Transformation of Leon Springs
6/16/2006
By Rachel Stone, Express-News Business Writer
Sometimes a property feels so special and so perfect that there's no passing it up, whatever the cost or risk.
It's the kind of place that comes around once in a lifetime.
That's how L'Etoile restaurant owners Thierry Burkle and Armand Obadia feel about the Leon Springs site they have spent about $1.2 million to buy and renovate for their new restaurant.
Theirs is hardly the only business lured by Leon Springs.
What was once a sleepy intersection most famous for being a former stagecoach stop is now a business hub where commercial property in old dance halls and vintage cottages is going for big-city rates of more than $20 a square foot.
"It's gotten very competitive," said Kit Corbin, a broker with Grub & Ellis in San Antonio. "There's a supply and demand there that's going in favor of the landowner."
It's just a few miles northeast of the Shops at La Cantera, and a few miles south of Boerne. As San Antonio grows northward, Leon Springs seems closer all the time.
That proximity and the residential growth surrounding Leon Springs has pushed it into a new sphere of popularity, with real estate prices to match. Commercial pads go for about $22 per square foot. Russell Noll, a Transwestern Commercial Services broker, says he used to sell commercial pads for $9 a square foot two years ago.
Another real estate broker, Patrick Seigert, is marketing a 2.143-acre plat with access to Interstate 10 near Leon Springs. Last year it was listed at $1.2 million. This week, the price was $2 million.
But although there are at least 40 $1 million homes for sale in the area bounded by Highway 16, Loop 1604, Camp Bullis and Fair Oaks Parkway, there are also new homes priced from $180,000 to $300,000, said real estate agent Ryan Seigert, Patrick's son.
"That has really helped from a development standpoint," he said.
Leon Springs was completely different even a few years ago when Leon Springs Dancehall and the first Romano's Macaroni Grill were still in operation. Phil Romano had moved several vintage cottages from the city's South Side and set them along the frontage road from westbound Interstate 10 to Boerne Stage Road where his restaurant was located. The cottages housed mostly small-time boutiques and antique and trinket shops hoping to attract the weekend visitors driving by for a night of dining and dancing.
Now those little cottages are home to, among other things, a real estate agency and a dry cleaner to serve the area's new residents.
And as the residents will presumably have cars for the commute into San Antonio, Vizza Wash Inc. is coming to town. The company that owns the Wash Tub car washes bought the old Leon Springs Dancehall, a popular honky-tonk that featured big names in Texas country music in the 13 years it operated. It closed in December when the property became too valuable not to sell.
Vizza Wash plans to put a Wash Tub on the property, but might keep the dancehall for a restaurant or a new honky-tonk, operations manager Javier Rodriguez said.
And the old Macaroni Grill site is getting new life as Burkle and Obadia's new restaurant venture, The Grill. It is planned as a casual restaurant and wine bar, and it's expected to open in early August. "It has a great feel. We fell in love with this building," Burkle said.
"Leon Springs has this wonderful aspect. It's rustic. It has history. The place is wonderful." Part of the town's history, of course, is the flood of 2002, when the employees of the Macaroni Grill took refuge on the roof.
But the new crop of business owners isn't concerned. Homebuilders have made improvements to Leon Creek, and renovations at The Grill include flood-proofing, Burkle said.
"I don't want to tempt Mother Nature," he said. " It's a risk, but it's a good risk. I hope it will never flood."
Bob Lee, a dentist who has lived in Leon Springs for 20 years, remembers the 2002 flood vividly. Despite the new protections, he made sure the land he bought in the area for his newest dental office (he has five already throughout San Antonio) was out of the flood plain.
"I think the flooding issue is not as bad as it had been a few years ago," Lee said. "Some of the other properties near us have some issues, but I think with all the work they've done, it's supposed to have resolved some of those issues. Of course, it hasn't been tested because there hasn't been another flood."
The new Lee Dental Center will be a 4,000-square-foot office just across from Rudy's Barbecue near Boerne Stage Road. Construction is expected to begin later this year.
"Everything seems to be growing so much out there," Lee said. "It's going to be a good future growth area for my two daughters as they practice."
Lee and his daughter Tonya Christal, also a dentist, will work at the new center. When his other daughter, Danielle Powell, graduates from dental school, she'll join them.
Christal remembers folks riding their horses up to Rudy's when she was a kid.
"Not so much anymore," she said.
Lee also is planning an office building adjacent to the new practice, which he plans to lease. Already, he's had several inquiries.
Online: www.mysanantonio.com/business/MYSA061606_1C_LeonSprings_8e1fac5b_html.html
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