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Real estate firm Casey Development Ltd. has a multimillion-dollar plan for meeting the growing need for multifamily development. Later this year, the locally based firm will break ground on two Class A apartment communities — under a new brand it calls Tacara. Tacara Westover Hills will be located on a 12-acre site at the northeast corner of State Highway 151 and Ingram Road on the city’s far West Side, according to Christopher C. Harness, who recently joined Casey Development as the managing director for the firm’s new Multi Family housing division. Construction on the 312-unit community is set to begin during the third quarter of this year. Casey Development will follow up this project with a second Tacara — this one on the city’s far North Side, Harness says. Work on Tacara Stone Oak is poised to get under way during the fourth quarter of this year. The 403-unit community will be located on 24 acres of land at the northwest corner of U.S. Highway 281 and Stone Oak Parkway. These projects, along with others in the pipeline for Casey, come at a time when real estate development across all sectors in the city is at a virtual standstill due to the dour economy. The new development may well signal that longtime San Antonio developers, such as Darren Casey, founder and CEO of Casey Development, see opportunity ahead — particularly in the apartment sector. Casey Development is also pursuing opportunities in the multifamily niche of student housing — a strategy that has prompted new development outside of the city limits. The firm will break ground on Concho Commons during the last quarter of 2011. Plans call for 81 beds, as well as 27,000 square feet of retail space, Harness says. Current plans for the second community — dubbed the Thorpe Lane project — call for 500 beds. That project is set to get underway during the second quarter of 2012. Development costs for the two Tacara projects are between $65 million and $70 million, according to Casey. The two student-housing communities in San Marcos account for another $40 million worth of development. The final tally is about $110 million worth of new construction over the next 12 months — which is right in line with Harness’ long-term plans for the firm’s multifamily housing division. All four communities will be financed through a combination of traditional construction lending and equity — Casey himself being one of the equity partners in these projects, Harness says. Adaptation The addition of Harness — and the launch of the multifamily housing division — marks a significant turn of events for Casey Development. To date, the firm has developed more than 2 million square feet of commercial space in the greater San Antonio area — a mix of office, retail and industrial space. The new multifamily developments, in fact, are being built on land that Casey had previously earmarked for new retail space. Previous plans for the Stone Oak site, for example, included a lifestyle center that would span roughly 800,000 square feet. Then the market turned. Save for the 27,000 square feet of retail planned for Concho Commons in San Marcos, the focus now is on apartments. Enter Harness, who comes to Casey Development with more than 30 years of experience in the multifamily industry — including more than 10 years heading up the student housing divisions of Dallas-based firms Trammell Crow Co. and FirstWorthing. “(Harness) is a great fundamentals guy,” says David Held, a former broker with Trammell Crow, and a co-founder of Endura Advisory Group. Held calls him a perfect fit for Casey’s new venture, adding, “You get them on the same team, great things can happen. It should be a dynamic team.” Student housing, says Harness, is a niche business, but it is one that is sorely underserved — especially as cash-strapped colleges have been getting out of the student housing industry, Harness says. Once they graduate, these young professionals are then primed to move over to the conventional multifamily development in the works by developers like Casey. New lending requirements have made it more difficult to qualify for a home, adds Harness, who points out that today’s young professionals — those in the age group from about 25 to 35 — are choosing apartments. That demographic is growing. A recent report by Irvine, Calif.-based research firm John Burns Real Estate Consulting shows that the number of 20- to 24-year-olds will grow by 1.2 percent through 2013. Meanwhile, the number of 25- to 34-year-olds will grow by 1.4 percent through 2015. “We missed the retail market, but we’re going to adapt,” Casey says. “We are going to capitalize on where the demand is at (during) a particular point in the cycle. “We’re at the right place at the right time, he adds.” This isn’t the first time Casey has shifted his focus to meet market demand. He is one of the partners in the The Erna Frac Sand Facility, which produces the sand for the hydraulic fracturing (fracking) process employed by oil and gas companies to tap into reserves locked inside large rock formations like the Eagle Ford Shale. “Casey is a smart guy, and he’s a visionary too,” says Held. “Part of being successful in this business is recognizing where the market is and where the opportunities are.”
