{"id":518663,"date":"2026-01-15T19:56:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-15T19:56:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/518663\/"},"modified":"2026-01-15T19:56:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-15T19:56:11","slug":"downtown-arena-deal-takes-significant-step-spurs-to-fund-citys-federal-land-purchase","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/518663\/","title":{"rendered":"Downtown arena deal takes significant step; Spurs to fund city\u2019s federal land purchase"},"content":{"rendered":"

SAN ANTONIO<\/strong> \u2013 San Antonio took another step toward the creation of a new Spurs arena on Thursday.<\/p>\n

The city council voted unanimously to submit an offer to buy a cluster of federal properties near Hemisfair using $30 million, plus $120,000 in closing costs, both provided by the Spurs. <\/p>\n

The three parcels include a federal office building on East C\u00e9sar E. Ch\u00e1vez Boulevard and two parking lots across the street. <\/p>\n

A map of the federal properties for which the city is putting in an offer. Presented during a Jan. 15, 2026 San Antonio City Council meeting. (City of San Antonio)<\/p>\n

The properties are a key part of the city\u2019s funding scheme for a nearby $1.3 billion arena, which involves using property tax revenue from new development to help cover its share of the costs.<\/p>\n

The federal government still needs to decide whether to accept the city\u2019s offer. If it does, the city expects to close on the deal in June or July.<\/p>\n

The City of San Antonio would own the properties but eventually lease them to private developers to create a combination of hotel, retail, hospitality, housing and office space. The resulting property tax revenue is part of the city\u2019s plans for paying its $489 million share of a new arena.<\/p>\n

If an arena deal falls through, the city would have to reimburse the Spurs organization for the land purchase or hand over the properties.<\/p>\n

According to council documents, the federal government would \u201cremain as a tenant in the building for up to five years, vacating suites as they are able to relocate to other office space.\u201d<\/p>\n

The city still needs to acquire the actual arena site at the southeast corner of Hemisfair, where the now-demolished, former home of Cultures used to sit. The city hopes to buy the land by the end of the year.<\/p>\n

The site is owned by the University of Texas System, but the city has an exclusive right to purchase the property, estimated at $60 million.<\/p>\n

City staff are considering funding the purchase through the Midtown Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone (TIRZ), though they told council members they could explore other options, including swapping land with the University of Texas at San Antonio.<\/p>\n

The acquisition of both properties was laid out in a non-binding term sheet with the Spurs and Bexar County, which the city council passed 7-4<\/a> in August. <\/p>\n

Under the term sheet, the city would kick in up to $489 million, the county would pay up to $311 million, and the Spurs would cover at least $500 million. <\/p>\n

Voters already approved<\/a> the county\u2019s share of the funding in November.<\/p>\n

Though the terms aren\u2019t legally binding, they provide a framework for negotiating the various contracts and agreements, which the city hopes to largely complete by the end of 2026. <\/p>\n

Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones thinks the city could still get more<\/a> out of a deal with the city. <\/p>\n

The arena is expected to be completed by the summer of 2032, the same year its lease at the Frost Bank Center ends. <\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 by KSAT – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN ANTONIO \u2013 San Antonio took another step toward the creation of a new Spurs arena on Thursday.…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":518664,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5133],"tags":[5229,13239,7236,13123,7202,7203,7199,358,3187,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-518663","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-antonio","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-city-hall","10":"tag-downtown","11":"tag-project-marvel","12":"tag-san-antonio","13":"tag-sanantonio","14":"tag-spurs","15":"tag-texas","16":"tag-tx","17":"tag-united-states","18":"tag-united-states-of-america","19":"tag-unitedstates","20":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","21":"tag-us","22":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115900880442311909","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/518663","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=518663"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/518663\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/518664"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=518663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=518663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=518663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}