‘CLOSER THAN EVER’

Skyline: After years, a planned Southeast Side veterans community is inching forward.

In 2012, operators of the Pecan Valley Golf Club shuttered the Southeast Side course and announced plans to turn it into a “work, live, play” community geared toward veterans. They dubbed it the Valor Club.

The decision — and the compromise and zoning changes that followed — angered neighbors, saddened the golf community and hurt Councilwoman Leticia Ozuna’s bid for re-election.

In the years since, the project’s leadership has changed, the master plan has been modified and an apartment complex initially tied to it has been dropped. Today, the land is still vacant and the course overgrown, but plans for the first residences are moving forward. Building out the community will take years.

“It’s such an enormous project in size, scope and impact that it takes awhile to really get it moving,” said attorney James Griffin, who represents Valor Club Partners LLC, the ownership group. “But it’s closer now than it ever was.”

Valor Club Partners LLC is affiliated with Beverly Hillsbased multifamily developer Irwin Deutch and his company, Century Pacific Properties. Deutch said his son, Bill Deutch,

who created a television show named “Hiring America” that focuses on veterans seeking jobs, inspired him to get involved with the Valor Club.

Foresight Golf President Dan Pedrotti Jr., who came up with the idea, and local developer Mike Hogan are no longer involved. Pedrotti set up a nonprofit organization for the development but struggled to get financing, and Deutch’s company took over.

And Masters Ranch — an apartment complex Hogan built at 3435 E. Southcross Blvd. through a partnership with the

San Antonio Housing Trust Public Facility Corp. — is no longer affiliated with Valor Club.

Plans for the project still call for more than 1,400 residential units, on-site support services, a golf course and recreational facilities on more than 200 acres.

A small food market and trails connected to the Salado Creek greenway system are in the works, and a hotel and amphitheater could be built later, Deutch said. But those aren’t immediate priorities.

A retirement center and a Paralympic training center are

not part of the building program any longer, at least in the near term.

Providing housing, educational and vocational services, and wellness facilities to help transitioning service members, veterans and their families adjust to civilian life is the primary focus, said Michael McDowell, CEO of Valor Club Partners and a U.S. Marine Corps. veteran. He wrote his doctoral dissertation on the Valor Club model.

McDowell is pursuing partnerships with government agencies, companies and education entities. Bringing in retail and other businesses is also a consideration.

The goal is for the residences — which will include singlefamily houses — to be predominantly occupied by veterans and their families, Deutch said. The development’s facilities could also be used by neighbors and schools.

“We’re hoping that our project will be very much an integral part of the whole community,” he said.

The development could cost from $250 million to $300 million — a figure McDowell calls a “guesstimate.” Training will be tailored to individual residents, who will be assessed as they go through programs and after graduating.

But all that is dependent on residential development moving forward.

“The linchpin is the housing piece,” McDowell said.

Valor Club Partners is seeking to partner with the housing trust to build 324 apartments on about 20 vacant acres south of

William Luther / Staff photographer More than 1,400 residential units, on-site support services, a golf course and recreational facilities remain in the plans for the Valor Club at the former Pecan Valley Golf Club.