San Antonio city leaders want to transform the downtown.
The quest to build an arena for the National Basketball Association’s San Antonio Spurs ownership group has begun. The name of the plan is Project Marvel, which sounds as if it was lifted from a comic book. Project Marvel includes the construction of a San Antonio arena along with renovations to the 31-year-old Alamodome. The plan also calls for the adding 150,000 square feet to the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center as well as building a 20,000-square-foot University of Texas at San Antonio School of Hospitality. Additionally, if all goes according to the plan, the empty John H. Wood Federal Courthouse would be turned into a 5,000-seat concert venue. A convention center hotel would be part of Project Marvel. The price tag of Project Marvel is estimated to be around $4 billion. The public will provide a share of the cost by not getting any of the taxes collected within the arena-district zone. The developers of Project Marvel will keep the 6% hotel tax and 6% sales tax so they can pay down the costs of the project.
But those tax dollars certainly are not enough to fund the $4 billion expenditure.
That leads to the question of who will pay for the construction and there doesn’t seem to be a concrete answer. But San Antonio officials need Project Marvel so they will not be left behind. “We recently found out about a year ago that the NCAA is not going to be doing any more Final Fours in San Antonio than their commitment to the Women’s Final Four in 2029,” San Antonio assistant city manager Lori Houston said. “The reason for that is that our facility is too old, and they’re looking to go to newer facilities that have more premium seating and public space and public space opportunities they’re looking for.” The NCAA is not putting any money up to help San Antonio. The arena game continues.
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Project Marvel entertainment center.