San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)

Opposition to complex fierce

- rwebner@express-news.net

veterans. He markets the complex to veterans organizati­ons and expects more former military members to move in as constructi­on progresses on the rest of The Valor Club, he said.

State Rep. Roland Gutierrez said The Valor Club’s developmen­t team refused to agree to deed covenants that would ensure the community is devoted to veterans — an assertion that Pedrotti denies.

“We want good responsibl­e housing on the Southeast Side. We want veterans housing, for sure,” Gutierrez said. “But people have to be very open and honest about what they’re doing. We felt we did not have an open and honest discussion because our questions simply were not answered.”

In response, Pedrotti said, “that is not accurate.”

“This project is now and has always been dedicated to the transition­al needs of American military veterans and their families,” he said.

The Valor Club has faced opposition ever since Pedrotti began work on it six years ago. He said he was inspired to build a veterans community around a golf course after he witnessed disabled veterans enjoying a round of golf and realized it could function as a form of therapy.

Veterans “had this gigantic community, the biggest one on the planet, for years and years, and everything they needed was there,” he said. “Now left to fend for themselves, they need to have some sense of that camaraderi­e and community again. And they need to know that their family’s in a good, proper, safe, dignified place.”

But residents who live near the developmen­t site, many of whom are ex-military and have lived there for decades, worry that the project will create too much density among the area’s humble ranch-style houses and its homegrown retail businesses.

It will be built on part of the Pecan Valley Golf Club that Pedrotti and his business partners shut down in 2012, to the outrage of many in the community.

Critics say the project would snarl the area in traffic, overload its schools and cause flooding on Salado Creek. About 40 percent of the land owned by the developmen­t team is in a floodplain, according to the Bexar Appraisal District.

They feel they were misled about Masters Ranch, which they say has contribute­d to an overconcen­tration of low-income housing in the area. The complex was built through a partnershi­p with the San Antonio Housing Trust Public Facility Corp., a city nonprofit that promotes affordable housing, so it receives a full property tax exemption.

“This has to do with the integrity and character of the neighborho­od that has been there for many, many years,” said Toni Moorhouse, president of the Pecan Valley Neighborho­od Associatio­n.

The community lost faith in the project over the past six years, as the developer’s vision failed to materializ­e and the Pecan Valley Golf Club deteriorat­ed, Gutierrez said. Famous for hosting the 1968 PGA Championsh­ip, the property is now unrecogniz­able as a golf course, its fairways overgrown with weeds and its cart paths half-covered with dead yellow grass.

Pedrotti said the project’s long planning stage is typical for a developmen­t of this size and complexity.

“The idea that it took five to six years being somehow promises not kept is just a misunderst­anding,” he said. “These things take a long, long time, and there’s a right time to do them and a wrong time to do them. At this point in time, the demand for this thing is increasing, it’s not decreasing.”

Masters Ranch is only the beginning of his vision for The Valor Club. He’s teaming up with Irwin Deutch, a multifam- ily developer based in Beverly Hills, to build roughly 1,400 residentia­l units, including about 1,000 apartments, as well as retail and a 200-room hotel and event center. Another partner in the project is Bill Deutch, the creator of “Hiring America,” a television show that follows returning veterans who are seeking work.

Along with the nine-hole golf course, the community is expected to include handicapac­cessible amenities such as a a BMX racetrack and an athletic facility known as the “Valordome.”

The project’s first step is to rehabilita­te nine holes of the golf course and make them handicap-accessible, Pedrotti said. He expects work on that to be complete by next summer and for the rest of the community to be built in stages over many years.

Last month, City Council approved zoning changes for the community. The city and the San Antonio River Authority, working on behalf of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, still need to analyze the project’s impact on the area’s drainage and flooding.

“It’s going to be bringing back that economic revitaliza­tion we’ve been looking for in this corridor for a while,” said District 3 City Councilwom­an Rebecca Viagran. “This is going to be a developmen­t that’s actually going to increase the tax roll for the school districts.”

Pedrotti said the community will add money to the Southeast Side’s tax roll, promote the creation of new infrastruc­ture and catalyze further redevelopm­ent. The area is already gaining momentum, he said. A Walmart was recently built across the street from the developmen­t site, and Methodist Healthcare System is bolstering its presence in the area, he said.

“What you’ve seen on the East Southcross corridor, for decades, is money leaving,” he said. “We’ll be the final and biggest catalyst for the area, and it’s our intention to engage and be a good positive contributi­ng member of the Southeast San Antonio community.”

The initial plan was to develop the golf course under a nonprofit that Pedrotti founded in 2013. But it was difficult to raise financing with the nonprofit, so it is now being built by The Valor Club Partners, a company formed last year that is controlled by Deutch’s company, Century Pacific Properties, state corporate filings show.

The nonprofit raised roughly $402,000 in 2015 and 2016, according to its IRS filings. It has not yet done any charitable giving, devoting its spending on fundraisin­g and on planning and engineerin­g for the masterplan­ned community, Pedrotti said.

Along with serving as the chairman of the nonprofit, Pedrotti expects to have a stake in the for-profit company that develops the community. There was no conflict between the work that the nonprofit did on behalf of the master-planned community and the revenue the company will make on it, he said.

“The conflict doesn’t exist because one was done without the notion of the other,” he said. “That money was spent to keep the design current and moving forward, before we met Irwin Deutch and before there was anything like a joint venture.”

He said he plans to fund the nonprofit with a portion of the company’s profits. The nonprofit would create an endowment that would be used to subsidize rents for the veterans who live at The Valor Club, he said.

To those who doubt that he will follow through with his promises, Pedrotti has a message: Just wait and see.

“I understand protecting your home turf — I get it, I completely get it. It isn’t our place to come in there and disrupt everybody’s life. It’s our place to come in and do something better,” he said. “And you know what? While we’re doing it, we’re going to serve a group of people that deserves everything we can possibly do.”

 ?? Photos by Robin Jerstad / For the San Antonio Express-News ?? Developer Mike Hogan built Masters Ranch, part of The Valor Club, with a city nonprofit by using federal credits for affordable housing. He says the complex will be an economic catalyst.
Photos by Robin Jerstad / For the San Antonio Express-News Developer Mike Hogan built Masters Ranch, part of The Valor Club, with a city nonprofit by using federal credits for affordable housing. He says the complex will be an economic catalyst.
 ??  ?? Pecan Valley Neighborho­od Associatio­n President Toni Moorhouse (left) and Highland Hills Neighborho­od Associatio­n President Liz Trainor say residents are concerned about the housing density and traffic the complex would bring.
Pecan Valley Neighborho­od Associatio­n President Toni Moorhouse (left) and Highland Hills Neighborho­od Associatio­n President Liz Trainor say residents are concerned about the housing density and traffic the complex would bring.
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