San Antonio City Council chambers on Thursday were packed with local business and education leaders, community and housing advocates, sports fans, downtown tenants and other residents who showed up to testify about a preliminary deal for a downtown minor league baseball stadium and adjacent mixed-use development.
After hours of testimony and council discussion, the final vote was 9-2 in favor of the deal, which will likely displace hundreds of downtown residents as the Soap Factory apartment complex is demolished over the next few years.
“The areas that will be redeveloped are already going to be redeveloped, whether or not there’s a stadium built there,” Mayor Ron Nirenberg said ahead of his vote of approval. “Had there been no city involvement in this deal, the redevelopment of that property could result in terminated leases, could result in displacement, could result in a number of things that we would have no say in.”
More than a dozen business leaders spoke in favor of the development as a whole.
“This project … will inject a whole lot more economic impact than the billion dollars in assessed value that’s been quoted,” said Jenna Saucedo-Herrera, president and CEO of Greater: SATX, the city’s economic development organization. “This project will ultimately change the landscape of [San Antonio] for the next several generations.”
Council members Jalen McKee-Rodriguez (D2) and Teri Castillo (D5) voted against the measure, citing a lack of transparency around the deal until details were revealed last month and further hashed out in previous weeks.
McKee-Rodriguez called the memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the local team owners a “half-assed deal” for tenants and tried to delay council’s vote. Council ultimately voted 7-4 against a continuance, with McKee-Rodriguez, Castillo, Adriana Rocha Garcia (D4) and Melissa Cabello Havrda (D6) voting in favor of delaying the vote.
“What we have here is a plan that essentially isn’t providing the full support that [tenants are] requesting and demanding,” Castillo said.
The memorandum of understanding lays out the framework for the deal, but final agreements and specific terms will be finalized over the coming months and years with subsequent council votes, City Manager Erik Walsh said. Other approvals are required by Bexar County and San Antonio ISD before Oct. 15, the deadline set by Major League Baseball for the San Antonio Missions team owners to have a plan in place for a new stadium.
Randy Smith, president of Weston Urban, and Walsh agreed to ask Bexar County commissioners if they would also match or otherwise contribute to relocation fund.
Relocation assistance
Residents of the privately owned 381-unit Soap Factory complex will receive at least $500,000 in relocation assistance ahead of the demolition of a portion of the complex late next year.
It’s part of a relocation plan that several residents rejected because there is little to no comparable affordable housing in the immediate downtown area and details of the relocation plan were not revealed to them until this week.
“This is a plan that Weston Urban and the council came up with together for us,” said Brooklyn Ramos, a tenant and local college student. “We felt very rushed, as it gave us less than a day to speak it over with our neighbors and practically no time to process it.”
But community organizers involved in talks with the city, Weston Urban and residents, said the MOU approved today was a victory for the community. They also pledged to hold Weston Urban and the city accountable to follow the plan in the coming years.
“We are keenly aware that doors were opened, conference rooms were made available, and seats were placed at the table for billionaires, millionaires and developers,” said Fr. Jimmy Drennan of St. Margaret Mary Catholic Church and COPS Metro Alliance, a progressive coalition of congregations, schools, and unions.
“All of us need to be invited to that table and we will accept nothing less than that,” Drennan added. “The citizenry of San Antonio needs to be treated in the same way that developers and billionaires and millionaires are treated in this community.”
The City of San Antonio will contribute $250,000 of its remaining federal coronavirus pandemic assistance fund that can be used only for households who earn 80% or less than the area median income (roughly less than $50,000 for an individual) and who have lived there for at least one year prior to October.
Weston Urban, which owns the 381-unit complex and plans to build a $160 million baseball stadium and other mixed-use developments including an estimated Weston 1,500 apartments in the immediate area, will contribute $250,000 to the relocation fund for any tenant.
McKee-Rodriguez and Castillo also criticized the use of American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) dollars for this purpose.
“ARPA was designed to address the needs and disparities further exacerbated by the pandemic,” McKee-Rodriguez said. “But instead, we’re going to subsidize the displacement of these tenants and use ARPA to try to appease [Weston Urban].”
