The developer behind San Antonio’s Pearl is doubling down on old-school office space along the river, pivoting a long planned Josephine Street project toward desks and conference rooms instead of mostly apartments. Oxbow Development Group now plans roughly 140,000 square feet of offices at the riverside site, while still including luxury residences and ground floor retail. The shift is a calculated bet that upscale employers will pay a premium to be steps from the River Walk and Pearl’s restaurants and shops, and that more daytime workers will give nearby businesses a steadier lunch and weekday crowd.
At 102 E. Josephine St., the plan calls for about 140,000 square feet of offices, 86 luxury apartments (including 16 penthouses), and roughly 20,000 square feet of restaurants and shops. The residential portion is expected to rise about 10 stories, with the office component at nine stories. Oxbow says construction could begin in late 2026 and would take roughly two years once it starts. Rents in Pearl and nearby submarkets have climbed into the high end of the market, which executives say helps make the office pivot pencil out, according to the San Antonio Express-News.
Developers say firms still want premium offices
“Anybody who we talk to will probably think we’re crazy for building office right now,” development manager Kristina Good said, but Oxbow reports interest from banks and professional services firms that want high-end space. The company points to its Broadway office building, which is nearly full with tenants such as Bank of America, CBRE, Sage Energy Co. and Barton Benson Jones, and says it expects several office leases to be in place before construction to help secure financing, according to the San Antonio Express-News.
How Josephine fits into a wider local buildout
The Josephine project is one piece of a broader expansion around Pearl. Oxbow recently completed the 262 unit Coopers Row across the river and is building the 166 room Perlen House hotel, and the firm has other multifamily and mixed use work under way. Other developers are chasing office demand too, with McCombs Enterprises proposing a large mixed use, office heavy development next to the San Antonio Museum of Art. Together, the projects underscore that the riverfront corridor is seeing a flurry of investment, as reported by the San Antonio Report.
Timeline and what to watch
Oxbow says it plans to start construction in late 2026 if it can line up pre leases and financing, and estimates about a two year build cycle to delivery. For neighbors and nearby businesses, the big things to watch will be which office tenants sign on, how the project handles parking and riverfront access, and whether a new wave of daytime workers shifts Pearl’s peak hours and service needs.
