Born in Eagle Pass, Texas in 1984, José A. Niño grew up on both sides of the US-Mexico border, routinely traversing between the two countries multiple times a day. His grandparents owned and operated businesses in Piedras Negras, Coahuila, Mexico and he credits them with infusing his DNA with entrepreneurial genes.

Since an early age José showed a proclivity for constructing structures from Legos and K’Nex, creating structures that spanned the length of household rooms and reached the ceilings. He competed in intramural and Gifted & Talented competitions, science fairs, achieved recognition for scholastic performance and received the U.S. Presidential Award for his performance in TAAS, the state standardized equivalency test.

After graduating from Eagle Pass High School, José moved to San Antonio and enrolled at UTSA in the engineering program. After 2 years, he discovered a stronger affinity for architecture and transferred to UTSA’s School of Architecture, where he flourished as a designer and interned for architecture firms in California, traveling back and forth between semesters. During his sophomore year, he competed in the architecture school’s Intramural Design Competition and placed 4th of 120 students with an entry portraying his vision for a Mercado in downtown San Antonio on the banks of the San Antonio River. As José approached graduation, he was offered a full-time position at a local architecture firm, Debra Dockery Architects. The firm concentrated in commercial construction for government entities including the City of San Antonio, Bexar County, the State of Texas, and Joint Base San Antonio. During his tenure at Debra Dockery Architects, he improved his professional skills, learned how to manage projects, manage teams, and win service contract awards.

In 2013, Jose began to question his career in architecture and design, doubting its long-term value and career growth opportunities. He believed his experience in architecture and construction was valuable, but he understood that as a developer he could give more to the community than as a designer. Shortly thereafter, he began to offer services as a freelance project manager to small businesses and investors. Wanting to improve his financial skill sets and business know how, in 2014, José applied to UTSA’s MBA program concentrating in Real Estate Finance and was admitted for the fall semester. Not one to waste any time, he petitioned the school to allow him to begin immediately and started coursework for the summer semester.

Late in the evening on October 5th, 2014, Jose reached out to Mr. David Adelman, a prominent San Antonio developer he had met 7 years prior and asked Adelman if he would become his mentor. What began as a series of email exchanges evolved into regular bi-monthly 4-hour conversations of everything real estate. In December 2014, during one of their sessions, Adelman suggested José begin his own development company, José acquiesced to the idea and began to outline a plan and schedule for starting his own development firm. By late January, José gave 2 months’ notice at his place of employment, notifying them he would be leaving for an opportunity that he couldn’t miss.

At the end of March, he left the firm and by early May had founded Urban Capital Strategies. Within a month after that, José and David had found their first deal together and AREA Real Estate capitalized the deal capitulating Urban Capital Strategies into an operating development company. From there Urban Capital Strategies snowballed and took on projects small and large for other investors needing development management services and businesses needing project management services.

Urban Capital Strategies continues to provide services to established developers, builders, and seasoned investors. Since beginning his career in real estate development, José regularly meets industry leaders to learn from and work with them. He hopes to one day be an equal and a major player in the region, not as a competitor but as a colleague and friend standing shoulder to shoulder with industry titans.