TONY MARTINEZ

Thanks to the start of the school year, more college students rented apartments in San Antonio in the third quarter, boosting occupancy rates from the second quarter.

But the second quarter was one of the worst in years, and the third quarter occupancy rate actually fell about 1 percent compared with the third quarter a year ago.

The occupancy rate climbed about 2 points to 91 percent from the second quarter, according to numbers from RealFacts, an apartment research firm.

“I think there are some good things going on in the economy, but also the third quarter historically is a stronger quarter than the others in San Antonio,” said Steve Monroe, first vice president with CB Richard Ellis in San Antonio. “So we would expect to see an uptick normally this time of year.”

Much of that is attributable to college students returning to San Antonio for the fall semester and renting apartments, Monroe said.

New units that came online during the second quarter of this year increased vacancy, helping make it the worst quarter in years for the city's multifamily real estate market, said Jason Brumm, associate vice president with Grubb & Ellis Co. in San Antonio. In the second half of the year, the number of new units coming online has fallen, Brumm said.

“A lot of the unit development right now is nonexistent,” he said. “It's slowed down because (developers) can't get construction loans.”

With fewer vacant units hitting the market, occupancy increased in the third quarter, Brumm said. However, RealFacts only takes into account new complexes of 100 units or more that rent at market rate.

Of the 33 metropolitan areas RealFacts surveyed, 29 reported an increase in occupancy. Nationally, the average monthly rent fell almost 4 percent in the third quarter to $965. Average monthly rent in San Antonio, now at $725, fell less than half a percentage point from the second quarter of this year and registered a mere 0.1 percent decrease from this time last year.

San Antonio had the cheapest rent of Texas' four largest metropolitan areas. Austin was the most expensive with an average rent of $852 per month. Houston followed at $791 and then Dallas-Fort Worth at $781.

“You know rents are really flat, and we may say they're down,” Monroe said of San Antonio. “I think they're down like a dollar from a year ago ... and while our vacancy's higher than we'd like it to be, it's really not that bad.”

Landlords are making deals to get tenants into their apartments, and that accounts for the slight decrease in rent costs.

Monroe said between 75 percent and 80 percent of apartments in San Antonio are offering concessions, generally in the form of free rent. The standard for this area, he said, would be about 50 percent to 60 percent of properties offering concessions.

“If you see higher occupancy, you should see rent rates going up,” Monroe said. “We have not seen that yet, and I think it's because occupancy needs to rise another couple of points.”

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The NBA is taking a more comprehensive approach to building its Hispanic fan base, and San Antonio will be right in the middle of it.

The new marketing campaign called éne-bé-a will feature San Antonio Spurs fan favorite Manu Ginobili in its promotions, much of which is being designed in San Antonio by Bromley Communications.

“We're absolutely thrilled to have the business,” said Jessica Pantanini, Bromley's chief operating officer. “People need to be aware of the excitement and the potential for them to participate in the sport. We want them playing it and going to games and watching it on television and going online.”

While neither the NBA nor Bromley would disclose the size of the contract, NBA Commissioner David Stern called it a “several-million-dollar campaign” that both consolidates existing outreach efforts and expands those activities with radio and television advertising and a Web site aimed at Hispanic audiences.

Merchandising, including a T-shirt containing the éne-bé-a brand, also will be available.

“Our marketing department advised me it's time to take the next step,” said Stern.

The league's appeal has been growing in the Latino community, and Stern called the marketing campaign “an accelerant we're using to grow it even more.”

The NBA currently estimates about 15 percent of its fan base is Hispanic. But with Hispanics expected to make up about 30 percent of the U.S. population by 2050, the league wants to make sure its appeal grows along with the population.

The marketing campaign “engages the fan base we currently have, while building the fan base long term,” said Saskia Sorrosa, the NBA's senior director of U.S. Hispanic marketing.

The new campaign will consolidate a variety of marketing efforts that already existed piecemeal throughout the league — television and radio broadcasts of NBA games in Spanish, in-arena programs including Noche Latina events in March that feature special team uniforms with Spanish-tinged names and community activities like one that renovates basketball courts in Hispanic neighborhoods.

Bromley has been developing the advertising in both English and Spanish that began with short teaser ads during pre-season games Monday. Thirty-second éne-bé-a spots will be broadcast on opening day next Tuesday.

Pantanini said Ginobili, a Spurs guard from Argentina, will be used in the advertising along with some of the 24 other NBA players with Latin American or Spanish ties.

Also appearing will be NBA stars from the United States and elsewhere who have universal appeal. Sorrosa said Hispanic fans have an emotional connection with Hispanic players but also love established stars from the United States and the campaign will recognize that.

Latino fans, while not expecting special treatment, do want to know “that you understand me, you get me,” Pantanini said. The marketing campaign attempts to do that under a brand that reflects how the “NBA” is said in Spanish.

She said Bromley's insights into the Hispanic marketplace should help the league accomplish its goals.

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The San Antonio economy, while stunted by a prolonged recession, continues to outperform other Texas cities as it prepares for a growth spurt expected to begin next year, two reports released Thursday argue.

The growth is not likely to be strong, and it may not start before midyear. But unless a new economic crisis arises, San Antonio's workers and businesses should avoid much of the pain other cities have felt, officials with the Greater San Antonio Chamber of Commerce said.

“People are starting to realize that San Antonio's insulation (from the recession) is gone,” Richard Perez, president of the chamber, said. “But still, there's a sense of ‘Thank God we're in San Antonio.'”

The chamber released its quarterly economic forecast on the same day the Texas comptroller's office issued a Texas in Focus analysis of the 19-county Alamo region stretching from the Hill Country through San Antonio to the coast at Port Lavaca.

Both studies reaffirm the image of the San Antonio area as a dependable economic force that should help the state right itself from the downturn that lasted more than a year.

“The outlook for the Alamo region is promising,” the comptroller's assessment said. “Its educational opportunities and tourism industry should buttress its economic growth, as will its vibrant health care sector.”

The report predicts employment in the region will have grown 23 percent from 2003 to 2013, with key contributions from the educational and health care sectors, along with construction. The growth is similar to that expected for the state over the decade, the report said.

The chamber's quarterly assessment said a global recovery already has started and a national upturn is anticipated next year, though a weakened job market and credit problems could keep it from being strong.

San Antonio's economic performance this year was the strongest of the five largest cities in Texas, according to the report's Business Cycle Index Trend, which measures changes in indicators including sales tax revenues and single-family home prices.

Travis Tullos, an economist with Texas Perspectives Inc. and chairman of the committee that compiled the report, said San Antonio's business cycle score, while down from past levels, was one other states “would kill to have.”

San Antonio's job count began shrinking this year after a nearly five-year expansion, and sales tax revenues fell 5.9 percent this year through July compared with the same period last year. That was the smallest sales tax decline of any major Texas city except Houston, which slipped by 4 percent.

But with companies such as Medtronic Diabetes and Toyota hiring workers in San Antonio and foreign investors showing interest in the city, optimism is likely to return to the area by the second half of next year, Perez said.

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