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City Council has a history of expanding TIRZ boundaries along with extending the years for which new development is kept off the city\u2019s general-fund tax roll.<\/p>\nCity Council has a history of expanding TIRZ boundaries along with extending the years for which new development is kept off the city\u2019s general-fund tax roll.<\/p>\n
Cityscrapes is a column of opinion and analysis.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The City of San Antonio and the Spurs have touted Project Marvel as the creation of a whole new sports and entertainment district which \u2014\u00a0according to the term sheet approved by city council \u2014\u00a0\u201cwill stimulate the development, growth and expansion of business, commerce and tourism in downtown San Antonio.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n
The visuals for the project show a lively, people-filled set of public venues and plazas, along with new high-rise buildings. And the plans for the development call for an array of new uses around the new arena and convention center expansion, including \u201chousing, hotel, retail and office.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n
The Spurs have seemingly committed $500 million for new private development for the project in the short term. The team has also promised an additional $900 million over 12 years. It all sounds great. \u00a0<\/p>\n
Except.<\/p>\n
Except the only specific development commitment outline in the document calls for \u201ca boutique hotel meeting the NBA\u2019s requirements for visiting teams.\u201d<\/p>\n
Except for the fact that the $500 million doesn\u2019t have to come just from the Spurs. It can also come from unspecified \u201cprivate developers.\u201d Same thing with the balance of $900 million. Not necessarily from the Spurs, just from \u201cprivate developers.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Those don\u2019t have to be private developers linked to the Spurs. They could be any developer building in the area defined by the term sheet. And that area doesn\u2019t have to be in the immediate vicinity of the new arena, convention center and the Alamodome \u2014 defined as the \u201csports and entertainment district.\u201d<\/p>\n
The area specified in the term sheet is the Hemisfair Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone (TIRZ).\u00a0 The Hemisfair TIRZ goes from Commerce Street to the north to Lavaca Street beyond C\u00e9sar E. Ch\u00e1vez Blvd. to the south, from I-37 on the east all the way to Navarro Street on the west.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a big area, covering a number of prime development sites downtown.<\/p>\n
The term sheet also doesn\u2019t define when the period for the new development starts. So, would it include the longstanding but unrealized plan for converting the former CPS Energy headquarters on Navarro to a hotel? Or how about the city\u2019s plan for a new convention center hotel on the site of the SAWS chilled water plant between Commerce and Market Streets? \u00a0<\/p>\n
The city has put a $750 million-plus price tag on that hotel alone. It could thus account for more than half of the \u201cprivate developers\u201d commitment specified for the Spurs over 12 years. That just gives us more of what we already have, with the city adding it would \u201clikely require public incentives.\u201d<\/p>\n
Even though the term sheet specifies that economic development will occur inside the Hemisfair TIRZ, it shouldn\u2019t be assumed its boundaries will forever be the same as they are today. City staff previously proposed merging the Hemisfair TIRZ with the Midtown TIRZ, the area including the Pearl Brewery development, the San Antonio River\u2019s Museum Reach and Broadway all the way beyond Hildebrand Avenue.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Not to mention, City Council has a history of expanding TIRZ boundaries along with extending the years for which new development is kept off the city\u2019s general-fund tax roll.<\/p>\n
The Houston Street TIRZ, originally created in late 1999 to support Federal Realty\u2019s plan to turn the historic buildings along Houston Street into a new retail and entertainment district, covered just 20 blocks surrounding the downtown thoroughfare, or about 40 acres.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Then, in 2015, council expanded the TIRZ to a total of 179.7 acres, running from I-35 on the north all the way south to Cesar E. Chavez on the west side of downtown. Late last year, council expanded it yet again, adding 17 parcels from the Westside TIRZ to help finance the new Missions ballpark. The TIRZ also was extended to 2060. \u00a0<\/p>\n
It\u2019s the same story with the Midtown TIRZ. The original River North TIRZ was created in December 2006 for a term of 25 years, and it covered 194 acres. But in 2012, the city merged it with the Midtown TIRZ, then expanded it to 750 acres from a total of 98 acres.<\/p>\n
The possibility of an expansion of the Hemisfair TIRZ would open up a loophole for the Spurs and the private developers to spend $1.4 billion on projects almost anywhere in the center city.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Simply put, the Spurs and its unidentified developers are only going to build things that make market sense and offer a financial return \u2014 and on sites that work in the market.<\/p>\n
So, don\u2019t think about a collection of new restaurants, bars and fancy new Spurs store surrounding the proposed arena and the expanded Alamodome. Think about a new hotel on the River Walk. Or maybe a modest-sized new office building on Commerce or Navarro street. Or perhaps new apartments along the river.\u00a0<\/p>\n
That\u2019s easily $1.4 billion in new development, which likely would have happened anyway. And all that new development will be locked off the general tax roll for 30 years or more, costing every property taxpayer in San Antonio.<\/p>\n
Heywood Sanders is a professor emeritus of public administration at the University of Texas at San Antonio.<\/p>\n
Subscribe to SA Current newsletters.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Follow us:\u00a0Apple News<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0Google News<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0NewsBreak<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0Reddit<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0Instagram<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0Facebook\u00a0<\/a>| Twitter<\/a>\u00a0| Or sign up for our\u00a0RSS Feed<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Related Stories<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \n\t\t\t\t\tPublic funding for the NBA team\u2019s proposed downtown arena is contingent on voter support.\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \n\t\t\t\t\tThe downtown protest will be one of 1,000 Labor Day demonstrations nationwide against billionaire influence and corruption in the U.S.\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \n\t\t\t\t\t\u2018I wish the mayor had asked me about my story, not just my wage,\u2019 wrote San Antonio man Ruben Mateo Lopez.\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n This article appears in Sep 3-17, 2025<\/a>.<\/p>\n \t
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