The Gardens at San Juan Square Gains National Notoriety

By Anca Gagiuc, Associate Editor

The Gardens at San Juan Square

The revitalization of the Gardens at San Juan Square has brought a vibrant community to San Antonio’s Westside submarket. The unique $65 million development at 2003 South Zarzamora St. offers residential and retail living, featuring live-work units to boost economic growth in the region.

The Gardens at San Juan Square consists of 252 units, 17 residential buildings, a clubhouse, business center, 12 live-work units, and 4200 total square feet of commercial space in two separate buildings. The 12 units combine a workspace or retail space with living quarters, positioned above or behind the business space, with easy street access for business customers.

The development team consists of NRP Group, San Antonio Housing Authority, general contractor NRP Contractors, and the Westside Development Corp. The WDC’s Live-Work Accelerator Program is the materialization of a mission to incubate and support start-up and entrepreneurial live-work units in low to moderate income housing communities.

“We had small business owners in mind when developing The Gardens at San Juan Square,” said Dan Markson, vice president of the NRP Group, “We are extremely proud to be able to provide a housing product that includes a commercial space at no charge for the residents. We want to help local entrepreneurs achieve their goals by doing whatever we can to help local startups take off and thrive.”

Their effort has paid off. The U.S. Small Business Administration selected the Live-Work Unit Accelerator Program of San Antonio’s WDC as one of the 80 winners in their second annual Growth Accelerator Fund Competition. The organization will receive a cash prize of $50,000 to help fund their efforts to develop and strengthen their local small business community.

“The success of this project today can be attributed in great part to the San Antonio Housing Authority and developer NRP, who had the fortitude to pursue a live-work community here on the Westside,” said Leonard Rodriguez, president of WDC. “The program’s success moving forward will be in the hands of the hard-working business owners who are putting their hearts and souls into utilizing community resources from the WDC and others to develop their own successful businesses,” added Rodriguez. “They are doing a great deal not only for their own futures, but for the future of the Westside.”

Image courtesy of The Gardens at San Juan Square