Friday, September 10, 2010 Casey has joined forces with West Texas-based oil man Jack Curtis to develop a quarry and plant that will produce the sand crucial to many of the oil and gas mining activities taking place in the Lone Star State. Spanning 250 acres, the Erna Frac Sand facility is located in Mason County — about 130 miles northwest of San Antonio. Casey and Curtis have invested some $30 million to get this plant up and running.
Record in athletics Darren Casey didn't waste any time getting on board with the new strategic
plan for athletics. In February, the San Antonio businessman donated
$1.3 million to Texas State, with $1 million going to athletics and
$300,000 earmarked for a professorship in the McCoy College of Business
Administration.
June 26, 2008 California company purchases Travis Park Plaza The eight-story Travis Park Plaza building at 711 Navarro St. has a new owner. San Antonio's Darren Casey Interests Inc. (now Casey Development, Ltd.) has sold the 160,172-square-foot building to Los Angeles-based Cannon Commercial Inc. The building was built in 1970 and is valued at $13.9 million, according to Bexar County. Cannon assumed a loan that had an original principal amount of $13.27 million.
“I think our biggest advantage is having structured parking and being protected from the weather,” said James Foreman, vice president of NAI REOC Partners, which is leasing and managing the building. “The location gives easy access around downtown. And it has a long history of prominent tenants, which helps attract other people to do business with.” The eight-story Travis Park Plaza building is at 711
Navarro St. Casey had owned the building since 2003.
July 5, 2007 San Antonio Business Journal S.A.'s Darren Casey inks deal with California firm STORY LINK (pdf)
October 2006 DARREN CASEY INTERESTS ANNOUNCES LEASE WITH BANK OF AMERICA Darren Casey Interests (now Casey Development, Ltd.), a San Antonio based real estate development firm, announced that it has leased 69,000 square feet in the Crosswinds Business and Technology Park to Bank of America for use as a call center and for back office operations. The building, located at 11826 Tech Com, contains 94,000 square feet and was built in 1999 as a manufacturing facility for Amnitek, Ltd., a maker of plastic injection mold computer components. Only months after signing a ten year lease and commencing operations, Amnitek moved its production to Singapore and vacated the property, though it continued to pay rent. As part of its deal with Bank of America, DCI negotiated a buy-out from Amnitek on its remaining lease term. The building will undergo extensive renovations as part of its conversion from a manufacturing facility to an office building, including thirty new windows cut from the tilt walls, refurbished entrances and new HVAC systems. “This will be a very intriguing adaptive re-use, in some ways like our Cinema Plaza building”, said Darren Casey, President. On that project, DCI converted a former movie theatre to a two-story office building for Nationwide Insurance. Crosswinds Business and Technology Park is a master planned development on 50 acres of land at O’Connor Road and Wurzbach Parkway in northeast San Antonio. DCI has developed 339,000 feet of office, flex and industrial space in the park, whose master plans call for a total of 750,000 square feet. DCI’s other developments include another 600,000 feet of office properties and significant land holdings in the San Antonio area.
October 3, 2005 DARREN CASEY INTERESTS ANNOUNCES SALE OF SAN MARCOS APARTMENTS Darren Casey Interests (now Casey Development, Ltd.), a San Antonio based real estate development firm, announced that it has sold the Hillside Ranch Apartments in San Marcos to GEM Realty Capital of Chicago. The 258 unit Class A property is adjacent to the Texas State University campus and was developed by a Casey partnership in 1997. “We decided some time back to focus our efforts in the office, industrial and retail sectors, and with the apartments at 96% occupancy, it seemed like a good time to sell”, said Darren Casey, President. He added that the company expects to sell its other multi-family development in San Marcos in the fourth quarter. Charles Cirar of CB Richard Ellis brokered the transaction for the sellers.
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COMPLETE STORY HERE
The biggest perk for Travis Park Plaza is that it has about 480 parking
spaces and a covered path to the building.
