Category: News

The $3.6 million project will increase the capacity of Medio Creek, remove 23 homes from the hundred-year flood plain and make streets safer by providing non-flooded access to nearby neighborhoods during major rain events. Project designs unveiled to attract choice employers to Brooks City Base Improvements will also be made under the Ellison Road Bridge so that more water can flow underneath. The Medio Creek project is expected to be complete by early 2018. It was funded through the county flood-control program, which is a 10-year capital-improvement program that launched in 2007.

 

The San Antonio Business Journal announces the winners of its 2017 40 Under 40 awards. This year’s recipients will be recognized at a dinner event on Feb. 16 at the Norris Conference Center.

The 2017 40 Under 40 class was chosen by a panel of former 40 Under 40 winners. With more than 175 nominations received, paring the list to 40 was difficult.

During the event on Feb. 16, the Business Journal will announce the 40 Under 40 Man of the Year and 40 Under 40 Woman of the Year, who will be chosen by the judges in a secret ballot.

Here are the winners, in alphabetical order:

Click here to register to attend the 40 Under 40 event, or contact the Business Journal’s event staff at [email protected] or 210-477-0855.

The San Antonio Business Journal is releasing its first time list of private companies, ranked by the gross local revenue in 2015. Only those that completed the 2016 survey were included on this year’s list.

Gross Local Revenue 2015: $65.18 million

Gross Local Revenue 2014: $42.98 million

Change: 51.67%

Total Number of All Local Employees: 282

Top Local Executive: Mike Yantis

Percentage of Business Privately Owned: 100%

Names of Primary Owners: Mike Yantis, Mike Yantis Jr, Matt Yantis, Arnold Briones

Total Number of Local Full Time Employees: 282

Number of Local Offices: 1

 

Much of Texas was deluged in the month of May by pounding, relentless rains — up to 20 inches, in some locales — causing dangerous, rushing flooding that has washed away cars, and even some trains. And it’s not just central Texas that’s been affected. Much of the eastern half of the state, along with parts of southern Oklahoma and southwestern Louisiana, were under flash-flood warnings and watches.

Fast forward to the month of August, we’ve received over 11 inches of rain in some areas, adding to the already historic amounts of rain received this year.

The Yantis family has been involved with the Alamo Bowl since the first game in 1993.  The bowl started as literally the least ranked bowl in college football, but has grown over the years to be arguably the seventh best bowl in college football.  It now features premier teams from the Big 12 Conference and Pac 12 Conference.  Schools such as Texas A&M, the University of Texas, Texas Tech, Baylor, TCU, University of Oregon, University of Michigan, Ohio State and many other prominent programs.

John Yantis served on the Board of Directors for many years and was the Chairman of the 2007 game which featured his alma mater Texas A&M against Penn State.  The year that John was Chairman he helped recruit Valero to take over as the title sponsor.  The 2007 game also still stands as the record attendance for a football game at the Alamo Dome with 65,380 fans.

Mike Yantis, Jr. joined the Alamo Bowl board in 2010 and served on the Team Selection Committee and as the Chair of the Philanthropic Committee.  While Chair of the Philanthropic Committee, the bowl contributed an extra $500,000 in scholarships over a two year period compared to past year’s budget.  Mike Jr was named the Chair of the 2015 Alamo Bowl which featured an epic triple overtime game in which TCU overcame a 31 point halftime deficit to defeat Oregon.  ESPN has called the game one of the greatest comebacks in the history of college football.  While Mike was Chair the bowl also extended a long term partnership with ESPN and bid on a College Football National Championship Game.

Previous Chairs include Bill Greehey, Ernesto Ancira, Pat Frost, and Gene Dawson

 

The Lookout Group’s Esperanza located in Boerne, Texas.
Video taken on May 28, 2015.
Site work and Utilities Construction by Yantis Company.

 

Stephanie Guzman- San Antonio Business Journal

SABJ Cover

Esperanza — the latest large-scale, master-planned community coming to a northern San Antonio suburb — seems aptly named.

