A 1965 building at 8225 Dave Erwin Drive on the former Brooks Air Force Base is being converted into a new headquarters for the National Park Service, which manages the San Antonio Missions National Historical Park. The $7.5 million renovation, according to a state filing, will turn the old survival-training structure into 39,000 square feet of office, warehouse and workshop space under a 17-year federal lease worth $30 million.
The project is being led by Atlanta-based Lanier Creek Development, according to the San Antonio Express-News, which first reported the conversion. The site, owned by the General Services Administration, will be leased to the National Park Service starting in November 2026, with the developer aiming to modernize the structure while preserving its military history. State accessibility filings with the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation, filed under project TABS2027000191, put the renovation at 39,750 square feet on a 2.75-acre parcel, with construction running from November 2, 2026, to August 1, 2027, and design work led by Illinois-based Streamline Architects.
Lanier Creek's own project records describe the General Services Administration's award, made in May 2026, as a 17-year lease with a 15-year firm commitment covering 28,060 rentable square feet of office, warehouse and workshop space. The company was founded in August 2024 by Philip Perry, a former GSA national broker who previously managed more than 200 federal leases totaling 2.5 million square feet, according to Lanier Creek Development.
Why the Park Service Needed a New Home
The move follows the termination of the National Park Service's previous Missions headquarters lease across from Riverside Golf Course, which the Trump administration ordered canceled in March 2025, per the Express-News. The National Park Service's website no longer lists that former property as its headquarters. The park includes four historic 18th-century Spanish colonial mission churches spread across South San Antonio.
The staffing backdrop adds context to the relocation. A conservation association estimated that the National Park Service cut about 9% of its staff in 2025, a reduction that included at least one worker at Mission San José, according to the Express-News report.
Despite the staffing cuts, visitor demand at the Missions has stayed strong. The National Park Service reported that 1.3 million visitors to San Antonio Missions National Historical Park in 2024 spent $114.7 million in local gateway communities, generating $171.2 million in total economic output. The Missions, which include four National Park Service sites and the Alamo, became the first and only UNESCO World Heritage Site in Texas when they were inscribed on July 5, 2015, according to the U.S. Department of State.
A Base With a Long Second Act
The hangar conversion is the latest chapter in the decades-long transformation of the 1,308-acre Brooks campus, which was founded in 1917 as Brooks Field for aviation training and officially ended U.S. Air Force operations on September 15, 2011, following Base Realignment and Closure recommendations, before being fully transferred to the Brooks Development Authority. Since then, the property has steadily filled in with civilian uses, including a $9 million trail project the City of San Antonio approved in February 2024 to link the campus directly to the Missions, and the August 2026 opening of Los Cielos at Brooks, a 488-unit residential community and the first build-to-rent development inside Loop 410.
Local zoning had to clear the way first. San Antonio municipal records show that zoning case Z-2026-10700134 for the 8225 Dave Erwin Drive parcel went before the Zoning Commission and City Council in July and August 2026 to accommodate the commercial infill development on the 2.75-acre site.
Lanier Creek is pursuing similar federal work elsewhere in Central Texas. The developer secured a $70 million, 20-year firm lease award in August 2026 to build a 36,693-rentable-square-foot Department of Veterans Affairs outpatient clinic in San Marcos, which will offer primary care, mental health, radiology, laboratory and rehabilitation services for veterans, along with other services.
