San Antonio-grown Armadillo Boulders appears ready to add something its existing gyms were built around doing without: ropes. A new project named Armadillo Top Rope calls for a 23,591-square-foot climbing and fitness facility immediately beside the company’s relatively new Stone Oak gym.
The planned building at 23130 U.S. Highway 281 N. carries a $5.5 million filed construction estimate. Next door, Armadillo Boulders Stone Oak operates at 23132 U.S. 281 N. That side-by-side placement makes this more than another address in the company’s network: it could become a broader climbing destination with two distinct kinds of climbing in one location.
Armadillo Top Rope signals a different kind of climb
Armadillo’s identity has centered on bouldering: climbing relatively short walls without ropes or harnesses, typically above padded flooring. Climbers work through sequences of holds called “problems,” using strength, balance and technique to find a way to the finish.
Top-rope climbing changes the setup. A climber wears a harness attached to a rope that passes through an anchor above the route. That system allows climbs on substantially taller walls than the short routes associated with bouldering.
The new project’s name explicitly identifies top rope, while the construction scope calls for a new rock-climbing and fitness facility. Together, those details point toward a meaningful expansion of what Armadillo can offer beyond its existing bouldering model.
The shift would give local climbers a different way to spend time on the wall. Bouldering often concentrates the challenge into a short sequence of moves; longer roped routes can offer a sustained climb. Both belong to the same sport, but they create different experiences for the person leaving the ground.
Armadillo has not yet established the new facility’s specific wall heights, route mix or equipment in the information reviewed by TCM. Lead climbing and auto-belays are not confirmed features of this project.
Armadillo Top Rope right beside a gym that opened in 2025
Stone Oak celebrated its grand opening on February 22, 2025. The Top Rope filing surfaced roughly 19 months later, putting another substantial project beside a gym that opened less than two years ago.
The existing Stone Oak facility already advertises more than 80 boulder problems, an upstairs fitness area and climbing-specific training equipment, including a Tension 2 board and Kilter board. Youth programs and introductory classes round out its offerings.
There is also a direct ownership connection. The new filing lists ERG SO LLC as owner and Michael Cano as its contact. Armadillo’s own visitor agreement identifies ERG SO LLC alongside its affiliated operating entities, tying the project to the existing business.
With two neighboring facilities, Stone Oak could effectively become an Armadillo climbing campus. That remains a description of the opportunity, not an announced operating plan. Whether the buildings will connect, share entrances or use identical access arrangements has not been confirmed.
A San Antonio company grows beyond its original warehouse
San Antonio natives Michael Cano and Joe Kreidel founded Armadillo Boulders, opening the Downtown gym in 2018. The company later expanded to San Marcos and then Stone Oak, building a regional network around bouldering, fitness and climbing community.
Its current gym information lists more than 120 boulder problems Downtown, more than 110 in San Marcos and more than 80 at Stone Oak. Each location offers a place to practice, train and return to newly set problems.
The scale of the new building also shows how far the business has come. Reporting at the original gym’s launch described an approximately 11,000-square-foot converted warehouse. The proposed Top Rope building would have more than twice that total area.
That comparison concerns building size. It does not measure climbing surface, which can extend vertically and differs from a facility’s floor area. Even on that straightforward basis, however, 23,591 square feet represents a sizable next step for a company that began with one Downtown warehouse.
San Antonio has seen ropes-gym plans before
The idea of a major ropes-focused commercial climbing destination has surfaced in San Antonio before. In 2019, Houston-area operator inSPIRE Rock announced plans for a facility near UTSA.
Contemporary reporting described approximately 24,000–26,000 square feet of climbing terrain, with top-rope climbing, lead climbing and bouldering. The proposal anticipated a 2021 opening.
Today, inSPIRE Rock’s official location network lists Spring, Cypress and Lubbock, with no San Antonio location. That earlier proposal provides historical context for interest in larger roped-climbing facilities here; it does not establish why the project did not become part of the current network.
Nor does it make Armadillo Top Rope San Antonio’s first top-rope facility. Institutional and recreational climbing walls already provide that activity. The meaningful distinction is Armadillo’s own evolution from a bouldering-centered business toward a purpose-built facility bearing the Top Rope name.
What comes next for Armadillo Top Rope
State registration TABS2027001806 identifies new construction, with Adam Gates Architecture LLC as the design firm. The projected work window runs from February 1 through May 1, 2027. Those are filed construction dates, not an announced opening date.
Further details will determine how the new facility works alongside Stone Oak. Wall designs, climbing systems and membership arrangements remain important unanswered questions. Armadillo’s current network access does not, by itself, establish how entry to a future Top Rope building would work.
Eight years after Armadillo began in a converted Downtown warehouse, the company is preparing a substantially larger building whose name signals a different kind of climb. If the project moves forward as filed, Stone Oak could become the place where this San Antonio-grown business adds the ropes.