While city and county leaders are still exploring whether they can even come to an agreement to pursue Project Marvel, potential builders from across the country are already eager to get a piece of it.
On Thursday more than 240 contractors, architects and landscapers packed the Mexican Cultural Institute auditorium for the first vendor information session about the expansive downtown redevelopment plan — put on by the city and the American Institute of Architects (AIA).
“You guys are killing me, you really are,” Assistant City Manager Lori Houston joked to the crowd. “I’m getting requests daily — and early on, I was trying to be able to make those requests happen, but then it just got to be too much.”
The overwhelming demand for information from the local development community comes as city and county officials only recently signed off on a plan to allow their leaders to negotiate a deal on the potential project.
Significant differences of opinion still exist on major components, such as how the far the county’s money might be stretched between various projects, and whether the city should gift the county an East Side golf course to be redeveloped into housing.
Nevertheless, at Thursday’s meeting city officials encouraged potential builders and architects to get signed into their system to receive updates about participating as a vendor. Following the session, attendees were offered to take a photo of a presented map to then go on a self-guided tour around Hemisfair.
Houston also announced the city and county will soon launch a search for an executive project manager to oversee Project Marvel in the coming months.
During the hour-long session, Houston laid out the city’s perspective on what the project will include: A new roughly $1.5 billion downtown arena for the San Antonio Spurs basketball team, plus several surrounding developments to create a new downtown entertainment district — including a land bridge over Interstate 37, a renovated convention center, a new live entertainment venue and a new hotel.
In total, there are eight proposed projects under the scope of Project Marvel, which would ideally be paid for with existing tax dollars, private funds and federal or state funds, Houston said.
“When you look at any one of those anchor projects that are in there, if we were just trying to do one of those, that would be difficult,” San Antonio’s Chief Financial Officer Ben Gorzell told the City Council ahead of its vote on the tentative agreement last month. “We’re going to try to do several at the same time.”
Torrey Stanley Carleton, executive director of the San Antonio Chapter of The American Institute of Architects, said the prospect of working on such a massive project has drawn interest from developers, architects and contractors all over Texas, and even a few from out of state including Oklahoma and New Mexico.
“I’ve been in my role here for 32 years, and this is the biggest project I’ve seen,” she said.
Pivotal moment for downtown
To the design and construction community, the appeal of getting in on Project Marvel is obvious, said local architect Javier Paredes, founding principal of StudioMassivo, who was present at the meeting Thursday.
With parallel projects on the horizon, such as VIA Rapid lines and the expansion of UTSA’s Downtown Campus, San Antonio is at a pivotal moment in time to reimagine the heart of the city.
“This is why the local perspective will be so powerful, and why many in the design community want to engage in painting what I call a ‘cultural future’ for San Antonio,” Paredes said.
“Everyone wants a piece of Project Marvel, both creatively and/or economically,” he added. “It’s local firms playing musical chairs with national consultants to assemble a winning team.”
Developers interested in partnering with the city and county on Project Marvel can register within the city’s e-procurement system online to submit a bid or proposal for city solicitations, said Erika Ragsdale, the city’s redevelopment manager. Exactly which types of builders, architects and contractors the city will utilize remains to be seen.
Ragsdale encouraged all construction-adjacent firms interested in receiving more information, especially about when the requests for proposals go out, should register in the city’s e-procurement system now.
“That will allow you to do business with the city, and to submit future proposals, so that’s the first step,” she said.
How will Project Marvel be funded?
During the meeting, Houston emphasized that the majority of the proposed projects would rely on private funding or other sources that won’t require a new voter-approved funding source.
Houston acknowledged there may be a bond election connected to the project, but clarified it wouldn’t be for a Spurs arena itself — rather it would be for infrastructure improvements like roads, utilities and parking areas surrounding the arena.
“We can say that there is not going to be a bond referendum or anything like that to pay for this Spurs arena,” she said. “We’re doing more light public engagement [right now — a] more robust public engagement will start once we figure out the funding scenarios for this large project.”
She added that the county is exploring the use of venue tax dollars for the Spurs arena, but other funding sources are also being considered.
It’s unclear whether voters will go along with plans to use public funding on a project they currently know little about.
Gathering public input is still on the city’s to-do list, and as of last month, polling from UTSA’s Center for Public Opinion Research suggested voters are split on their support for the project.
Houston said the project manager position will likely be open for applications in May or June, aimed at helping “keep everything moving in one direction” between the city, county and Spurs’ ownership.
The next information session on Project Marvel for the local development community will be April 11 and will be held virtually, said Janis Ploetz, executive director of the Urban Land Institute (ULI) San Antonio.
“It’s going to be exciting to watch this world-class district come together and serve our community for generations to come,” she said.
