City officials took steps Thursday toward building a new ballpark in downtown San Antonio while also approving payments for upgrades to the existing Missions baseball stadium.
City Council voted unanimously to OK spending more than $258,000 on improvements to Nelson W. Wolff Stadium and to creating an entity that will own a planned new ballpark in downtown San Antonio.
Upgrades to the 31-year-old Wolff Stadium on the South Side originate with an agreement between the city and Major League Baseball after an audit revealed a number of deficiencies.
The improvements include enlarging the visiting locker room, relocating the laundry room, expanding team training areas, relocating storage and repairing the dugouts. All work has been completed, according to the city’s Convention and Sports Facilities Department.
The cost of those improvements is estimated at $368,755.71 with the city responsible for 70% of the tab, according to a contract extension and the Stadium Improvement Plan signed in 2021.
Amended in 2023, the improvement plan also calls for drainage and irrigation enhancements, field renovations, landscaping, added parking lot gates, security upgrades, new sod and dressing room improvements.
But the MLB has long pushed for a new stadium through an ultimatum — demanding a plan to be in place by Oct. 15, 2024, or risk losing the team. While many local officials and business leaders see opportunity in building it downtown, area residents who could be displaced have resisted those plans.
Despite the opposition, in September, the council signed off on a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Missions team owners to pursue a downtown ballpark development. In October, Bexar County commissioners also backed the deal.
Jenna Saucedo-Herrera, president and CEO of Greater: SATX, the city’s economic development organization, supported the MOU and said that the project would “ultimately change the landscape of [San Antonio] for the next several generations.”
The memorandum of understanding laid out a framework for the deal, but City Manager Erik Walsh said at the time that final agreements and specific terms would be finalized over the coming months and years with subsequent council votes.
Bruce Hill, principal manager of the team’s owners, Designated Bidders, said the vision is to “build the best-in-class ballpark that pays for itself.”
The agreement called for the city and Bexar County to establish the San Pedro Creek Development Authority (SPCDA), an entity of representatives from both bodies and the team owners, to own the park.
It would also issue a private bond to help pay for the $160 million ballpark with a pledge of $126 million from the Midtown Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone.
The resolution council members voted for Thursday officially created the SPCDA and authorized a handful of developer and investor groups, including Weston Urban, to seek approval from the state for the San Pedro Creek Management District.
In recent years, the downtown developer has been assembling property and land in the northwest quadrant of downtown, including the Soap Factory apartments, where renters will be forced out and relocated to make way for new development.
The San Pedro Creek Management District is a kind of special taxing district expanding across the state that, in this case, would capture assessments from new taxable development promised by Weston Urban during four phases of a proposed development plan.
The $1 billion in new mixed-use development planned by Weston Urban is expected to generate tax dollars to pay for services and projects within the district boundaries, including debt service on the bonds proposed to pay for the ballpark.
In 2023, McCombs Enterprises created a municipal management district for 6 acres along the River Walk at West Jones Avenue and Camden Street with plans to redevelop the former CPS Energy property.
The council approved both Missions ballpark items on consent without any discussion.
