Empower Plans 547 Manufactured Homes In San Antonio

Empower Communities is spearheading a large residential development on San Antonio’s South Side, a plan that aims to extend the recent trend of manufactured homes in the market.

The project is part of a growing trend in which developers are undertaking manufactured housing communities. These kinds of projects allow developers to retain land ownership in a professional management portfolio.

The firm, led by principals Mark Greenbaum and Julian Reynolds, plans to build 547 manufactured homes and a boatload of outdoor amenities on a 95-acre tract, the San Antonio Business Journal reported. Empower acquired the land from a long-time owner and carved out the development site from a larger tract.

Homes in the community will be priced between $80,000 and $120,000, well below the city average of about $257,000, according to Zillow. Amenities, spanning five acres, will include basketball courts, a sports bar, 90-foot pool, fitness center and a state-of-the-art soccer field.

“We spent three months figuring out where the best place to focus our attention was, and we kept coming back to San Antonio,” Reynolds told the outlet, adding that population growth and efficient development services were factors that led the firm to choose the Alamo City.

The South Side area continues to undergo rapid growth, as a number of other large-scale developments are in the pipeline. Arboretum San Antonio officials, with support from influential figures such as former mayor Henry Cisneros and Brooks Development Authority president and CEO Leo Gomez, are searching for a master planner to lead a 188-acre project at 4226 SE Military Drive.

In March, Brooks Development Authority started construction on a 500-unit, build-for-rent project called Los Cielos, located on the site of the former Brooks Air Force base. Arlington-based D.R. Horton is also plotting a 220-home community in the South Side area.

—Quinn Donoghue