Julissa Carielo, Partner, DreamOn Group
In an interview with Invest:, Julissa Carielo, president at DreamOn Group, highlighted the firm’s focus on revitalizing communities through flexible, inclusive developments. From the historic Basila Frocks project to a new “live, work, play” multifamily project, Dulce Vida, DreamOn is addressing local needs while creating opportunities for residents and small businesses. “If we want our local communities to thrive, we need to build the space for them,” Carielo said.
Over the past year, how has the construction environment evolved in Greater San Antonio, and which sectors are currently driving the most project volume?
With the latest elected president, the workforce has been a little hit and miss from what we can get at the job sites. We’ve seen several workers stop coming to work because they are afraid of the immigration policies. Even if the workers have working visas to be here legally, they still don’t trust the process. We’ve also seen an increase in prices because of the lack of labor and the cost of materials fluctuating due to the tariffs changing weekly; it has been a challenge.
What makes San Antonio and Texas the right place for DreamOn Group to operate, and how do you differentiate your firm within this competitive market?
We stay close to the clients. We’re close to understanding what they’re doing and what their needs are. We’re letting them know what we’re seeing in the market. We try to get them to plan as to what’s available so that they pick items that are available for us to install. We are asking the clients to be flexible so we can provide similar products to help move projects forward. That’s been the most critical thing.
We have also been focusing on the public sector side so that we’re able to work with government dollars available for affordable housing projects or community development projects. We know that the private sector’s interest rates have gone up as well as construction costs, and though we’re all hoping they will go down enough to get investors back to supporting developments, we still need government subsidized programs to make projects affordable for our local communities.
What trends are you seeing in San Antonio’s commercial construction demand?
Some of the trends are the housing requests, but not single housing, as you would imagine that people want. The requests are coming in at the multifamily level. People are hesitating to buy or cannot get it approved without a higher interest rate. In the short term, everybody’s saying they would rather just rent and see what happens later.
The demand for multifamily is coming in three bedrooms, even four. They want space. They don’t want to be crammed; they want to be able to enjoy life at the same time. If they wanted a four-bedroom home, now they’re saying, “Give us a four-bedroom apartment,” and we’re trying to adjust to that.
Previously, apartments had one or two, at most three bedrooms. Now we need to talk about what the family needs in these multifamily units. The amenities also have to match that, and more importantly, what we’re seeing is the request for the live, work, and play environments. People want a walkable community to walk to work, and we also need to be able to provide space for our small businesses in the same developments that we’re doing.
I love that idea because I want to sell my house and go live in a place where I could just walk to get my coffee, walk to work, and grab some lunch. I also want the grocery store across the street and my doctor on the other corner. We are trying to put together that type of community development in areas of town that normally would not see it.
With the shutdown of community schools, we’ve also seen the opportunities for those spaces. They are great spaces that could be brought back to life in a different way and still allow space for workforce training or educational training alongside office space and living space.
What have you learned about structuring your developments that are aimed at transforming high-poverty areas to deliver community and economic value?
The biggest thing is convincing our public partner to stay flexible based on what we can provide. Not to be so demanding as to what the city requires, since it makes it harder for us to develop. We can be super creative and resourceful when we’re not put in a box; once we’re put in a box, it makes it hard for us to bring others into that box, and the deal dies.
If we create the formation and the collaboration that’s coming into the deal, then it makes it easier for us to get it done. That is the No. 1 thing we’ve seen; it’s challenging enough to get it to an affordable level, we don’t need more requirements that make it harder to happen.
What factors made the Basila successful in attracting tenants ahead of completion, and what impact do you expect it to have on the West Side?
Basila Frocks is an important project for our community. It’s a 100-year-old building that we are bringing back into the community, which has been looking like an eyesore for several decades. We have a community saying, “We want what is being offered on the north side and in the other downtown areas.”
The West Side is normally an area of town that gets put on the back burner because it’s harder to develop there. The cost of construction is the same on the north side as it is on the west side. What’s not there is that the rents are not going to fund it; we have to be creative and bring in the subsidies that are going to be from the public sector.
This project includes historical tax credits, new market tax credits, city funding, county funding, and nonprofit grants. Typically, the rents for that same project would have been twice as much somewhere else.
Our tenants can’t believe the space we’ve created and how affordable it is. I believe the impact will be not just that our neighboring residents will have a place to come and enjoy, but also to look for work, stay, and enjoy the outdoor space on the weekends, because there will be activities happening every week.
With the partnerships we have, we expect to have passport clinics, entrepreneurship training, vaccination clinics, market days, and anything that can be brought as a benefit to the community.
What infrastructure concerns are most pressing in the San Antonio area, especially when it comes to utilities like water and energy, as the city grows outward?
One of the things we’ve seen on the West side is the lack of proper sidewalks. Many of the areas are not safe. As we’re developing and opening these spaces, we want the city’s cooperation and public transportation to help establish safer walkable areas. Not just in front of our spaces but along the surrounding streets so that people can use the sidewalks and walk safely. They need to address public safety and slow the traffic down.
What we’re also seeing is that whenever we need new utility lines or any type of new infrastructure, the process takes over a year to get accomplished and is not easy. The city needs to implement a simpler process.
How do you assess the local labor pool in terms of availability of skilled trades, minority-owned suppliers, and women-led vendors?
The labor pool has fewer options every week. We’ve been trying to buy 100% from our local businesses. We’re trying to provide our local businesses first and not use people from out of the city. Basila Frocks will have 100% local small business utilization.
In what ways is DreamOn Group leveraging technology or innovations to improve project delivery and sustainability performance?
Technology and shared programming are a must for all projects. We wish that on sustainability, we had more funding. If there were programs that made it easier or more affordable to incorporate eco-friendly options, we would gladly include them in our projects.
We’d love to install solar panels on every project, but currently, the cost of sustainable products is higher than traditional alternatives. It should be the opposite; there should be meaningful incentives that help offset these costs. Unfortunately, that’s not the case right now.
At the federal level, we haven’t seen strong support for these types of initiatives. While there are some small incentives available, they’re not substantial enough to make a real impact. The process is also overly complicated and should be more accessible so everyone can do it.
What are your top priorities for the company over the next two to three years?
Our top priority is mixed-use with multifamily development, but our vision goes beyond affordable housing. We’re committed to creating vibrant community living environments. This includes integrating live-work-play spaces in partnership with local nonprofits that can provide meaningful services to the area. We also believe we need to provide spaces for all ages to live under one community and offer activities for all to collaborate and lean on.
When we talk about affordability, we’re also referring to accessible spaces for small businesses. Supporting local entrepreneurs means building spaces that meet their needs. We strive to align with market realities and collaborate with stakeholders, because the last thing we want is to construct buildings that remain vacant due to impractical or unaffordable designs.
As we plan these developments, we’re also considering amenities that make the spaces valuable to the broader community. Could nonprofits use them to offer services, host classes, or collaborate on events? Could we run clinics or community programs from these locations?
We’re designing multi-use spaces with flexibility in mind, not just traditional offices or conference rooms. We envision training centers, adaptable event venues, and areas that can transition between indoor and outdoor use. Our goal is to create spaces that invite community engagement and help local businesses thrive through increased foot traffic and visibility.
