2 min read November 2022—Invest: spoke with Rob Killen of Killen, Griffin & Farrimond, a law firm specializing in land use and economic development, who discussed development in San Antonio and how it needs to be creative and innovative to combat ever-growing land scarcity. “I tell clients that easy pieces of land to develop are gone so new projects are getting harder to develop,” he said.
What have been the key highlights for Killen, Griffin & Farrimond over the past year?
It has been a hot market as we’ve worked on countless apartment complexes, master-planned residential communities and commercial projects. Even with the overall downturn in the office space market, we still see activity there as well as with distribution and data centers. But our primary area of growth has been on the residential side. Another big area of growth is the work we’re doing on a lot of large special districts outside city limits and in the nearby cities. These districts help finance public improvements for residential and mixed use projects. I’m particularly proud of a district we created last year called Lemon Creek, which is anchored by a major local grocer and includes office space and multifamily. In addition to paying for a major road, the district will preserve and enhance surrounding greenspace, creating public amenities that serve the development.
How would you describe Killen, Griffin, & Farrimond’s impact on local economic development?
I’d like to start by highlighting our firm’s commitment to volunteer work with business organizations in the region. I am on the North San Antonio Chamber of Commerce Board and served as the board chairman in 2015. I and my partners are all active members of the Real Estate Council of San Antonio. Our firm’s role in the development process comes into play when someone comes to the area looking to do a project and identifies a piece of property that needs incentives, entitlements, proper zoning or variances. The project may require a significant amount of public infrastructure but the developer can’t justify buying a piece of land unless they have some sort of cost offset for that public infrastructure. We work closely with various local governmental entities collaboratively to help make that project happen. We help people get their projects across the finish line.
When it comes to land acquisition and development, compared to five to 10 years ago, how is it different now from a legal perspective?
The thing about land is there’s always less of it and it only becomes increasingly scarce. I tell clients that easy pieces of land to develop are gone so new projects are getting harder to develop. Things like infill, for example, are the types of projects that face their own challenges. A lot of these opportunities are moving further out from city limits and the further you get outside of urban areas, the challenge is access to utilities and public infrastructure like roads, so how do you get that extended? We do that through these special improvement districts. We have to deal with flood plains, extending utilities and water and sewer capacity. It is critical that we work with cities and counties to develop long-term policies and bonds to bring utilities out and extend major lines out to undeveloped areas. It becomes a question of what we are doing in public policy to promote development. If we’re not developing, we’re not growing which means we’re stagnating and people will move somewhere else.
How has demand for the firm’s services evolved as San Antonio continues to grow?
We’ve always done significant practice in multifamily and it has spiked exponentially in the past two years since the pandemic. We’re working on dozens of apartment projects each year when it used to be a handful. We have also seen more and more single-family development outside of city limits. In 2017, the Texas legislature changed laws on annexation for Bexar County. In 2019, they took those changes and expanded them statewide. The change they made was that cities can no longer involuntarily annex. In other words, property owners have to say they want to be a part of the city before they can annex their property. Our practice has been focused on properties that are outside a municipality’s corporate limits and projects that voluntarily annex. Cities and counties benefit because they’re growing their tax base since the properties are typically agricultural and not paying much tax. We’re doing significantly more public improvement districts because of the change in law and growing demand for housing.
Are there any significant changes to zoning laws that could impact business?
San Antonio amends its development code every five years. This year finished a five-year cycle and we’ll have new ordinances that impact zoning and development starting Jan. 1, 2023. We’re heavily involved in that process, working with consultants and officials to make sure those changes have a net positive impact on development. Small cities are adopting significant changes to their codes and are adopting unified planning, seeing more opportunity for mixed-use and infill development. More cities are adopting ordinances for townhomes and mixed-use development. There’s a greater awareness that it’s the new normal in terms of residential real estate.
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