With only one week before a deadline imposed by Major League Baseball, County Commissioners agreed to sign a memorandum of understanding with San Antonio Missions team owners to build a new minor league ballpark.
That leaves just one major hurdle standing in the way of the $160 million project — a key parcel of land owned by a local school district.
“The structure of this [memorandum] highlights the requirement of significant private equity investments in a phased manner,” said County Judge Peter Sakai, adding that if the team doesn’t meet their end of the bargain, the county won’t issue bonds to finance it.
“I believe there are many public benefits for this project,” Sakai said. “I also recognize there are also impacts to the community.”
But Pct. 3 Commissioner Grant Moody disagreed, voting against the measure.
“I honestly believe this isn’t a bad deal, at least as stadiums go,” he said. “I really appreciate the concessions that have been made by the leadership group, but I do believe that we could have made it better.”
The measure passed 3-2, with Pct. 4 Commissioner Tommy Calvert abstaining from the vote.
Designated deadline
The MLB had given an investor group that acquired the team in 2022 until Oct. 15 to have a plan in place for a new downtown stadium. If not, San Antonio could lose the team, according to the owners, Designated Bidders.
To head that off, both City and County officials sent a letter in July to the MLB supporting a new stadium. A proposed financing agreement for the ballpark was brought to the Council in August.
(You can read more about the financing proposal here.)
On Sept. 12, City Council approved the broad financing terms and MOU, despite pushback from residents of a downtown apartment complex that would be razed for the stadium.
The same kind of opposition was voiced during Commissioner’s Court on Tuesday afternoon, with about half of the 18 people who spoke denouncing the proposed downtown stadium deal and displacement of Soap Factory apartment residents.
Sofia Lopez, a statewide housing justice campaign director for the Texas Organizing Project, read aloud a letter from one resident who said, “What Weston Urban and the city are offering the residents of Soap Factory is an insult … No one is counting the cost of jobs lost, transportation needed, or communities being ripped apart.”
But Britany Lopez, a Missions season ticket holder who travels to visit different ballparks every summer, said that she appreciates sports venues situated in the heart of a city’s downtown where she can walk to other attractions.
“I love the culture of the city that you find at the ballpark,” said Brittany Lopez, describing several urban-based parks she has visited, her favorite in downtown Charlotte, “with their beautiful skyline of downtown from home plate.
“It is time for San Antonio to get an upgraded stadium for the Missions.”
The Missions minor league baseball team currently play at Nelson Wolff Municipal Stadium, built in 1994 off of U.S. Highway 90 on the city’s Southwest Side. That city-owned stadium is considered inadequate by today’s MLB standard for Double-A ball.
Others supporting the proposal included representatives from the San Antonio River Authority, Visit San Antonio, the Greater San Antonio Chamber of Commerce, the San Antonio Hotel and Lodging Association and Greater:SATX.
Several students from the University of the Incarnate Word spoke in support along with a prominent San Antonio businessman.
“I am here not as a 35-year season ticket holder of the San Antonio Missions,” said Pat Frost, former president of Frost Bank. “This effort has nothing to do with baseball. It has to do with economic development.”
Pct. 1 Commissioner Rebeca Clay-Flores asked county staff and the developer how they can ensure that economic development will occur as a result of the project.
“Contractually speaking, there will not be a ballpark unless that development in phases one and two happens,” said County Manager David Smith.
The proposed ballpark is expected to open in 2028.
The memorandum approved by commissioners on Tuesday refers to a multipurpose facility that hosts minor league games and outlines the terms of an agreement for financing, development, construction, operations and maintenance of the facility.
The memorandum is between the County, the City, Designated Bidders and downtown development group, Weston Urban. It requires the City and County to create a local government corporation, called the San Pedro Creek Development Authority, which would issue bonds to finance the project and own the ballpark.
Soap Factory
The Designated Bidders partnership, which has committed $34 million to build the stadium, includes Weston Urban co-founder Graham Weston, its CEO Randy Smith and former Clear Channel Communications executive Bob Cohen, among others.
Weston Urban, the private development firm behind Frost Tower and 300 Main, is planning to build hotels and apartments in the area with a projected taxable value of approximately $1 billion.
In recent years, Weston Urban has been assembling property and land in the northwest part of downtown. The acquisitions have included the Soap Factory apartments, in which the developer plans to demolish in phases, moving residents to other properties over the next five years through the help of a relocation service and offering residents $2,500 in assistance.
Residents of the 50-year-old complex, considered a naturally occurring affordable property, and their advocates, have spoken against that plan.
Pct. 2 Commissioner Justin Rodriguez said he has met with Soap Factory residents and underscored that there are still many details to be worked out in the agreement.
“I visited with some who had been there over two decades and raised their grandkids there, and even though they’re renters, that is their home,” Rodriguez said. “I think we need to be cognizant of that and sensitive to that and make sure they’re taken care of.”
SAISD parking lot
The team’s owners say only one remaining parcel of land on Camaron Street is needed to build the ballpark.
Owned by the San Antonio Independent School District, the 2.3-acre property is a gravel parking lot used by teachers at Fox Tech and CAST Tech high schools and the district’s Advanced Learning Academy (ALA).
The property is not considered surplus and can’t be sold without going through a sealed bid process unless the buyer has the power of eminent domain, such as the City of San Antonio and Bexar County.
The memorandum states that the team is in negotiations with SAISD, but that an agreement “will likely include” the San Pedro Creek Development Authority.
The team owners approached SAISD in April, offering to buy the land at market value. The ballpark also would be made available to the district for playoff games and educational purposes.
On Monday, trustees held a town hall meeting to hear from parents and others about the proposed sale of the parking lot.
Several parents and teachers supported the sale and the opportunities and revenue it will provide to the district. But others said they were concerned about losing parking spaces and that the ballpark could make traffic even worse than it already is.
Some said they were against the project because the developers plan to demolish the nearby Soap Factory apartments to build the stadium, displacing renters. Amy Kastely, a pro bono attorney for the Esperanza Peace and Justice Center, told trustees they were the last hope for halting the project.
“We look to you for integrity because we need it so much at this time,” she said. “This reeks of corruption, and that is because there’s virtually no public benefit from this project.”
SAISD has estimated that the project will generate $110 million in property tax revenue through 2055. The San Antonio River Authority and University Health also stand to gain new property tax revenue.
Rick Schell, who said his children attend ALA, told SAISD trustees that he thinks the ballpark will promote future growth for the school.
“The taxes that are generated here are going to help my kids,” he said. “They’re going to help the teachers that work at the school. They’re going to help our friends and our family, and they are an investment for the teachers at ALA Fox Tech with an improved parking area that helps with safety.”
One Westside resident said that if the trustees don’t stand up for the project, no development would come to the area, like what’s happened in other parts of town.
Asked to respond to some comments, Bruce Hill, control manager for the Designated Bidders, also spoke briefly at the town hall. “There is no corruption in this,” he said.
“We’re not finished [negotiating], but I can tell you this … we don’t want a deal that is just fair to us. We want a deal that’s fair to every student and every teacher in SAISD, and we mean that. We’re not here to take advantage.”
SAISD leaders said negotiations with Designated Bidders are ongoing and no date for a decision has been set.
The MLB did not respond to a request for comment about the deadline being reached without the land sale being finalized.
Disclosure: Pat Frost sits on the San Antonio Report’s board of directors.
