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Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones called for a “strategic pause” on the Project Marvel Sports & Entertainment District on Wednesday after a marathon city council meeting.
“The people of San Antonio … have entrusted us to do the adequate due diligence, and I don’t think what we have been presented with does that,” she said. “So I think we need to take a strategic pause on this entire effort, and we need to lay out not only the cost and benefit of the Spurs arena, but of this entire project.”
Her comments followed more than four hours of public comment and briefings on two economic impact reports and a public engagement report.
A majority of her colleagues on the city council then said they didn’t need a pause and wanted to move forward.
Consultants, city officials, and business leaders painted a bright picture of the potential economic and cultural impact of the proposed district and San Antonio Spurs arena during a lengthy meeting that went into the night. But now, residents’ concerns and Jones’ latest comments have thrown it into doubt.
One point of contention was an economic impact report commissioned by the Spurs for their new arena that the organization received in January but that the city council and public did not know about or see until Tuesday.
UTSA Public Administration Professor Heywood Sanders said it indicated bad faith on the part of the Spurs to keep the report private for seven months. “That’s playing games,” he said.
The Spurs did not respond to TPR’s request for comment.
The San Antonio City Council was briefed on two economic impact reports for the Project Marvel Sports & Entertainment District as well as a public engagement report that contained community feedback about the proposed district from an online survey and in-person town halls on Wednesday.
The new Spurs arena has an estimated cost of between $1.3 billion and $1.5 billion, and the Spurs have offered to contribute $500 million of that cost.
The San Antonio Spurs have asked that the City of San Antonio contribute $500 million to the arena’s construction.
The briefings were followed by more than 80 speakers at public comment, the vast majority of whom voiced their support for the district. Many of those speakers were business executives and leaders of local chambers of commerce, and others came from the Spurs organization itself.
Jeff Webster, the president and CEO of the Greater San Antonio Chamber, said that “a lot of conversation today about what could happen, what might happen, what we should do, what we can’t do, but this is really about windows of opportunity. They don’t come along often.”
Economic impact reports
An economic impact report from Stone Planning commissioned by the Spurs estimated that the Frost Bank Center and new Spurs arena would collectively generate $318 million in new annual local spending and more than double the number of San Antonio hotel stays to nearly 50,000 every year.
The January report also estimated that the new arena would generate $575 million in total net impact in San Antonio for direct and indirect construction spending.
Community members against moving forward with the new Spurs arena said they can’t trust a firm paid by the Spurs to give an objective analysis.
Jimmy Drennan, a leader of the grassroots organization COPS/Metro, said that “it is unconscionable to expect the citizens of San Antonio to be treated this way. We are asking that you please postpone this vote, allow us to be educated, allow us to examine these studies. And we are demanding an independent economic study that has all of the facets presented to you.”
City leaders said the infrastructure upgrades would be necessary to support the new Spurs arena downtown and a slate of other proposed projects.
There are currently no other economic impact reports on the Spurs arena that are expected to be presented to the council.
The city council has until Aug. 18 to call a November election for a downtown infrastructure bond that is essential for Project Marvel to move forward, less than two weeks away. The council is also tentatively scheduled to vote on a non-binding terms sheet with the Spurs on Aug. 21.
In internal emails between City Manager Erik Walsh and Jones in July, Walsh said one risk of delaying was that the Spurs may “begin initiating other long-term plans.”
But others said the report was proof that moving the Spurs downtown was the right move for San Antonio.
“We can be compassionate San Antonio, while also making smart, strategic and transformational investments in the heart of our city,” said Metro SA Chamber President and CEO Brett Finley. “So please, we encourage you all to take that in consideration, to vote for this.”
CSL International is the consultant hired by the city to develop the economic impact report for a new music venue at the former John H. Woods federal courthouse, new mixed use development surrounding a new San Antonio Spurs arena, and upgrades to the Alamodome and Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center.
CSL’s report did not include an independent analysis of the Spurs arena, but it did include Stone Planning’s estimates because they were comfortable that the figures were in the right range.
The report also estimated that the non-Spurs developments would generate more than 3,300 jobs, $182 million in city tax collections, and $9.4 billion in economic output over 30 years.
UNITE HERE Local 23 represents San Antonio workers at the Grand Hyatt hotel downtown. Political Director Rachel Melendes said she was concerned that many of those new jobs would be low-paying.
“From our experience, we know hospitality jobs are not only physically and mentally challenging, they’re also low paying and with few, if any, benefits,” Melendes said. “So we need more information before we can support this project.”
Public engagement report
The community engagement firm Able City held town halls across the city in June and July about Project Marvel that drew more than 1,400 residents to learn about Project Marvel and offer their feedback.
Half of the 2,147 residents who completed a survey online or in-person about the Sports & Entertainment District said they would support using public bond dollars to support infrastructure improvements in the Sports & Entertainment District.
The other half was split evenly between opposing using public bond dollars for infrastructure upgrades and being unsure about it.
The largest plurality of surveys, 431, came from District 1, which is where the new development would be located.
The Able City town halls found that nearby affordable housing, improved public transit options, and more public spaces were among the items most desired around the proposed development.
Its surveys also found that many residents were concerned about traffic congestion, rising costs and gentrification, as well as a lack of parking that the Sports & Entertainment District could lead to.
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