Because you’re paying so much to be close to the amenities of the Pearl, you may not be able to take advantage of all the things it offers,” like eating in a Pearl restaurant every night of the week. “We were looking for urban living and it seemed like a really great place to get to know the city,” said the Mississippi native. John Taylor Schaffhauser moved to San Antonio with his wife in 2015 for a job with Lake|Flato Architects and chose a one-bedroom Can Plant apartment above Bakery Lorraine. studios to two-bedroom units, the apartments are home to singles, couples, and now families – 15 are raising their “Can Plant babies” there. Its 293 units, with leases starting at more $1,000 a month, are fully occupied. The Can Plant Residences opened first in 2012. If food gave people a reason to visit, then new residential units offered them a reason to stay. We had really talented chefs with unique concepts, and people enjoyed the idea of something delivered at a high level with a lot of creativity by local chefs.” Living at the Pearl “And that was important to us in the early days before the neighborhood turned around. People will travel to find it even if it’s not in the most ideal spot,” he said. “People will always go to find great food. Developers would have recommended a maximum of four restaurants, Shown said. Many have gone on to start or work at the Pearl’s 18 restaurants, considered an extraordinary number of eateries on a site of that size. Since it opened in 2008, more than 1,000 chefs have graduated from the program. The Culinary Institute of America San Antonio graduating class of April 2016. And he convinced the Culinary Institute of America to establish the college’s third campus at the Pearl, starting with a small test kitchen. “He hired talented, local chefs and helped them succeed,” Shown said. “But he saw it as an opportunity and he had a dream and the commitment.”Īt the core of that dream was not only historic preservation, but also changing the culinary landscape in San Antonio – a foodie’s dream. “Our advice to Kit was to run,” Shown said. Few people lived in the area on this northeastern edge of downtown, known for its low income, high crime rate, and chronic flooding. This is his baby for sure.”įrom a real estate perspective, the purchase of the Pearl made no sense, Shown told a group at the Urban Land Institute (ULI) Texas forum in June. “He’s an extremely creative person, and his mind is constantly working,” Shown said. It had a long, important history in San Antonio and Silver Ventures wanted to preserve that.” Way to a Person’s Heartįounded by Goldsbury, a local billionaire who made his fortune after selling Pace Foods to Campbell Soup in 1994, Silver Ventures is a private equity firm that has backed the 18-acre Pearl site and brought the Culinary Institute of America to San Antonio.Ī reclusive Goldsbury remains the visionary director behind all that has been established at the Pearl and that is to come, according to Bill Shown, managing director of real estate for Silver Ventures since 2005. “At one time, the brewery was the largest employer in San Antonio and largest brewery in Texas. “The fact that they were still here 100 years later, though they needed some love and care to bring them back, makes them important buildings to the history of San Antonio,” Fetzer said.

Pearl brewery