An ambitious plan unveiled Thursday to develop an expansive sports and entertainment district in San Antonio comes with a new Spurs arena in the heart of downtown.
City staff put several years’ worth of speculation to rest when they detailed “Project Marvel,” the code name for a sweeping vision centered around a new basketball stadium and an expanded convention center.
The proposal, revealed during a city council special session, also includes a new convention center hotel tower, an improved Alamodome, acres of retail and residential development, new roads and infrastructure and a land bridge spanning Interstate 37.
The first phase of the plan, which encompasses the arena and convention center, would be implemented within the next five years, said City Manager Erik Walsh. The I-37 land bridge and improvements and redevelopment at the Alamodome could take up to 15 years.
So far, the entire proposal is only a concept and feasibility studies are needed, Walsh said. To pull it off, the City could sign a memorandum of understanding with Bexar County, which owns the Frost Bank Center where the Spurs play, along with Spurs Sports and Entertainment.
Assistant City Manager Lori Houston said Spurs leaders gave a “resounding yes” to moving downtown.
“They are looking for a place to enhance their fan experience and their team experience,” she said. “And if you know anything about Spurs fans, that energy is amazing, and it could actually go through this entire district.”
The funding for an arena will require contributions from the city, county, Spurs and other sources, Houston said. Taxpayers would pay for infrastructure improvements “similar to today,” but that would go to voters for consideration.
“The arena will not be funded by the general taxpayers,” she said, but it’s unclear where the funding would come from. Voters would have to approve any measures that pay for the arena through county venue tax revenue.
How to pay for it
Widely reported estimates of a $3-4 billion price tag came from emails Houston wrote to prospective consultants, she said. “The intent was to show how big this project was.”
During Thursday’s briefing, Houston described the district as “transformational” for the community.
“The goal of a sports entertainment district is to create a dynamic environment that combines sports entertainment, dining, shopping and residential uses that attract locals and tourists, drives economic vitality and is accessible to our entire community,” Houston said.
But “we don’t think it needs to be funded entirely by the public,” she added.
Walsh laid out several possible sources to fund the district, including private investment and development, revenue from hotel and rental car tax, county venue taxes, and financing tools like Public Improvement and Municipal Management districts.
“This is going to take an entire team effort with dedicated partners,” Walsh said.
Some funding mechanisms for the district are already in the works.
Last year, city officials designated the Henry B. González Convention Center as a renovation project that would benefit from the state’s Project Financing Zone.
A PFZ allows the city to draw a 3-mile radius around a convention center facility or venue, then collect the growth in the state’s revenues from hotels and businesses within its boundaries for a 30-year period to spend on qualified projects.
A general obligation bond could be used to pay for the sports and entertainment district but would need voter approval, he said.
A $2.9 million federal grant from the Transportation Department aiming to reconnect communities separated by the nation’s highway system will be used to draw up plans for a proposed land bridge, similar to the Rock Island Bridge project in Kansas City.
Frost Bank Center
County Judge Peter Sakai said he’s been in conversations with the city about Project Marvel, but has been waiting for today’s council presentation to see the specifics. The county plans to bring forward its own proposal, laying out its vision for East Side redevelopment and expectations for the Frost Bank Center.
“After I can see what specifics are in that briefing, and then the county will also be prepared to submit a proposal of what we do for the redevelopment of the East Side, specifically of the Frost Bank area and the Coliseum grounds,” Sakai said.
“I cannot allow the Frost Bank center to become the next Astrodome, which means it sits there and becomes nothing — that’s totally unacceptable to me,” he added.
Council members seemed largely open to the project but stopped short of outright support at Thursday’s briefing.
Councilman Jalen McKee-Rodriguez said he’s happy there will be some emphasis in the plan on District 2. While he’s reserving his support of the project, he said, he sees it as a chance to undo some wrongs.
“I wish that when the Frost Bank Center and Alamodome were first dropped into the East Side that the same thoughtful planning went into it,” he said.
“I’ve conveyed to city staff and … the Spurs how you leave a community is more important than how you found it, and if and when the Spurs leave the Frost Bank Center, they need to leave my community at a much better position than we’re in today,” McKee-Rodriguez said.
Feasibility studies
The convention center is the priority in the timeline, Walsh said. Staff will return to council on Dec. 4 with a briefing on how it could be expanded to add a ballroom, triple the size of exhibit hall space and other meeting spaces and amenities.
The city has lost about 90 large conventions to other cities over the past five years, Houston said, because there is not enough exhibit hall space in San Antonio’s convention center.
“Those 90 conventions would have brought about 450,000 visitors to our community that would have spent over $700 million,” she said.
Until all studies are done, the total project cost for the district is unknown, Walsh said.
