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PRESIDENT’S COLUMN

BY: CARRIE CAESAR

This year has flown by! It has been my honor and privilege to serve as your 2024 President I have thoroughly enjoyed the year and am so proud of everything RECSA has been able to accomplish. It has been a pleasure to meet and get to know so many of our members better.

RECSA is an outstanding organization. Our members are exceptional! Thank you all for your commitment to RECSA.

To our Executive Committee, a very special THANK YOU goes out to you! Your hard work, dedication and commitment is greatly appreciated. I know the countless hours you all have put in and I appreciate your support. I have enjoyed working along side all of you this year – you have made my Presidency so smooth.

And to Stephanie, Magda, Casey and Lauren – WOW, you all are outstanding! RECSA is so lucky to have each one of you –thank you all!

It is a little daunting to be at the helm of such a powerful and active organization, but all the members make it all worthwhile. I look forward to the coming years and seeing all that RECSA continues to accomplish.

I am leaving you all in good hands next year – Trey Dawson will be an incredible Chair and leader

Thank you everyone for the opportunity to serve this year! Happy Holidays and Happy New Year to all of you and best of luck for a strong and successful business in 2025!

THANK YOU CARRIE FOR YOUR INCREDIBLE SERVICE

GOVERNMENT AFFAIRS

BY: AARON PARENICA

Happy Holidays!

Tis the season of progress now with the Presidential campaign circus behind us, the passing of Prop C locally, and my wife Jenni confirming for me that we’re all done with our Christmas shopping with 10 days to spare! All good things to close out the year strong.

If you attended our last program of 2024, State of RECSA, you heard from our DPTF panel that there have been changes in leadership this year in most of the local regulatory agencies If you didn’t attend, you missed a great program!

Whether our industry is seeing a regular change in local leadership, or periodic change, these are important times where RECSA’s engagement and broader relationships prove to be so valuable and so important. A key component of our overall advocacy mission is to promote sustained efficiency and consistency over time, and this is especially important when there are changes in local leadership Ms Reyes and RECSA staff put in a lot of work, as well as SO many volunteers’ year-over- year to develop and maintain key relationships with various levels of leadership in our local partner organizations. These strong, mutually beneficial relationships foster a more stable and consistent regulatory environment for the San Antonio metro area. Thank you to our RECSA staff and volunteers who have influenced this stability through the last few decades!

I want to further highlight our ongoing work with the City of San Antonio Development Services leadership. When we were notified of the City Manager’s decision to reallocate Mr. Shannon’s leadership as the Director of the Development Services Department to the Director of Animal Care Services, our RECSA team very much appreciated the advance notice and took the change in stride. We would never have known this was coming if we didn’t have great relationships and trust already established with City leaders and key staff Building off of that, we were able to hear out and support the leadership moves that the City needed Our RECSA teams worked seamlessly with COSA DSD leaders such as Ms. Melissa Ramirez and Mr. Amin Tohmaz to name a few, to keep the lines of communication open and flowing during this transition. Based on the most recent information from City Leadership, we do expect Mr. Shannon to return to his post as DSD Director in the new year. It is a testament to the work put in by both RECSA volunteers, as well as City Leaders that resulted in no negative impact to our industry amidst this significant leadership change

Looking toward 2025, the first thing that comes to mind is that our State Legislature will be in session. This means we should expect new bills being proposed and debated. RECSA’s role will be to stay ahead of any momentum that may build up around a bill that could negatively impact our industry.

That is a large task, and we’ll need all the help we can get! In parallel, RECSA representatives will also begin working in close partnership with the City of San Antonio’s leadership and designated staff with their focus being more on bills potentially affecting the City’s regulatory authority and processes.

Bird-dogging industry-related bills proposed in Austin will be only one of our priorities for 2025. We also expect to spend a good amount of effort engaging with SAWS and CPS leadership about future planning and development of local infrastructure to keep up with and support our growing metro area We are all so fortunate to be in the San Antonio area, and that fortune continues to attract folks to move here from across the Country and beyond RECSA wants to help promote and support more forwardthinking planning of our local infrastructure for the benefit of our community now, and as it experiences growth into the future.

The collective Government Affairs mission RECSA leads on behalf of our industry takes a massive group effort. So, I would like to extend a thank you. Thank you to the MANY volunteers that stepped up in 2024! Thank you to the countless volunteers who helped our local leaders, boards and committees make more educated and informed decisions by offering our industry experience and expertise Thank you to those who supported all the DPTF meetings, and to our task force Chairs Thank you to everyone who attended any of the special meetings and served on any of the subcommittees throughout the year. THANK YOU!

We’ve been very engaged through 2024, and we will continue stay engaged through 2025. On behalf of RECSA staff and volunteers, it is a pleasure to serve alongside you all as we continue to support the growth of our City for the greatest benefit of our community

PROGRAMS

BY: ALICIA WAKELY

RECSA partnered with ULI San Antonio to host the first ever Joint Real Estate Forum at the Intercontinental Hotel The event focused on examining the latest trends, strategies, risks, and opportunities within the real estate sector in San Antonio. It aimed to bring together leading decision-makers, industry experts, and innovative thinkers to share insights and discuss the future of economic development, infrastructure, and housing. We had more than 300 attendees! We hope to make next year’s event even better..

In November, RECSA hosted the Philip M. Barshop Founder’s Award Luncheon Ed Whitacre Jr. (former Chairman and CEO of GM and AT&T) and John T. Montford (former chancellor of Texas Tech University and former senior advisor of government relations and public policy to GM) discussed Ed’s turnaround of GM after its bankruptcy, his upbringing, and his work growing AT&T Congratulations to Rob Killen for being awarded the Philip M. Barshop Founder’s Award! Thank you to our sponsors, Embrey, Independent Financial, and Sol Schwartz.

In December, partnering with CCIM and Corenet, we hosted the Holiday Party at Pearl where we hosted over 150 attendees Thank you to Joeris and The Pearl for sponsoring the event.

The State of RECSA Breakfast on December 11, 2024 was well attended at the San Antonio Botanical Garden Attendees heard from our legislative consultant, Mignon McGarry about the latest updates from the Texas Capital Rob Killen spoke about the local political landscape ahead of the 2025 municipal elections.

To close out the event, we heard from panelists on RECSA’s panelists on the 2024 and 2025 advocacy efforts and committee updates Thank you Killen, Griffin, and Farrimond for their support of the State of RECSA.

MEMBERSHIP

BY: LAURA GILLILAND

As we wrap up an outstanding year, I would like to thank our members for your support and dedication to this great organization. The many successes we have seen this year would not have been possible without each of you and we are thrilled to report that have welcomed 37 NEW MEMBERS in 2024!

In addition, a sincere thank you goes out to Lauren Gonzalez, RECSA’s Director of Member Engagement and to our Membership Committee for their tireless efforts to grow and strengthen the organization throughout the year. This group’s hard work, vision and creativity has been instrumental in ensuring that our members receive meaningful benefits and opportunities to network, learn, and have a voice in important policy discussions affecting our industry

Looking ahead to 2025, we are excited to continue maximizing the value of membership benefits and providing even more opportunities for connection and growth

Some key highlights from this year include:

Well-attended quarterly member mixers that fostered networking opportunities. Two successful membership recruitment luncheons that helped expand our growth

A fantastic new member mixer that allowed us to welcome and engage those newest members.