Translated as “hope,” business, government and economic development leaders in Boerne are hoping for different things from it.

Bill Hinckley, president of The Lookout Group, the developer of Esperanza, is hoping his company’s considerable investment and risk will pay off the way his even larger master-planned community north of Austin has.

At 1,240 acres, Esperanza is set to bring 2,480 homes to Boerne. It would be the largest such development in Kendall County, according to Hinckley. Esperanza was approved by Boerne in 2007, but it stalled due to the recession. Houston-based The Lookout Group picked up the project in 2013 and received final approval from the city in May of last year.

Dan Rogers, president and CEO of the Kendall County Economic Development Corp., meanwhile, is hopeful that this master-planned community will help Boerne create a more self-sufficient economy and attract startups and medical-related industries such as health care and medical device manufacturing.

Yet growth presents a number of challenges for cities, from water supply and transportation issues to how a school district grows without the upfront funding that new students bring. There’s also existential questions that arise, such as how to keep a small town’s identity intact.
Master-planned communities can offer advantages to small towns like Boerne, though, when compared to subdivisions that can fail to address the needs of a growing community because individual subidivisions often don’t plan for their cumulative impact, Rogers said.

Esperanza, for example, will bring two new schools, city-owned parks, $2.3 million toward road improvements and the transfer of significant water rights to Boerne — as well as space allocated for commercial and retail development. And to ease residents’ anxieties, Hinckley made a point to incorporate Boerne’s existing look and feel into Esperanza.

Despite the benefits of a master-planned community, Hinckley also noted that there are few of what he considers “true master-planned communities” in Kendall County — he said Esperanza will be the first in Boerne — because they’re costly to build.

“Master plans are extremely front loaded with multimillion-dollar costs before the first home is built. It takes patient money,” Hinckley said. “This approach is not for the faint at heart.”

Fostering economic independence

Some bedroom communities are growing so much, they are essentially building their second bedroom. Others are steering toward a different path, one of economic viability with industry of its own.

Boerne is just one of the towns in the San Antonio area pondering its direction. Much like cities up the I-35 corridor, Kendall County is now considering what it wants to become, as land inventory dwindles around Loop 1604 and development marches further north up I-10.
The Kendall County EDC was created in response to this development in 2006 after key community leaders saw the 2000 boom and wanted to better manage growth.

Rogers’ office is in Boerne, where he studies Kendall County’s demographics. There are several key statistics he noted that make Kendall County and Boerne economically viable.

The county’s average age continues to decrease as young families move to Kendall County because of its school districts, in contrast to most Hill Country towns that see an increase in retirees. And those living in Kendall County are educated. Almost 40 percent of adults in Kendall County hold bachelor’s degrees, the fifth-highest percentage in the state, according to research by Indiana University. All those factors bode well for businesses and the potential for Esperanza to foster economic independence rather than increasing bedroom community status.

Currently, of the county’s 18,000-person workforce, 58 percent leave the county and head south toward San Antonio for employment. If Boerne could keep just some of those workers in town, it would mean more dollars spent at home, more business taxes for the city and county, and less pressure on highways and roads.

Boerne’s population sits at about 12,400 people. Though Esperanza is the largest development in terms of homes proposed for Boerne, it isn’t the only one. Another four subdivisions are also in early development phases. Regional experts predict that by the time all these projects are built out, Boerne will add another 5,000 homes and 12,000 residents.

“When you put it all together, there’s a whole other Boerne in state of development right now,” said Jeff Thompson, Boerne’s deputy city manager and director of economic development.

Faring better in a tough economy

Hinckley wasted no time in getting Esperanza going. Yantis Co., a San Antonio-based land developer, has already cleared parts of the property to make way for rudimentary dirt roads, utility lines, and sewer and water pipes.

What will rise out of the thicket will eventually include a fire station, a 23-acre city park, a recreation center, 35 acres of commercial property, 340 acres of open space and a 15-mile hiking trail.

