Tenants at the Robert E. Lee earn 60% or less of the area’s median income, making it one of downtown’s few low-income apartment buildings. Credit: Shutterstock / JustPixs

The tenants union for downtown’s Robert E. Lee apartments said they plan to make a “rebuttal” to San Antonio-based developer Weston Urban’s recent bid to buy the historic, low-income property.

“We are aware of Weston Urban’s bid that they put in on Friday,” Robert E. Lee Tenants Union founder Megan Navarro told the Current in an exclusive interview Wednesday. “We have our own plan in place as a rebuttal, so we’re not worried about it.”

Navarro said she’ll disclose more details of the union’s plan later this week.

Provisions of state tax credits provided to the building’s current owner, RELEE Partners, give the building’s tenants or a qualified nonprofit a 90-day window from any buyout offer to place their own bid on the property.

Navarro wouldn’t say whether the union’s “rebuttal” involved putting in such a counteroffer, however.

Weston Urban, which owns a swath of downtown properties, officially placed its bid on the Robert E. Lee last Friday, according to a filing with the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs. The developer offered $2.65 million and also agreed take on an existing $1.7 million loan from the city for the building’s rehabilitation.

The company initially offered $4.35 million for the Robert E. Lee last year, causing panic among tenants, many of whom were previously homeless. In interviews with the Current, residents said they worried the company would force them back onto the streets as it sought to redevelop the property.

Tenants pointed to Weston Urban’s existing plans to demolish another of its low-cost residential properties, the Soap Factory Apartments, to build luxury condos around the San Antonio Missions’ proposed downtown baseball stadium.

The Robert E. Lee, located at 111 W. Travis St., is classified as low-income housing, meaning all residents in the 10-story building earn 60% or less of the area median income.

The tax credits that designate the apartments as low-income expire in 2026, meaning that the building could become a market rate rental property if the new owners don’t renew the credits.

Stay tuned.

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This article appears in Feb 5-18, 2025.

Michael Karlis is a multimedia journalist at the San Antonio Current, whose coverage in print and on social media focuses on local and state politics. He is a graduate of American University in Washington,...