SA’s real estate market headed up

SAN ANTONIO – In the real estate market, recovery has begun for San Antonio. On the residential front, single-family construction is on the upswing, while multifamily development continues to move at a steady clip, according to Kim Gatley, senior vice president for NAI REOC San Antonio.

The industrial real estate sector enjoyed positive space absorption in third quarter 2012. Over the first nine months of the year, the industrial market absorbed more than 940,000 sf of space — well over the city’s annual average for the past decade.

Investors and tenants are infusing new life into vacant properties. B-Y Properties purchased a former Target store of roughly 96,200 sf along Walzem Rd. on the Northeast Side.

Buyers including real estate investment trusts, insurance companies and investment funds are buying into the Class A communities in San Antonio.

The Class B apartment projects remain a prime target for the local and regional buyers, and syndicators.

San Antonio’s office market is dealing with some crucial “obsolescence issues,” said Gardner Peavy, partner for Peloton Commercial Real Estate. Out of an inventory of some 9 million sf of office space citywide, of the good, quality product, “we have probably less than 600,000 sf.”