Master-planned communities usually fare better than the typical subdivision, Hinckley said, even in tough economic times. Consider his even larger development, the 5,000-acre master-planned community called Crystal Falls in Leander, a town just north of Austin. That development has consistently topped the nation’s 50 best-selling communities list.

While master-planned communities are abundant in states such as California and Florida, as well as some Texas cities including Houston and Dallas, their profile is just rising in San Antonio, Hinckley said.

Rogers is OK with master-planned communities coming into Kendall County, because master-planned communities such as Esperanza provide a mechanism to get ahead of problems.

“Some people say ‘If you don’t build it, they won’t come,’” Rogers said. “Well they are coming, and somebody is going to come to your town, too.”

Last week, Yantis Company hosted a barbecue for over 200 employees at our shop location. Our own Reb Hamiliton, prepared his famous brisket and sausage for everyone who attended. Thank you, Reb!

Yantis Company held the barbecue to show our appreciation to all of our employees and the excellent work they do on a day to day basis. This year is turning out to be great year for the company and we wouldn’t be able to do it without our dedicated team.

The Valero Alamo Bowl announced its officers who will oversee this year’s Valero Alamo Bowl and its Community Festival of Events. Lynette Padalecki succeeds Pat Frost as chairman of the Valero Alamo Bowl’s Board of Directors.

A board member since 2008, Padalecki is Group Vice President, Corporate Financial Planning for HEB Grocery Company. She is a Certified Public Accountant and since joining HEB in 1994, has served in several leadership positions providing strategic financial support across the company. She is also a newly appointed board member for the Brighton Center and former United Way Chair for HEB.

“Lynette has been an active Board member and an invaluable resource for the bowl in many ways, ranging from finance to philanthropy”, said Derrick Fox, President/CEO of the Valero Alamo Bowl. “Her passion for our community, scholarships and college football, coupled with her leadership skills will make her a tremendous Chairman.”

The other officers for 2014 include:

  • Mike Yantis, Jr., President, Yantis Company as Chair-Elect;
  • Derrick Fox, CEO of the Valero Alamo Bowl, President;
  • Mike Chapman, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, Security Service Federal Credit Union, Treasurer
  • Lamont Jefferson, Partner, Haynes & Boone, Secretary;
  • The Valero Alamo Bowl also announced the following additions to their Board of Directors: Steve Arnold, Area President of Wells Fargo Bank; Daniel Ortiz, Attorney, Brown & Ortiz, P.C.; Randy C. Smith, President of Weston Urban;
  • Charlie Strickland, Vice President Corporate Finance of Holt; Greg Tunnel, Vice President of KB Homes and Jason T. Wallace, Chief Strategy Officer, Partner of Contingent Macro Advisors, LLP.

The game date for the 2014 Valero Alamo Bowl will be announced by the end of April. Persons interested in game tickets can go to www.alamobowl.com to join the bowl’s priority ticket list now to be eligible for this year’s presale.

About The Bowl

The Valero Alamo Bowl is an annual post-season collegiate game played in the 65,000 seat Alamodome in San Antonio. The game is annually broadcast on ESPN and features teams from the Big 12 and Pac-12 conferences.

From 2014-2019, there are six bowls that will host the conference champions, at-large teams and semi-finals games as part of the new College Football Playoff. The Valero Alamo Bowl is now the #1 bowl outside of that structure and will feature the top available teams from the Big 12 and Pac-12 conferences.

Last year a standing room only crowd of 65,918 attended the 2013 Valero Alamo Bowl to watch Oregon’s win over Texas marking the game’s second highest attendance of all-time, third sellout in a row and the sixth capacity crowd in the last eight years.

Over 7.5 million viewers watched the 2013 game making it ESPN’s 8th most-watched non-BCS bowl game of all-time. The Valero Alamo Bowl has now produced seven of the Top 20 Most-Watched Non-BCS Bowl Games in ESPN history