SAN ANTONIO – The San Antonio City Council is expected to be briefed Wednesday on the latest developments on a sports and entertainment district.
The briefing is expected to include an estimated cost for a new arena for the San Antonio Spurs, but it is unclear if the city will present hard numbers on how it would be funded. The city has previously estimated the cost of a new arena between $1.2 billion and $1.5 billion.
The City Council briefing will be livestreamed at 2 p.m. Wednesday in this article and on KSAT Plus. Delays are possible; if there is not a livestream available, check back at a later time.
Project Marvel, the city’s codename for the district around Hemisfair, also includes an expansion of the Henry B. González Convention Center, a new convention center hotel, land bridge over Interstate 37, improvements to the Alamodome, renovating the John Woods Federal Courthouse into a live entertainment venue, a mixed-use development and enhanced infrastructure.
During a Tuesday Q&A session during KSAT’s 6 O’Clock News, San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg said Wednesday’s briefing would also include updates on traffic analysis, proposed facility improvements and clarity on funding options.
Nirenberg said the city has also had talks with the Spurs about what they’d be willing to do for community benefits. City staff are also expected to discuss plans for community engagement.
When it came to the specifics of funding an arena, Nirenberg told KSAT, “We’re going to have a ballpark of what we expect an arena to cost, and we’re going to start to see some of the options at which we can pay for that.
“I will tell you this: we are not going to pay for an arena using property tax — residential property tax. That’s not on the table. It wouldn’t be on the table. There are other ways to do this through, you know, visitor and business revenues that are generated from the business that would not be there unless the Spurs were to come downtown.”
Five-part funding lineup
The city’s previously described vision for funding a new arena revolves around five possible streams of public and private dollars:
PFZ: A newly created “project finance zone” allows the city to capture a share of hotel-related, state tax dollars over 30 years from within three miles of a “Convention Center Complex.” The city can then spend the money on projects within that complex: the expansion of the Henry B. González Convention Center, improving the Alamodome and building a new Spurs arena.TIRZ: Similar to a PFZ, a “tax increment reinvestment zone (TIRZ)” sets aside new, city property tax revenue from development or higher values within a specific area. The money is then used to fund more projects within that same area. The proposed stadium sits within the city’s Hemisfair TIRZ.Venue Tax: A Bexar County tax on hotel stays and car rentals that was used to fund the Spurs’ current home, the Frost Bank Center. County Judge Peter Sakai, though, has said the county needs to use the tax to keep up its own facilities before helping the Spurs build a new home.Spurs: Private money from the team, which Forbes values at $3.85 billion.Team Revenues: Currently unspecified, but could include annual lease payments and ticket fees, similar to the funding deal for a downtown minor league baseball stadium.
To date, there has not been any public discussion of exactly how much each of these funding options could provide for a new arena.
More recent Project Marvel coverage on KSAT:
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