In the week since the Spurs organization asked who wants to help with Project Marvel, it has received nearly 350 responses.
The invitation from Spurs Sports and Entertainment went out April 23, asking local businesses to sign up if they are interested in being involved with building the arena district.
It’s the first formal messaging from the organization about the project since voters approved the sports and entertainment district last fall that will bring the Spurs back to a downtown arena surrounded by other new development.
Spurs owners plan to announce their project leads — architects, project managers, financial advisors — in another week or two, a company spokeswoman said.
In the meantime, the organization is looking to connect those leads with other local partners.
“There’s just a lot of work that goes into an effort like this, and we need to find the best people, the right people, and people who are interested in doing this work,” said Liberty Swift, Spurs Sports and Entertainment spokeswoman.
The response form is simple, with entries only for the individual’s name, business name and comments, and has been shared widely across the social media platforms of contractor groups and small business agencies.
It gives people a way to reach out, Swift said. So far, “It’s been great. It’s all ranges of stuff, like from power washers to people who want to be community partners — people who want to be connected and also just to see people who are excited about the project.”
Spurs Sports and Entertainment plans to use the information to compile a list and provide it to the project leads.
Local business owners can also expect to see a procurement process launched later on, Swift said. “This is just us getting ahead of trying to figure out who has interest in being a local partner, making sure we’re going into this community-minded. We want everything to feel and be about San Antonio.”
The San Antonio developer community has said they are more than ready for the opportunities they expect to come from Project Marvel. That enthusiasm has not waned.
At a recent meeting hosted by the Real Estate Council of San Antonio and the local chapter of the Urban Land Institute, one executive said the plans will be great for San Antonio “for years to come.”
“We’ve been doing work on the Alamodome for years, very successfully,” said Mark Berger, project executive at Turner Construction. “Nationally, we’re one of the largest, or the largest, sports builders for the past several years, along with some of our partners. So, it’s a really exciting time.”
Sarah Spector Carroll, senior vice president of investments at the real estate investment firm Embrey, said the company does not have any Project Marvel projects lined up yet but are eager for that chance.
“I’m sure everyone in this room agrees that these projects will be hugely meaningful for the city of San Antonio,” Carroll said, adding that pro sports is what’s currently missing from the center city.
But an arena by itself won’t be successful, said Omar Gonzalez, director of development at Oxbow, which already has plans for an upscale residential complex near the Hemisfair district.
“We’ve proven that at least three times in San Antonio,” he said. “What I think we’ve learned … is that those districts become a place when everything around it is a ‘place.’
“It will be a failure if all we build is a ballpark and all we build is an arena. So I will do our best in terms of Oxbow — and what I think we do really well — to help. And so we’d love to be involved with both projects.”
