A high-end single-family rental community will be built on 31-acres by Colegas Ventures in Helotes, a small town on the northern outskirts of San Antonio.
The development will be called Bandera Ranch and include 220 high-end duplex-style houses on 31-acres of land, with a retail property facing the road. The project was approved by the Helotes City Council at a meeting on Oct. 13 and a final construction timeline has not yet been announced.
The property at 15030 E. Bandera Road is the largest undeveloped tract of land in Helotes, the San-Antonio Express News reports. In total, the units will add over 244-thousand square feet of residential space to the small city. Exact rental figures have not been reported.
A retail building, grocery store and restaurant will all be included in the commercial section of the property while the residential community will have an amenity center and a pool.
Mayor Rich Whitehead and other city council members decided to approve the project as a compromise in the hopes of avoiding a large commercial development. A proposal to build a Wal-Mart on the land had been rejected in the early 2000s.
“Large scale, big parking lots, big lights and big signs is one common thing that the citizens of Helotes don’t want,” Whitehead said during the meeting. “What’s best, if we don’t approve this, is what comes in its place?”
Residents who live near the proposed development site in the city of about 10,000 residents expressed concerns about the high-density and potential for traffic concerns along Banderas Road.
“It needs to be clear to the citizens about how this will impact us and how Helotes is going to straddle the line between not becoming Leon Valley and trying to keep the rural and more peaceful existence that most of us grew up out here with,” said Lisa Pack, a resident who lives near the project site.
A number of small towns outside of San Antonio have seen increased growth in recent years as residents seek to enjoy rural living while still being near the city’s jobs and amenities, according to a Keller Williams Realty report. More renters have also been flocking to San Antonio as some zip codes within the city have doubled or tripled the amount of renters since 2021.
— Erick Pirayesh