When City Council returns to work in January, they’ll begin the search for a candidate to oversee development of the new downtown new sports and entertainment district.
“It’s a major project. We certainly are going to need somebody to manage the day-to-day,” Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones told the San Antonio Report on Friday. “You’re not going to have somebody [already working within city leadership] with the capacity to do all of that, so you need some kind of ‘project honcho.’”
Staff plans to brief the council’s Audit Committee on Jan. 13 about the pre-solicitation of a request for proposals for an Executive Program Manager for the Sports and Entertainment District, according to city spokesman Brian Chasnoff.
Up until a few months ago, then-Assistant City Manager Lori Houston was considered the point person on all things Project Marvel.
Houston recently retired from her role amid some differences of opinion on the project with the new mayor. But at a gathering of developers back in March, she said the plan was always to hire someone additional to oversee it all.
The roughly $4 billion downtown renovation is expected to include a new $1.3 billion Spurs arena and surrounding mixed-use development, as well as upgrades to the Alamodome and Henry B. González Convention Center.
Such goals could be expanded even further, to include plans like affordable housing initiatives and public transit, if some members of the council have their way in the coming year.
Andrea Drusch writes about local government for the San Antonio Report. She’s covered politics in Washington, D.C., and Texas for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, National Journal and Politico.
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