With millions of dollars newly committed, longtime plans for a new senior center on the city’s East Side are another step closer to being built.
During a recent meeting, the board of the Inner City Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone (TIRZ) voted unanimously in favor of a funding agreement for the issuance of debt that will be used to build the 30,000-square-foot facility and an adjacent aquatics center.
The debt issuance, or selling of bonds to investors, in the TIRZ agreement is for up to $46 million.
Such a bond is secured by the future property tax revenue increments generated within the zone, allowing the city to finance a large project rather than waiting and saving up for it.
The funding agreement is pending approval from City Council which is expected to take up the matter on Sept. 3.
The senior center and park project has been a priority of District 2’s councilman, Jalen McKee-Rodriguez, since he was first elected in 2021. The senior center is one part of a master plan that includes expanded parking, improvements to Copernicus Park and affordable senior housing.
McKee-Rodriguez said he asked seniors at the existing center at 1751 S. WW White Rd. how they’d feel about having a new, larger facility at Copernicus Park on Lord Road.
“So many of them were humble and they were gracious, and they said, ‘You know, I love this one. I just care about seeing my friends,'” he said. But, “you just want more for your constituents, especially those who … have been kind of conditioned to accept that District 2 gets the leftovers.”
The councilman said he envisioned a multi-generational center like one recently built in Redmond, Wash., and a public input process revealed that residents also wanted an an indoor swimming pool for exercise.
A 2023 feasibility study, funded by the district, found that its existing senior center, built in 2011, was inadequate and a larger senior center was in fact needed.
In 2024, the City paid the San Antonio Independent School District $850,000 for 12.21 acres of land for the senior center, according to a city staffer.
Later that year, the TIRZ board approved spending $1.8 million for design work and a conceptual master plan for the surrounding area.
Approving the plan
The 10-member TIRZ board met about the senior center project August 7.
McKee-Rodriguez is chairman of the TIRZ board and is joined by two other council members on the board, Teri Castillo (D5) and Sukh Kaur (D1), along with several city staffers and local advocates: Alex Birnel, Troy Elliott, Justin Munoz, Mohammad Rasool, Valerie Reiffert, Mario Salas and Maria Williams.
The Inner City TIRZ was created 26 years ago with boundaries designated to boost economic growth in a 2.5-square-mile area that overlaps three council districts on the city’s downtown, east and south sides.
Significant projects the TIRZ has funded since then include the Hays Street Bridge, the Eastside Sports Complex and the University of the Incarnate Word Eastside Eye Clinic.
A 2025 report to the Texas Comptroller shows the Inner City TIRZ reported a tax increment financing balance of just over $21 million.
Its tax increment base value is almost $417 million, and current captured appraised value is almost $2 billion.
The idea behind using the TIRZ to issue debt for the senior center came from the financing plan for Project Marvel, McKee-Rodriguez said. “If we can use TIRZ for these kinds of things, perhaps we can do some good.”
His ongoing approach to TIRZ funding agreements reflects a desire to make up for what he said has been lost in the district.
“The community is exhausted of seeing incentives go to market-rate development that is leading to their own gentrification,” he said. “Ultimately, that’s why the Inner City TIRZ has amassed the increment that it currently has is because of the gentrification happening in Government Hill and Dignowity Hill and Denver Heights.
“Bad things have happened. We’ve lost some of our neighbors,” he added. “People have been forced out of their homes, and you know not only are we working to try to prevent that from happening in the future, but now we’re also going to be developing things that are for you and for the community that has been sort of underinvested in for so long.”
Design of the senior center is expected to be completed by late 2027 and construction is expected to start in late 2028.
For the aquatics center, the design is expected by late 2027 with construction starting in late 2029.
McKee-Rodriguez said his goal is to at least break ground on the project before he leaves office in 2029.
