A new Chinese buffet is headed to Northwest San Antonio, with state filings showing a $2 million, ground-up construction project planned for 3145 NW Loop 410. The development, dubbed Chinese Buffet – Cherry Ridge in project paperwork, is slated to break ground on November 20 and wrap up by October 31, 2027.
The project was registered on August 12 under project number TABS2026027666 with the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation, according to WhatNow, which first reported the filing. The records list Tian Chun Lim as the project owner, who has confirmed his ownership of the upcoming concept but has not offered further comment as of publication, per the outlet's report. Michael Pena is listed as the person who filed the project records, the filing shows.
State paperwork puts the new commercial building at 12,000 square feet and privately funded, with a total estimated construction cost of $2 million. That works out to roughly $167 per square foot, a benchmark for assessing commercial dining construction costs in the San Antonio area, according to Zabalist project data. The design firm of record is Open Studio Architecture PLLC, a commercial design studio that has operated in San Antonio since 2011.
Owner and Architect Share an Address
One detail buried in the filing stands out: Tian Chun Lim's listed contact address, 6122 De Zavala Road, is also the principal business address of Open Studio Architecture. That overlap suggests a tightly knit, localized team is steering the project from design through construction. Open Studio Architecture has previously worked on ground-up commercial builds across Bexar County, including a 20,766-square-foot tilt-up shell building valued at more than $3.5 million.
No specific concept, menu, branding, or opening date has been announced beyond the construction timeline itself. Those details remain open questions even as the project clears its initial state registration hurdles.
Accessibility Review Ahead of Opening
Before the buffet can complete its regulatory sign-off, the building must clear an accessibility inspection required under Texas administrative rules. Under 16 TAC § 68.52, privately funded commercial projects like this one must undergo a mandatory accessibility inspection by a Registered Accessibility Specialist no later than one year after construction wraps, with written inspection requests due within 30 days of completion. State filings name Doug W. Martine of Canyon Lake, holder of RAS license #1162, as the specialist assigned to handle plan reviews and inspections for the building.
A Crowded Corridor for Asian Dining
The new buffet will land in a stretch of Northwest Loop 410 that already has established competition. Chopsticks Chinese Buffet sits nearby at 4903 NW Loop 410, operating out of a 53,579-square-foot building constructed in 1984, according to property records reviewed by Compass Real Estate. Loop 410 functions as San Antonio's primary inner highway loop, linking several of the city's major retail clusters.
The site also sits close to the Cherry Ridge Drive and I-10 interchange, an area that has seen other redevelopment interest. CPS Energy previously marketed a 14-acre surplus parcel at 3330 Cherry Ridge Street for commercial redevelopment, reported The Real Deal, after the utility originally bought the land for $6.8 million in 2018.
Part of a Broader Building Boom
The buffet project is a small piece of a much larger construction wave across the region. State regulators tracked more than 19,500 active commercial construction projects worth a combined $53.14 billion across the San Antonio-New Braunfels metro area as of August, per Zabalist data, with new construction making up 7,191 of those projects at an average value of $2.7 million each.
Within the buffet's own 78254 ZIP code in Northwest San Antonio, state records show 330 registered commercial development projects, including 21 new ones filed in the six months before August. The area has seen sustained suburban residential and retail expansion, according to the same Zabalist figures, making the buffet's arrival part of a much broader pattern of growth rather than an isolated development.
