A city-commissioned structural assessment revealed soil expansion caused the closure of the Father Manuel Roman Community Center on San Antonio’s far South Side — and whether the city chooses to fix the center or build a new one, the price tag will be north of $3 million.
The city is now at the point where it must decide whether to address the many maintenance issues or to build an entirely new community center, said Homer Garcia, director of the city’s Parks and Recreation Department.
The 30-page report included 43 photos inside and outside the building, showing it is essentially falling apart. There are cracked walls beside windows inside the activity room, cracked floor tiles and separated and loose walls caving in on the northwest corner of the gym.
Foundation and wall movement led to uneven floor elevation, creating “severely twisted” struts on the concrete wall panels bracing the 40-year-old building, and columns that separated from the floors.
The assessment noted that the costs are likely to be the same to address the structural issues or build a new center — with an estimated $3.4 million cost to make the fixes or to build a new center of the same size, including demolition of the current Father Roman center.
Soil movement can compromise a building’s structure, especially during rainy seasons or extended droughts, like San Antonio experienced last year.
Documents obtained through an open records request show the structural assessment was completed on October 10, 2023, and presented to the city’s Parks and Recreation Department that same week.
“As frustrated as this community is, we don’t have any answers as well and we feel just as frustrated,” Reena Gonzalez, executive assistant and liaison in the Parks and Recreation Department, said at a March 6 Villa Coronado Neighborhood Association meeting in response to community members who said they felt the center wasn’t a priority to the city.
“There are plans on what needs to go forward, but nothing has been finalized. Once that comes up, they’ll be able to get back to the public,” she said.
Since the center’s temporary closure in October 2023, the city has redirected its youth programming like Spring Break activities to outdoor sport courts and other community centers nearby. It hasn’t set where summer programming will be redirected yet.
Gonzalez told the residents that there are no plans about what will happen to the center in the future, but reassured residents that the department is working with the city manager’s office, the District 3 City Council office, and Public Works Department to figure out “what’s going to be the next step.”
“Once all of that is finalized, we’ll be able to discuss that,” she said.
Previous improvements
The report also details work done in a 2009 renovation, when documents indicated a 5-inch differential in floor elevations in the community center.
The 2009 work included pouring concrete over the existing foundation slab to lessen the slope of the floor on the north side of the gym and in the activity room, according to the report. It also included resealing joints between concrete walls and repairing cracked and degraded concrete inside the wall panels.
“Current measurements indicate that the difference between high and low points has significantly increased. This despite the fact that a floor topping was added to reduce the differences in elevation in the 2009 work on the building,” the report said.
Villa Coronado Neighborhood Association President Olga Martinez knew Father Manuel Roman and has advocated for the center since his death in 1990. She said the center builds on Roman’s belief that sports and outdoor activities can deter children from crime and improve the neighborhood.
“A lot of us who grew up with him do what we do and give back to our community, we serve our community because of the inspiration that he gave us,” said Candi Diaz, president of local nonprofit A Hidden Heart that operates from the resource center at Villa Coronado Park.
Mistrust in the community
The damage detailed in the assessment was news to the community. Neighbors said that before the March meeting, they knew nothing more than that an assessment was being done on the building.
“If we had communication, we wouldn’t have the problems we have. I don’t trust anybody anymore,” Martinez said. “[The center] is needed here.”
Martinez said the Parks and Recreation Department didn’t communicate updates regarding the closure since December, when the parks office informed Martinez there “were no updates.”
That reply came months after her initial email inquiry in October, she said.
“All they had to do is reach out and talk to me about it,” Martinez said on Thursday. “They knew this all this time.”
Now, she worries how long it will take for her neighborhood will get another community center building, or if repairs will keep the center closed for a significant amount of time.
“I don’t know how they would do this, but it would take forever to get another building,” she said. “There’s no renovation that probably can be done to this building.”
Addinelly Moreno Soto, spokesperson for District 3 City Councilwoman Phyllis Viagran’s office, said the office did not get a copy of the structural report, but the councilwoman and staffers were briefed on the results and recommendations.
Soto said Viagran’s office remained “assured of the effectiveness of communication to the community” as the information was being provided by parks and recreation. She added that the city will seek input on the center’s future.
Asked for an update on next steps, Garcia told the San Antonio Report that the Parks and Recreation Department wants to come back to the community with a set plan and timeline.
He said the city still needs to identify the resources for the project, but added that San Antonio is committed to having a community center at Villa Coronado Park.
