San Antonio and Bexar County residents will have the opportunity to vote on Proposition B, concerning public investment into a new downtown arena for the San Antonio Spurs. Prop. B is the first time San Antonio citizens can vote to approve or deny public funding for the greater Project Marvel downtown revitalization initiative. The Paisano sat down with Professor of Public Administration Haywood Sanders and Michelangelo Sabatino, director of the UT San Antonio School of Architecture + Planning, to discuss potential benefits and drawbacks of Project Marvel.
A large point of contention about Project Marvel has been the lack of transparency before and immediately after revealing the initiative in November of 2024. Sanders agrees with this sentiment, emphasizing the importance of community input in public investment initiatives.
“The problem is, in the case of Project Marvel, that it appeared almost literally out of nowhere,” Sanders said. “It’s particularly perplexing to me because a project of this scale with this many components and this scale of public investment should really be done with serious community involvement. We’re the ones who will use it. The people who live here and make use of downtown are the people who will, in fact, make this a success or failure.”
Early planning and development of Project Marvel was done largely done behind closed doors, with the public unaware of the initiative’s existence until its official rollout. Recently, Mayor Gina Ortiz-Jones changed policies for city employees’ use of Non-Disclosure Agreements when attempting to protect information regarding a pending business deal — setting a $50 million threshold on said deals or projects. This change aims to address public concerns about the project’s negotiations according to San Antonio Report.
Sanders also highlighted concerns about investing in renovations for San Antonio’s existing convention center.
“In the contemporary environment, convention centers were over-promised, and they under-delivered,” Sanders said. “They rarely achieve the kinds of performance in terms of attracting attendees and overnight visitor days that consultant studies forecasted.”
Convention centers have become a highly competitive and populated market in Texas. This trend pressured cities to expand and modernize existing facilities or fund new facilities in high-cost infrastructure investments. According to the Texas Comptroller, these facilities rarely make profit.
A key element of Project Marvel is the reuse and refurbishment of existing structures and facilities. Sabatino compares this process to the development of The Historic Pearl district.
“You’re taking an existing site that has all of its complexities, and you’re gradually transforming it through adaptive reuse, new fusion of capital,” Sabatino said. “I know the scale is not at the same scale as the Pearl, but what’s really cool about the history of San Antonio is that it has tended to use insights and transform them in ways that are very creative.”
Prop. B proposes a $1.3 billion price tag for the new arena project. However, Sanders asserts that this may not be the final total, forecasting additional funding needs.
“Among other things, we know it will require more money, more public money, more tax dollars to improve and refashion traffic flows around [the new arena],” Sanders said.
A city council briefing estimates the additional infrastructure upgrades necessary for the Sports and Entertainment District to cost $220 million to $250 million. This additional financial obligation would add to funding already allocated for construction and refurbishment projects in the district. These are estimates for infrastructure improvements, which includes funding for additional parking infrastructure.
“The city’s talking about building two parking garages totaling 4,000 spaces. And yet, we haven’t seen any serious cost analysis for those or how they’ll be paid for,” Sanders said. “The city has also estimated $220-250 million in necessary infrastructure and traffic improvements to get 19,000 people who go to Spurs games in and out of those garages.
According to the San Antonio Express-News, City Manager Erik Walsh expects that San Antonio will be on the hook for necessary infrastructure upgrades. However, plans for how to fund these projects have yet to be disclosed.
Early voting for San Antonio’s upcoming election began on Oct. 20 and runs until Friday, Oct. 31. Election Day is Tuesday, Nov. 4. Polling locations and further information regarding the upcoming election can be found at bexar.org/1568/Elections-Department.
