Downtown. It is more than just new development and skyscrapers. What I love about the nascent opportunities in the Downtown area is the renovation of historic buildings. It is pouring love and investments into the same structures that made San Antonio, while also combining this with new growth through large partnerships like Hemisphere Park, the minor league baseball stadium, and other incredibly large projects happening Downtown. I am incredibly happy to see this trend. Our firm is participating in it most notably with the La Villita Assembly Hall, which is a perfect example of this broader trend. It is a historic building that is culturally significant and a key opportunity to honor its legacy and preserve it for the future.
What makes San Antonio an ideal location for your operations?
Reed: A dollar goes farther here. We’re an attractive alternative to Austin, acting more like a calm older brother to our trend-following I-35 sibling. It’s a stable destination for relocation and business consolidation, attractive to newcomers from the West Coast and East Coast. Its strength lies in its authenticity — maintaining its cultural soul while supporting strong civic and business leadership. It’s a city that is ideal for growing a family, investing, and forming partnerships.
Magee: I believe it is the city’s culture. San Antonio, both professionally and on a leisure basis, is an amazing place to live and work. The local culture focuses on supporting each other, and this is reflected in the ease of working partnerships and collaboration with constituents and stakeholders. From a real estate investing perspective, it is a friendly place to operate in, and the city welcomes you to invest back into San Antonio. This is a unique culture that I have not seen in other markets of similar size. Similarly, this is an amazing place to grow and raise a family. It is also a great place for workforce talent, and we have a lot of distinguished educational facilities. There are highly educated and driven people moving into the city, which makes it easy to build a company with talented people.
How does your firm support the preservation and adaptive reuse of historic buildings?
Reed: Two major renovation projects have been particularly significant: the downtown Historic City Hall Renovation and the conversion of the former Frost Bank building into City Tower, which consolidates around 20 city departments. These projects have reinforced the importance of public–private partnerships in supporting city growth.
Currently, we’re renovating the La Villita Assembly Hall — a legacy project of ours from the 1950s — into a vibrant experiential project with a newfound waterfront presence. It’s a standout example of our adaptive reuse approach and the lasting impact of legacy projects.
We’re also heavily involved in the historic tax credit space, offering consulting and design services that help clients qualify for state and federal incentives. It’s one of the most meaningful ways we help preserve San Antonio’s architectural heritage.
Magee: It is all about the people. Our head architect is part of the original firm that designed and built the assembly hall back in 1958. As locals who are immersed in this history and well versed with historic adaptive reuse, they made it easy to start by distilling and narrowing down the important design elements, such as what subtle design elements create the vibe, which is a term we use a lot when talking about design and how it incorporates into the user experience within an environment. We approach this with intentionality to continue the vibe and nuanced design elements. The other component is research. We are intentional about understanding history and take the task of doing extensive research seriously, not only when it comes to the design aspect but also how it connects with the surrounding neighborhood and its history. With the Assembly Hall project, for example, we went back to the Canary Islanders who originally founded San Antonio, and that’s where we started. We took the historical lessons to inform how we should be answering the challenges of design today. The people and the history have to be considered, and oftentimes they are not the first thing to come to mind when planning out a design. For us, this is how we start our design process, and we make sure we maintain that focus for the duration of the project.
With La Villita Assembly Hall, our goal and thesis is that renovation and activating this property will positively impact all of the artists that run their business from La Villita. It will positively impact the River Walk tourist experience as well as impact our culture by honoring the past and revitalizing it for the future. Our community involvement is displayed in nuanced ways, but it is core to our company culture and almost every facet of our operations.
How are you dealing with rising costs and other economic challenges?
Reed: We’re bringing Cost Estimators in early and recommending clients consider delivery methods like Construction Manager at Risk to better manage pricing. We also engage General Contractors for pre-con services. Accurate market data is essential for setting realistic expectations.
There’s a chance that tariff impacts, interest rate levels, and state funding delays could encourage more competitive bidding among contractors. We’re watching closely to see if that translates into actual savings.
What is your view of San Antonio’s growth and the opportunities you see in your focus areas?
Magee: San Antonio is growing rapidly, which poses a great opportunity for the real estate investing landscape. In some asset classes, we are seeing some oversupply. From a hospitality perspective, the industry has been challenged lately as a result of tightening margins and increasing construction costs. At the same time, we feel these are short-term hurdles to tackle. In Downtown San Antonio, we have the No. 1 and 2 tourist destinations in the entire state of Texas, and we are actively investing back into the Alamo and the River Walk. From a long-term perspective, we love Downtown. We think hospitality is an incredible asset class to invest in Downtown and an impactful one, where we can give all the tourists a positive experience and encourage them to come back again.
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