The city of San Antonio plans to hire a staff member specifically to oversee development of the new downtown new sports and entertainment district.
“It’s a major project. We certainly are going to need somebody to manage the day-to-day,” Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones told the San Antonio Report on Friday. “You’re not going to have somebody [already working within city leadership] with the capacity to do all of that, so you need some kind of ‘project honcho.'”
It’s unclear what the timeline is for making the hire, but the city manager will review the candidates and make the selection.
Up until a few months ago, then-Assistant City Manager Lori Houston was considered the point person on all things Project Marvel.
Houston recently retired from her role amid some differences of opinion on the project with the new mayor. But at a gathering of developers back in March, she said the plan was always to hire someone additional to oversee it all.
The roughly $4 billion downtown renovation is expected to include a new $1.3 billion Spurs arena and surrounding mixed-use development, as well as upgrades to the Alamodome and Henry B. González Convention Center.
Such goals could be expanded even further, to include plans like affordable housing initiatives and public transit, if some members of the council have their way in the coming year.
Early in the new year, the city plans to start looking for a firm to coordinate major logistical components of the project, which the new staff member would help oversee.
“We’re going to hire a firm like we do on all these large projects — we’ve got one out at the airport right now,” said Ben Gorzell, the city’s chief of financial and administrative services. “They help us manage all the sub-parts of the project, all the coordination with utility infrastructure … [and] the construction contractor.”
That search will begin after the request for qualifications goes before the council’s Audit Committee in January, and Gorzell said a selection should be made in April or May.
Clarification: This story has been updated to clarify that the city manager will make the staff hire, while the Audit Committee will consider the outside firm.
