Nearly every street in the Lone Star Neighborhood shows the rapid changes as developers move in to erect new builds or renovate, with a modern twist, historic buildings. (Zachary-Taylor Wright/MySA)

The slow crawl of San Antonio's downtown continues. As historic buildings convert into restaurants, apartments or storefronts in the city's core, diamonds in the rough further south are becoming quite the draw for developers. The measured pace to expand Southtown into the true Southside is evidenced by the Lone Star neighborhood – a place where a mix of generational homes and decades-old businesses abutting flashy new remodels and glass and steel builds.

Lone Star is a massive area. Every agency across the city seems to have a different idea of where its borders lie. But the official neighborhood association boundary has a southern border along Theo Street (about 10 blocks south of Highway 90), is contained on the east by the San Antonio River up to South Alamo Street and a western border along South Flores Street – a street it splits east-west with the historic Collins Gardens neighborhood.

The old Lone Star Brewery, on Lone Star Boulevard, is undoubtedly how the neighborhood name came to stick. But even with the beermaker ceasing operations, the neighborhood is becoming a destination in its own right.

Further south on South Flores are more legacy businesses still standing untouched by the southern sprawl of Southtown into Lone Star. (Zachary-Taylor Wright/MySA)

"Lone Star is cool, though, because it's that next thing," Urban Texan Realty owner Patrick Vallejo told MySA. "Not everybody can attain King William, right? But you've got things like Kutzler Brewery that are built into the neighborhood. That's a cool part of San Antonio. You don't see that in very many places."

Vallejo is one of a small group that are really shaping the neighborhoods south of downtown. He and a small group of developer friends are behind renovations taking place. Vallejo was also quick to point to San Antonio Gold which serves up fresh takes on classic coffees along South Flores, and restaurants like La Tuna Icehouse off Probandt Street and Leche de Tigre as early adopters bringing fresh life to Lone Star.

However, this boom hasn't reached every corner of the neighborhood.

The southern borders of the Lone Star Neighborhood are far less commercial and populated by historic homes. (Zachary-Taylor Wright/MySA)

The southwestern portion of Lone Star, south of where I-10 splits the boundaries nearly in half, is predominantly owned by the imposing and sprawling Burbank High School campus. Its stadium, classrooms and facilities span sever city blocks in each direction, flanked on every side by aging homes you can tell have been there for generations.

Though development other than the school is limited, the neighborhood is alive and well. On any given day, you can find folks pedaling their wares, including clothing and home decor, from their fence lines just across from where the 9-foot fences around the SAISD campus loom.

Though, just a short trip to the east a mile or so, and you hit South Flores - the commercial lifeblood of neighborhoods south of Downtown. While it's easy to assume Southtown spurred the commercial sprawl along South Flores many of these aren't new businesses.

Several businesses have been standing for decades in the Lone Star Neighborhood as new businesses renovate historic structures and move in. (Zachary-Taylor Wright/MySA)

The eastern border of the neighborhood follows the winding path of the San Antonio River which certainly must contribute to the healthy variation of plant life adorning homes on the southern end of the neighborhood - a place of eclectic architecture styles, though small bungalows with iron details are most common.

But tucked away in a corner you'd maybe never turn stand's an imposing three-story building with so many ties to San Antonio's rich history and development as a mainstay in design. At the corner of Regent and East Glenn Avenue is the old Voss Metal Works, a building first erected in 1883 and expanded by the new metal worker inhabitant in 1930. It's the company behind a lot of famous works in San Antonio, like the massive, two-story chandelier in the Aztec Theatre. Today, it's a private home towering over its neighbors' bungalows.

The old Voss Metal Works building in the Lone Star Neighborhood has been converted into a private residence, spanning three stories and thousands of square feet. (Zachary-Taylor Wright/MySA)

Likely not by coincidence, the further north up South Flores - and the closer to swanky new steel-frame builds and large glass storefronts - the more freshly renovated homes you find. Glossy layers of fresh paint (often in the highly recognizable San Antonio color schemes) populate the more densely commercial street north of the I-10 split. It's here you'll also find the influx of modern housing builds that next door to generational homes in the blocks east of South Flores and west of the San Antonio River.

The neighborhood here is disconnected from the banks of the San Antonio River. A string of industrial facilities stand between residents and the river, including the old Lone Star Brewery factory, CMC Recycling, Texas Towing, Bee Trucking and Federal International.

The Wong Grocery Company building is an iconic structure where the imaginary bounds of Southtown overlap with the very real northern neighborhood borders of Lone Star. (Zachary-Taylor Wright/MySA)

But there's a history of industrial facilities along the stretches of the Lone Star neighborhood.

"Abandoned industrial sites are giving way to new high density loft apartments, professional offices, and restaurants," a Lone Star community plan crafted by the City of San Antonio in 2013 reads. "This transformation is extending the traditional boundary of San Antonio's Downtown south along the San Antonio River and five major arterials including South Presa, Roosevelt, Probandt, South Flores, and Nogalitos."

Several businesses have been standing for decades in the Lone Star Neighborhood as new businesses renovate historic structures and move in. (Zachary-Taylor Wright/MySA)