• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Home
    • Editorial Independence Policy
    • Corrections & Clarifications
  • Who we are
  • About us
  • Our Business Supporters

San Antonio Heron

Telling the complete downtown story

  • Development
  • Housing
  • Neighborhoods
  • Food & Drink

Pearl set to expand across river, into Samuels Glass building after commission approvals

November 4, 2021 By Richard Webner

FacebookTweetPrintEmail
The Samuel Glass Co. building at 221 Newell Ave. is slated to be renovated into the Market at Pearl.
The Samuel Glass Co. building at 221 Newell Ave. is slated to be renovated into the Market at Pearl.
Courtesy Silver Ventures

The Pearl is poised to undergo its greatest expansion in years—and to leap, for the first time, across the San Antonio River—after the city’s Historic and Design Review Commission (HDRC) approved three projects at its Wednesday meeting. Among those is the conversion of the old Samuels Glass Co. building, which faces Newell Avenue, into a market with restaurants and a bar.

Silver Ventures, the developer behind the Pearl, also asked the HDRC for the go-ahead to build a seven-story apartment building occupying most of the block bounded by Park Avenue and Elmira, Schiller and Quincy streets.

The 263-unit structure, known as Elmira Apartments, will be the Pearl’s fourth apartment development and the second-largest after the 293-unit Can Plant Residences. The Pearl is also home to the 223-unit Southline Residences, which opened in fall 2019, and the 122-unit Cellars at Pearl luxury tower.

The Elmira Apartments are slated to be built at 1126 E. Elmira St. by Pearl developer Silver Ventures.
The envisioned Elmira Apartments would be located at 1126 E. Elmira St.
Courtesy Silver Ventures

The Elmira will be the first component of the Pearl to be built west of the river, where Silver Ventures has owned land for more than a decade. The firm owns another 3.4 acres on that side, stretching along the entire bank between Newell Avenue and East Grayson Street, according to the Bexar Appraisal District.

The complex will consist of five stories with a wood-frame structure above a two-story concrete podium, all around a seven-level parking garage, according to the HDRC application. Its ground floor will feature a restaurant, a coffee shop and live-work units—in other words, residences that could also function as businesses.

Silver Ventures had objected to a recommendation from city staff that all of the tower’s windows be recessed at least two inches from the wall, out of concern that they had appeared too flat. After a discussion between the commissioners, during which it was pointed out that the Southline complex features similar windows, the commission voted 7-1 to approve the design without imposing that staff recommendation.

Silver Ventures is planning to restore the former Samuel's Glass Building into a market. Renderings for Nov. 3 HDRC meeting. Pictured: elevation from Newell Avenue. Pictured: Alley docks view, Mezquite Terrace.
Silver Ventures is planning to restore the former Samuels Glass building into a market.
Courtesy Clayton Korte

The commission also approved a proposal from Silver Ventures to convert the 1.4-acre, 50,800-square-foot Samuels Glass building into the Market at Pearl, a retail space that would feature four restaurants and a bar around an interior market. Silver Ventures purchased the building, which was constructed in 1948, in 2015, and Samuels Glass continued to operate there until 2017.

[ Related: Market at Pearl planned for former Samuels Glass Co. building | Nov. 1, 2021 ]

Silver Ventures plans to repair the building’s roof and exterior, and to remove part of the façade facing Karnes Street in order to create more space for an entrance and a covered terrace, according to its application. The “Samuels Glass Co.” sign atop the building will remain in place.

The commission approved the design on a vote of 6-1, with one abstention.

In a separate action, the commission approved Silver Ventures’ request to designate the Samuels Glass building a historic landmark, making it eligible for historic tax incentives.

Two outdoor extensions next to the Pearl Stable are planned by the company that runs the Pearl, Silver Ventures.
New bar and restaurant space is planned for just outside the Pearl Stable
Courtesy Clayton Korte

On its consent agenda, the HDRC approved a proposal from Silver Ventures to build a bar and a restaurant with outdoor seating along the eastern side of the Pearl Stable, an oval-shaped brick building constructed in 1894. Both the bar and the restaurant would be small, one-story brick-and-stucco structures, according to renderings attached to the application.

The Stable functioned as a private event space until Silver Ventures closed it in July of last year, saying in a statement that it would “reimagine the next chapter of the Stable with the intention of reopening as a new concept in 2021.”

The renderings also show two “entry trellises”—steel trellises shaded with vines and marked with the words “Pearl Stable.”

“This project seeks to enhance the existing landscape area via the construction of two accessory buildings along with a variety of seating options,” Stephen Williams, an architect with Clayton Korte, wrote in the application.

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

Contact the Heron at hello@saheron.com | @sanantonioheron on Twitter | Facebook

FacebookTweetPrintEmail

Filed Under: Architecture, Development, Historic and Design Review Commission, Historic Preservation, Midtown & Pearl, Museum Reach, Pearl, River North, River Walk, Tobin Hill Tagged With: Cellars at Pearl, Clayton Korte, Elmira Apartments, HDRC, Historic and Design Review Commission, Market at Pearl, Newell Avenue, Pearl, Pearl Stable, Samuels Glass Co. building, San Antonio River, Silver Ventures, Southline Residences, Stephen Williams

Primary Sidebar

Share

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Deep Dives

How municipal bonds work, and a brief history of them in San Antonio

Olivo: How McKee-Rodriguez’s support for a luxury housing project helps shape the Decade of Downtown

The Lofts at River North are under construction at Broadway and Jones Avenue in July.

Analysis: It’s time to call BS on ‘workforce housing’

Copyright © 2023 San Antonio Heron · Site maintained by hmt3design.com

Share this ArticleLike this article? Email it to a friend!

Email sent!