On Wednesday, December 3, the San Antonio State of the Market took place at the Grand Hyatt Hotel Ballroom.

Over 100 attendees from different business industries came together to hear from keynote speaker Mayor Ron Nirenberg, along with two-panel discussions on Construction & Development and What You Need to Know About San Antonio Going into 2020. 

San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg spoke of plans for public transportation, housing, and the likelihood of homelessness in the city. 

With the new year right around the corner, San Antonio in 2020 looks like it’s in for more construction. Question is, will San Antonio consumers be ready? 

The first set of panelists speakers included Managing Partner with GrayStreet, Kevin Covey; Managing Partner with McCombs Properties, Harry Adams; Kairoi CEO, Michael Lynd; Managing Partner with Cardinal MF, Steve Sanders; Denver Heights Owner, Ross Ormond; and Principle with Ryan, Trey Weaver (moderator). 

The panel focused on Construction & Development. Ormond mentioned upcoming development on the east side for San Antonio in 2020. Talk of the Pearl area was Corey, who mentioned, “1.2 million sqft. of hospitality and retail” is also too come to San Antonio in 2020. Sanders shares the new demand in apartment living is one-bedrooms and mobility. “Apartments have changed a lot. Mobility over equity build,” said Sanders.

Then the panel was asked, “How do you see plans in developments where the developers are building their solar systems integrated and reselling that power to their tenants,” Sanders started his response with, “Let’s talk San Antonio specifically, you can’t do it.” 

While the new user is “green”, Sanders says, “If you don’t have it [solar] they [developers] will discount it and move on.” 

Cardinal Multifamily, Sanders says, “We do all of our projects now with solar at least for the common areas and the amenity spaces. We would’ve done the entire thing solar, but CPS wouldn’t let us do it.”

The second panel gave us an outlook on “Everything you need to know about San Antonio going into 2020.” The panelists included, Sonder General Manager, Robin Lozano; EVP of Business Development San Antonio Economic Development Foundation, Michele Boggs; Metropolitan Contracting Company CEO, Jane Feigenbaum; Founder of Foresite Real Estate, Bethany Babcock; CEO & President of Texas Research and Technology Foundation, Randy Harig; and VP/Project Development with Jacob White Construction, Shea Johnson (moderator). 

As the panel opened up about what to expect in San Antonio in 2020, Babcock, shared a fascinating statistic that more local restaurants will be popping up versus national restaurants.

But, as she mentioned, “Local tenants start struggling due to property taxes,” which is why she highlighted property taxes as an observation for 2020. Boggs’s also had an interesting observation for 2020.

Bogg’s said we would be, “seeing a shift of leadership” and “see the business community step up.” Another big key phrase that both panels touched on was the local environmental foundation we have, such as Build San Antonio Green.

San Antonio is already on the growth scale, but with plans to become a hub of growth, we need to develop skilled laborers for San Antonio in 2020.

Feigenbaum’s observation for San Antonio in 2020 is a growth path, “A lot of room for growth for 2020,” she said. 

San Antonio in 2020, is not only a year for growth in San Antonio but also a year for change with the 2020 election upon us.

San Antonio in 2020 is eager to break ground, and hopefully in a resourceful way.