“We have a lot more work to do in terms of due diligence and feasibility,” Walsh said. “One of the main components of this … is the opportunity for additional retail and development, which includes housing [and] mixed-use. We have space to be able to do that, and frankly, that’s going to be a critical part of this, because that investment is going to be needed.”
Developable land in the southeastern quadrant of Hemisfair and east of the highway provides sufficient acreage to form the district, Walsh said.
“Everything can fit,” according to Populous Consulting, a firm hired by the city to evaluate the project, he said. That’s if the hulking and shuttered UTSA Institute of Texan Cultures (ITC) is demolished.
A map by Populous shows the arena being built in place of the ITC, a remnant of the 1968 World’s Fair recently designated state antiquities landmark. In February, the University of Texas Board of Regents gave UTSA conditional approval to negotiate with the City of San Antonio to buy or lease the property.
The former museum makes up roughly 13.5 acres in the public-private development in Hemisfair — space enough for a sports arena, according to some experts.
The district would also displace the San Antonio Water System’s central cooling plant for a 1,000-key hotel tower with 20,000 square feet of space dedicated to a UTSA School of Hospitality, and a parking garage with over 1,000 spaces.
The John H. Woods Courthouse, formerly the Confluence Theater, is shown recast as a live performance venue. The City acquired the facility from the General Services Administration in 2022 and also has the right of first refusal on an adjacent federal building and parking lot.
The boundary of the district provides about 62 acres of space for potential mixed-use development which would be accomplished through public-private partnerships, Houston said. That includes the federal property, space around the proposed arena and parking lots at the Alamodome.
Improving the Alamodome is necessary to accommodate concerts and other events for the next 30 years, Houston said.
“UTSA football — it works great in the Alamodome,” she said. “But if we want to continue to use the alamodome for Final Fours, for college football playoffs or large events like international soccer, that’s a different scope of work.”
Council reaction
Once projects are deemed by council as feasible, the city will kick off a public engagement process around planning and designing, according to staff.
The vision for a sports and entertainment district follows major growth and investment in downtown San Antonio in recent years and that makes the timing right, said Mayor Ron Nirenberg.
“We’re beginning to see opportunities to improve downtown for not just tourists, but for locals,” Nirenberg said, adding that now is the time to turn a collection of projects into a vision for downtown San Antonio.
The arena and district plan come just weeks after the city and county signed agreements with the owners of the Missions baseball team to redevelop the northwestern quadrant of downtown San Antonio and build a new ballpark.
A 2-acre parking lot owned by the San Antonio Independent School District appears to be all that’s standing in the way of the $1 billion project.
“What I would caution is, do not do what was done with the Missions baseball stadium, as an example of what not to do,” said District 5 Councilwoman Teri Castillo, whose Westside constituents have opposed those plans. “There’s an opportunity to learn to engage the community and establish legally binding community benefits agreement.”
District 7 Councilwoman Marina Alderete Gavito said she wanted to see VIA Metropolitan Transit included in planning for the district, especially because parking will be an issue. The desire for mass transit to be incorporated into the plan also was echoed by District 6 Councilwoman Melissa Cabello Havrda.
“That is the one thing that can make or break [the sports and entertainment district],” Houston said. “We need to make sure that parking is easy to access, it is affordable and easy to find. And so that is also a priority within this plan.”
District 8 Councilman Manny Pelaez said he thinks San Antonio can build a sports and entertainment district that has an economic “multiplier effect” while still managing gentrification and infrastructure needs.
“When placed in a city center, a stadium in which you already have a winning team, brings about an important resurgence of that downtown, and it brings about a resurgence,” he said, adding that the district would add to the love and pride people have in their city.
But Pelaez added that he won’t vote for a deal that does not include a community benefit agreement, which would outline the benefits the developer will provide in exchange for community support, and a mandatory competitive minimum wage at the stadium.
District 10 Councilman Marc Whyte said he is “strongly in favor” of moving forward with the plan. “But … we should not have the cost of this project fall on the backs of the citizens of San Antonio,” he said.
The arena and the I-37 land bridge connector should be the highest priority in the project timeline, said District 3 Councilwoman Phyllis Viagran.
District 1 Councilwoman Sukh Kaur, who represents downtown, said infrastructure, including parking, road improvements and public transit, is the most important thing to get right in the plan and community engagement will be needed.
District 9 Councilman John Courage said he would withhold his vote to approve the sports and entertainment district until city staff can answer how it improves the lives of San Antonians, especially the 250,000 people living in poverty across the city.
“I need to see some numbers about that,” he said.
Reporter Andrea Drusch contributed to this report.
Correction: This story has been updated to correctly identify Councilman Jalen McKee-Rodriguez’s district.
