SAN ANTONIO – After six years and a recent zoning change, developers of a long-promised veteran community believe a formal groundbreaking will happen late this summer.
The Valor Club is a planned, mixed-use development around the historic Pecan Valley Golf Club. Project developers laid out their plans Friday morning, the day after the City Council voted to change the site’s zoning
“This is the place for the Valor Club to occur. This is the time for the Valor Club to occur, and we're ready to go,” said Dan Pedrotti Jr., founder and partner of the Valor Club.
It’s a big dream, with plans developing 215 acres to include a revamped golf course, a mix of residential housing, retail stores and sports facilities, among other amenities.
It also comes with a big price tag. Development costs are estimated at over $200 million.
When asked whether all of that funding was secured, Pedrottie said “All that funding will come from traditional real estate development sources, the equity markets and the lending markets, as is typically brought to bear on projects of this type.”
Already six years in the making, it could be about that long again before the project is finished.
"As is typical in a project of this magnitude, the answer's going to be five, six years,” Pedrotti said. “It could be seven years."
First up for construction will be the golf course, which Pedrotti said could be ready for play by this time next year.
Jim Shelton, whose firm, Gensler San Antonio, is the architect and planner for the Valor Club, said the project is currently in the master plan phase.
"As phasing comes together, we'll start building the individual projects. You know, whether it's a conference center, whether it's the education pieces and then some initial houses. But it will be built in neighborhoods and phases over time,” Shelton said.
The development was met with pushback from neighbors at a community meeting earlier this week. Pedrotti chalked up much of the resistance to skepticism of real estate development in general.
"And we seek to earn their trust,” he said. “We know we've got to work harder at it because of those that have gone before us, and I think some misperceptions about our intent and the timing, particularly the timing.”
“Starting and building the golf course and fulfilling the dream and the mission just the way we presented all along is going to be the best way to answer that."