SAN ANTONIO – San Antonio knows where a Spurs arena would be built and how it could be funded, but the pressing question now is one of the hardest to get a firm answer on: when will it happen?
While City of San Antonio, Bexar County, or Spurs officials aren’t providing any hard dates yet, it appears likely that the team will remain at the Frost Bank Center for most — if not all — of its remaining lease, which ends in 2032.
Just over 52% of Bexar County voters approved Proposition B on Tuesday, giving the green light to help fund a $1.3 billion Spurs arena with up to $311 million of county money through a venue tax on hotel stays and car rentals.
Proposition A, a parallel proposal to use the same venue tax to fix up the county facilities around the team’s current East Side home, passed with just under 56% approval.
Both propositions raise the hotel portion of the tax from 1.75% to 2%, while maintaining the 5% tax on car rentals.
While voter approval of the county portion allows the arena project to move ahead, it’s not anywhere near the end of the road.
The city council passed a non-binding set of terms to fund the arena in August, but city and county officials said they still need to sign binding agreements.
Bexar County Judge Peter Sakai and San Antonio Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones have indicated that negotiations are not totally over yet.
“Nothing’s gonna start till we get the contracts,” Sakai told reporters Wednesday.
During a Wednesday news conference on the steps of City Hall with Sakai, council members and Spurs officials, Jones said there were “Many, many project agreements to make sure that those are finalized and are in fact a win-win for the city.” She listed affordable housing, commitments to labor, and “good-paying” jobs as elements to be included.
“So we have a lot of work to do to make sure we’ve got a really strong community benefits agreement, one that is worthy of the investment that we are — this generational investment that we all working on here,” Jones said. “And I look forward to doing that.”
Spurs Managing Partner Peter J. Holt told reporters at the team’s election watch party Tuesday night the Spurs are “just now starting the design process.”
“We don’t know when it’ll (the arena) be done. When it is, it’s gonna be really special,” Holt said.
KSAT followed up with him on Wednesday, asking if he could provide even “ballpark” estimates on when either a deal might be done, construction would start, or the arena would be open.
“No,” he told KSAT. “I think we’re not going to take anything for granted. We’re going to start working day by day with our partners and work on a process that’s collaborative. And when we have more definitive timelines, I that’s when we’ll be ready to share it.”
“Timeline assumptions” from when the city first unveiled its wider plans for a sports and entertainment district, Project Marvel, nearly a year ago, put the start of the arena’s construction in 2026 with a completion date midway through 2028.
The City of San Antonio’s initial presentation on Project Marvel in November 2024 indicated the arena could be finished by 2028, but city staff say current expectations are it would take longer (City of San Antonio)
However, city staff said that’s a shorter turnaround than what they have discussed with the council.
During the council’s Aug. 21 vote on the term sheet, Jones shared a timeline she said had come from City Manager Erik Walsh. It showed design work continuing into 2029 when construction would start.
The arena might be substantially complete by the first half of 2032, with a “soft opening” in the second half of the year.
Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones showed a possible timeline for the arena’s construction during an Aug. 21 city council meeting. Jones said City Manager Erik Walsh had shared the timeline with her and “if you’re asking, yes, this has been approved by the Spurs.” (City of San Antonio)
Ben Gorzell, Chief of Financial and Administrative Services, also told council members during the same meeting that the arena would open within the same timeline in the summer of 2032.
The city also still needs to acquire the arena site, where the now-demolished Institute of Texan Cultures building used to sit at the southeast corner of Hemisfair, across Interstate 37 from the Alamodome.
The property is owned by the University of Texas system, which has granted the city the exclusive right to acquire it. It’s expected to cost approximately $60 million, in addition to the city’s $489 million share of the arena construction.
The Spurs are expected to pay at least $500 million toward the construction costs, as well as any cost overruns.
Though the county’s share was the only part that required a public vote, Jones had previously suggested the city choose to hold its own election on its share, saying, “If you pay twice, you should vote twice.”
She refused to answer KSAT’s questions twice on Wednesday regarding whether she still plans to push for a second election, which would require support from a majority of the city council.
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