Tyler Williams isn’t much older than many of the students you see around campus, 28 to be exact. With that in mind, it’s a little surprising to discover that he is already brokering land deals with his alma mater, Texas State. Tyler is young, ambitious and willing to take a few risks. Most of the deals he creates were never on the market to begin with. His creativity, aggressiveness and courage to try anything might just be the spark San Marcos needs to get its fuse burning. Tyler first entered the world of real estate at the age of 19 doing apartment locating at Great Locations here in San Marcos. After graduating from Texas State in 2007 with a Business Administration and Marketing degree, Tyler applied his experience from working with apartments to selling condos, duplexes and small apartment complexes. Since 2007, Tyler’s career has progressed into the residential, land and commercial realm. Tyler’s passion comes from a desire to improve the overall quality of the city. He loves giving old, rundown buildings a facelift and taking on the difficult, but worthwhile, challenges. For instance, if you spend any time on the square, you can thank Tyler for turning an eyesore into what is now The Rooftop. Tyler is actually high school buddies with the owner of The Rooftop, who also owns The Rooftop on 6th St. and has his hands in other bars around Austin. When Tyler got the call that his friend wanted to open a bar in downtown San Marcos, they ran into some problems. “There was really nothing on the market that was price reasonable for what they wanted to do, but then we noticed an old, dilapidated building, it was a complete
eye soar… eventually we came to an agreement to buy the building and that’s where they are now,” says Tyler. Another major deal Tyler recently constructed involved selling 5 acres of land off of Thorpe Ln to Texas State. The long term goal of the deal is to solve parking issues on game day while simultaneously improving accommodations for nearby residents. Tyler worries that if we don’t prepare for the growth, it will cause major problems in the future. He says, “It’s like Austin ten years ago when they said, ‘If we don’t build it, they won’t come.’ Well, they came and now they have this huge traffic problem. San Marcos has traffic problems already. I think that managed growth is the only way you can really curb that…I think increasing development around campus will be better than out on I-35. Think about it, if you have students who can walk to campus, they are going to reduce a lot of the traffic. If developments are shot down near the campus then they go to the exterior parts of the city. It’s just going to create more bus traffic, more car traffic.” In order for positive growth to occur in San Marcos, Tyler suggests that developers, residents and city council have to learn to see eye-toeye. They need to be creative and come to an agreement that works best for the population as a whole. San Marcos is unique in the fact that it is environmentally sensitive, but if everyone can learn to work together and make the necessary sacrifices, proper development can occur.
03.13 | SMTX | BOBCATFANS