By Kaylee Greenlee Beal | @kgreenleephoto | Heron contributor
A partnership between two investment firms from the Northeast has purchased the Augusta Flats and Jones & Rio apartment buildings—two of the largest residential developments to be built in north downtown in recent years.
Two shell companies linked to New York City-based Benefit Street Partners and Lakewood, New Jersey-based Strategic Properties of North America bought the complexes the week before Christmas, county property records show.
Both of the complexes had still been owned by the Dallas-based firms that had built them: Jones & Rio, with 191 units, was built by Alamo Manhattan in 2017, while Augusta Flats, with 260 units, was completed by Stillwater Capital last year.
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The purchase prices were undisclosed, but the partnership took out a loan of $47.4 million to buy Augusta Flats and $36.8 million to buy Jones & Rio, which is on the River Walk, the records show.
Representatives of Benefit Street Partners and Strategic Properties did not respond to requests for comment.
By Kaylee Greenlee Beal | @kgreenleephoto | Heron contributor
Both of the complexes were built with incentives from the city’s Center City Housing Incentive Program. The city granted Stillwater Capital a package worth an estimated $2.8 million in 2019 over 15 years, while Alamo Manhattan received an estimated $4.4 million package in 2015 over 15 years. The city ended the policy last year, but still awards subsidy packages for downtown-area projects on a case-by-case basis and with City Council approval.
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The complexes are in a fast-growing area of downtown around the Museum Reach stretch of the River Walk, in an area also known as River North, a short commute from popular draws such as the San Antonio Museum of Art, the Tobin Center for the Performing Arts, as well as the Pearl.
Another high-end apartment complex nearby changed hands in November. Constellation Group, a commercial real estate firm from Miami, purchased the 120 Ninth Street apartment building on the River Walk, across from the Paramour nightclub, from SC Bodner Company of Indianapolis. The purchase price was not disclosed, but the Bexar Appraisal District assessed the property at $42 million last year. For 120 Ninth Street, SC Bodner Company received a CCHIP incentive worth an estimated $4 million over 15 years.
Richard Webner is a freelance journalist covering Austin and San Antonio, and a former San Antonio Express-News business reporter. Follow him at @RWebner on Twitter
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The groups that bought these apartment complexes have neglected them and have run them into the ground. These could have been amazing places to live but instead have turned into dumps. I live in Augusta Flats and amenities never got finished and the maintenance staff have all quit from bad management. They are offering big discounts to rent and don’t verify income qualifications. This has brought in thugs and gang members into the community.