Building Brighter Communities, a housing navigation and social safety net nonprofit contracted by Weston Urban, will manage the fund and assist residents with relocation logistics for the next five years, Assistant City Manager Lori Houston said.
No one’s lease will be terminated, Houston said, but tenants who move in after October will be notified of the demolition and will not qualify for relocation funds.
“There’s no one-size-fits-all [next step] for residents … it’s based on what they’d like to do,” said Brandon Johnson, founder of Building Brighter Communities.
Each of the roughly 190 current households affected by the first phase of demolition could receive a $2,500 relocation package and assistance finding new homes ahead of demolition plans in late 2025, Houston said.
Relocation payments and other assistance — such as free first month’s rent at housing authority projects — offered to tenants will depend on which demolition phase tenants are affected by and where they choose to move to, Houston said.
“We want to make sure that we are helping the ones that really only have [one] year to plan,” she said. “The other phases — they’re happening in 2027, that’s three years, 2029, that’s another five years — so there’s plenty [of] time there.”
Smith of Weston Urban credited councilwomen Sukh Kaur (D1), who represents downtown, and Cabello Havrda for suggesting the fund.
“When you asked if we would follow your lead to provide more help to these families, that is what set the tone for the unprecedented plan before you, and so thank you,” Smith said.
Kaur took responsibility for the lack of communication with tenants earlier on in the stadium discussions.
“I will own my part in not communicating … or supporting the developer to communicate with you all earlier,” Kaur said as she addressed tenants. “This is not the funding contract, it’s the initial part to the MOU, so I commit to staying in constant communication with you all, as does my office.”
Cabello Havrda, who is considering a run for mayor, acknowledged that the plan is not perfect.
“This entire plan is imperfect,” she said. “I know that this last piece that Dr. Kaur and I worked on is not perfect, and I know that it’s not what you would hope for. But I can promise you this: That I left no stone unturned. I poured my heart and energy into getting what was possible under the circumstances.”
Financing plan
The cost of the San Antonio Missions’ home stadium and the land in the northwest quadrant of downtown is estimated to be $1 billion. The 7,500-capacity ballpark would be built on mostly vacant parcels of land at North Flores, Camaron and Kingsbury streets, south of San Antonio ISD headquarters and adjacent to the San Pedro Creek Culture Park.
Under the terms, Designated Bidders, a group of local investors that includes former Texas Secretary of State Hope Andrade, Bruce Hill, Graham Weston and David Robinson, will kick in $34 million for the stadium and make $1 million annual lease payments.
The new ballpark is expected to open in 2028, replacing the Nelson W. Wolff Municipal Stadium built on the Southwest Side of San Antonio in 1994 and considered inadequate by today’s MLB standards.
City officials emphasized that the stadium will not be paid for directly by taxpayers but by the team’s owners and through tax revenues generated from private development in the area and the Houston Street Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone (TIRZ).
About 86% of the cost will be supported by the team’s contribution, ticket fees and team revenue, guaranteed city and county property tax increment dollars and a guaranteed municipal management assessment from the first two of four planned new developments in the area, said Ben Gorzell, the city’s chief financial officer.
The remaining 14% will come from the TIRZ and two other phases of private development in the area.
The city and Bexar County have created the San Pedro Creek Development Authority which is made up of representatives from both bodies and the team owners, which will own the ballpark. The authority will issue a private bond to help pay for the ballpark with a pledge of $126 million from the TIRZ.
However, not all the advocates were satisfied with Thursday’s outcome.
“It just reeks of corruption,” said Graciela Sanchez, executive director of the Esperanza Peace and Justice Center.
The plan puts public money in the pockets of influential, white and wealthy developers like Weston, she said. “Today you are being asked to join the corruption, to approve this shameful farce.”
Councilman John Courage, who is also running for mayor, acknowledged that the team owners and developers stand to make “a lot of money” from the stadium, housing and commercial spaces they’re planning to build there.
“But also, we have to take a look at not just the 300 [tenants] who are most affected, but we need to consider what is the benefit to all the rest of the community,” Courage said. “There’s going to be maybe hundreds of people over a few years … working there and making a living for themselves.”
