How a historic power plant became New Braunfels’ most luxurious residence

It’s easy to think of the riverside lofts as just another marker of New Braunfels’ rapid growth. But the hulking brick building once powered the city — literally. Before the lofts, long before the saunas, resident socials and luxury living, the structure was the Comal Power Plant, an industrial engine that shaped the city’s modern footprint.

The Landmark today reads as a historic-to-luxury apartment complex with panoramic views of the Comal Canal and Landa Park, exposed brick walls and slick concrete or wood-style floors and kitchens fitted with granite counters, marble vanities and energy-efficient appliances.

Garden-style units come with a 6,000-square-foot club room and an outdoor deck that hangs over the Comal River, while shared spaces add a negative-edge pool, spa rooms and a 24-hour fitness center. Trails, parkland and the city’s growing leisure amenities sit just outside the door. It fits the lifestyle image New Braunfels is increasingly known for.

“The Comal Power Plant remains a prominent fixture of the New Braunfels skyline and a significant link to the city’s industrial era. As a site listed on the National Register of Historic Places, it serves as a tangible reminder of our collective history, providing a sense of continuity and character as the local landscape continues to evolve,” Katie Totman, the City of New Braunfels Historic Preservation Officer, said in a statement to MySA. 

The story begins in 1860, when Joseph and Helena Landa purchased a flour mill on the Comal Canal and expanded into electricity. Their Landa Power Plant brought the first electric lights to New Braunfels. In 1925, the Landa family sold the operation to the Comal Power Company, which immediately began construction on what became the Comal Power Plant, then one of the largest coal-fired generating stations west of the Mississippi, according to 2004 documents.

When operations began in 1926, the plant didn’t just illuminate New Braunfels and San Antonio; it tied into grids reaching east of the Rocky Mountains and later helped electrify rural farms under Franklin Roosevelt.

Through the 1940s, the plant ran nonstop as the nation entered World War II. Blackout orders sealed windows to prevent light leaks, and a fourth boiler was installed in 1941 to support the war effort. In 1947, the Lower Colorado River Authority gained control of the power plant, purchasing the facility from the City of San Antonio in 1971, according to documents, and continued operating it through droughts, floods and the 1970s energy crisis until the plant ceased operations in 1973.

After nearly three decades of vacancy, the Lower Colorado River Authority remediated the site, which was then purchased and redeveloped into lofts and garden apartments. The building is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places and carries the Texas Historical Commission’s Recorded Texas Historic Landmark designation.

The Lower Colorado River Authority completed a nine-year, $11.5 million environmental remediation of the Comal Power Plant and its surrounding land in 1999.

“This is not a remodeling job,” project manager Jeff Singleton told the Austin Chronicle in 2000. “It’s a remediation. We’re turning a liability into an asset for the LCRA, New Braunfels and the state of Texas.”

In 2004, the building earned a spot on the National Register of Historic Places and became a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark.

Developer Larry Peel later acquired the site and reimagined it as Landmark Lofts & Garden, preserving the industrial bones, while adding landscaped garden apartments across the grounds. The turbine room became loft units, and modern amenities like a negative-edge pool, fitness center, sauna and outdoor decks now sit above the same Comal River that once cooled machinery and ferried workers to and from the plant.

Today, the Landmark operates as a modern residential community with panoramic views of Landa Park and the canal. For residents, the Landmark functions as a lifestyle address, close to the parks and downtown New Braunfels that have helped define it as one of Texas’ fastest-growing cities. For preservationists, it stands as proof that the city’s industrial past can coexist with its modern boom.

And for all, it’s a reminder that New Braunfels didn’t grow just by charm and tourism, but by power, grit and infrastructure that quietly shaped the Hill Country.

Find it: 144 Landa St., New Braunfels, TX 78130