San Antonio considers $850M convention center expansion and $125M in Alamodome improvements
A new Spurs arena isn’t the only project getting attention in San Antonio’s proposed sports and entertainment district.
City staff is proposing a two-phase, $850 million expansion of the Henry B. González Convention Center, which is about $100 million more than their previous estimate.
They’re also planning on $125 million worth of work on the Alamodome over the next decade in the lead up to what could be a major overhaul that city officials say they can’t yet afford.
The two projects were discussed at a Wednesday council meeting and briefing with reporters.
Financing plans for both rely on a special tax capture district known as the project finance zone, which diverts a portion of hotel-related state taxes, as well as the city’s local tax on hotel stays.
Convention center expansion
The planned convention center expansion would add more than 209,000 square feet of exhibit, ballroom, and meeting space and connect the building to Civic Park, though it has not been fully designed.
The extra exhibit space would put the convention center in the top 10 nationwide, said Michael Lockwood from Populous, an architectural firm hired by the city.
Visit San Antonio President and CEO Mario Bass said the extra space would allow them to go after another 74 groups to book their events. But other cities in Texas and around the country have been updating their convention spaces, too.
Bass said San Antonio is “currently holding our own” in comparison to Texas cities like Austin, Fort Worth, and Dallas for the pace of bookings, but that plummets in 2031.
“That has everything to do with the convention centers that are opening up and the investments that are being made,” he said.
Though early estimates for the expansion projects were in the $700 million to $900 million range, staff later penciled it in for $750 million.
The first phase of the latest plan, estimated at $700 million, would bring all new exhibit and ballroom space online, while the $150 million second phase with the lion’s share of the meeting space could be held until the economy improves.
Chief of Financial & Administrative Services Ben Gorzell said the city would like to get a solicitation out in spring 2027 to find someone to design the full expansion.
He doesn’t expect the project to be under construction, though, until late 2028 or early 2029.
Alamodome
The city has previously talked about a massive overhaul of the Alamodome to keep it competitive with newer facilities across the country. But that’s a pricey proposition, staff say, with every scenario costing over $1 billion.
With the constraints of financing a new arena and expanded convention center in the mix, the city has largely punted any possibility of such transformation until 2035 or later.
In the meantime, Gorzell said a proposed $125 million worth of work over the next decade “is really making sure the buildings got the operational capital that it needs to function and operate as it does today, over the next 10 years.”
The city’s financial capacity begins to open up more in the early to mid-2030s, Gorzell said, and it can make a decision in about 2035 whether to continue doing maintenance-type improvements or undertake a major renovation.
Spurs arena
The $1.3 billion arena is still moving ahead as the city negotiates with the University of Texas at San Antonio to buy the proposed arena site and with the Spurs on a final arena deal, which will be based on the terms council members approved last summer.
Though they had previously hoped to have a final deal with the Spurs hammered out by the end of the year, staff now say they had been expecting an earlier start, and they don’t have a specific timeline of when it could be done.
The Spurs hope to open the arena for the 2030-2031 season.
Dropped projects
Some of the other parts of the original Project Marvel plans have changed.
The city dropped pursuit of a new convention center hotel after the San Antonio Water System found it would be too expensive to move a chilled water plant in its way.
A land bridge connecting the Alamodome to Hemisfair over Interstate 37 has been indefinitely shelved after staff say necessary federal funding “is no longer there.” However, they also say the idea continues to be studied.
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