A new ballpark for the San Antonio Missions seems likely to come to downtown San Antonio in 2028. The city negotiated a deal with the team’s ownership group Designated Bidders LLC that includes no taxpayer support or tax breaks for the project, but which does involve the displacement of some residents.
City staff briefed the San Antonio City Council on the $160 million ballpark project on Wednesday, and no single issue came up more frequently than the fact that the deal includes no tax dollars.
The city and team plan to accomplish this largely through taxation on $1 billion in new economic development immediately surrounding the ballpark in northwest downtown San Antonio. Weston Urban, the major real estate developer with properties dotting the urban core, is part of the ownership group and has committed to the development.
“This is not a plan built on hope,” Weston Urban CEO Randy Smith said. “It’s very important to me that the community understands that, as it relates to adjacent development, this is not ‘build it and they will come.’”
Designated Bidders LLC is a local group that purchased the Missions in 2022. It includes San Antonio Spurs Hall of Fame players David Robinson and Manu Ginóbili and former San Antonio mayor Henry Cisneros.
Weston Urban’s economic development projects would be split into four phases, with the first and largest expected to be completed by 2027, the second completed by 2029, and the third and fourth expected to be completed by 2030 and 2031.
The Missions currently play at Nelson M Wolff Stadium on Highway 90, which does not meet recent standards put out by Major League Baseball (MLB) for what a minor league stadium needs to be.
Reid Ryan, the former president of the Houston Astros and the CEO of Ryan Sanders Baseball, sits on the Missions board. He said the standards changes came as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“MLB unified, or really kind of uniformed the system, and went from 160 [minor league] teams to 120 [minor league teams] teams, where each major league club now has four affiliates,” Ryan said. “So unfortunately, 40 cities lost their teams, and of the 120, we were all given a certain time period to get our stadiums into a uniform compliance across major league and minor league baseball.”
The new stadium will have approximately 4,500 fixed seats and capacity for 7,500.
The Missions are putting $34 million in equity into the front end of the project. Bonds issued by a yet to be created San Pedro Creek Development Authority — whose board would be made up of representatives from the city, county, and the Missions and which would own the ballpark itself — would make up the other $126 million needed upfront to build the baseball field.
That bond would then be paid back by revenue from the taxable valuation on the first two phases of new development Weston Urban is funding and Missions revenue once the field opens. That revenue would be an annual $1 million lease for the facility and a $2 fee on all tickets sold by the Missions.
The revenue from the new economic development will be collected in the Houston Street Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone (TIRZ) and a yet to be created Municipal Management District (MMD) to pay back the remainder of the bond.
A TIRZ is a geographic zone cities and counties can create to focus investment. In these zones, when property values exceed a certain amount set by the city, the taxation on all the value above that specified amount is collected in the TIRZ and used for things like economic development projects.
An MMD is another type of geographical zone where property owners in it pay an assessment in addition to their property taxes. Those assessments are then used to support services or projects within the MMD’s boundary — in this case, the ballpark.
This MMD would only capture the new economic development and ballpark, unlike the Houston Street TIRZ which already exists and encompasses a large swath of northwest downtown.
If the economic development did not reach projected taxable valuations for phases one and two, the team has guaranteed that it will make up the difference in revenue.
If phases three and four of the economic development never occur, then money from the Houston Street TIRZ that is not related to the new economic development would be used to cover the difference.
But if phases three and four are completed and meet their expected valuations, then the taxation and assessments from all new development and the $34 million team equity contribution would entirely pay for the ballpark.
The city’s Chief Financial Officer Ben Gorzell said even in the worst-case situation, taxpayers won’t be affected.
“About 86% is being funded from that team equity contribution, the team revenues, guaranteed city and county property tax increment from phases one and two of the new development, and the guaranteed municipal management district assessment for phases one and two of the new development,” in this worst-case scenario, Gorzell said.
The city would need to move some land currently in the Westside TIRZ into the Houston Street TIRZ, which would require the approval of the Westside TIRZ board, in order to capture all of Weston Urban’s proposed economic development. Some land would need to be purchased from the San Antonio Independent School District for the ballpark, and conversations about that are ongoing.
Bexar County is also working separately with the Missions to build a new parking garage for the stadium.
The city plan also says that the Missions will be on the hook to pay for any construction costs that go beyond the guaranteed maximum price, a figure that will be developed by the fall of 2025. It is expected to be around $160 million.
“So to be very clear, you heard it said by the team. I’m gonna say it a couple of times: The general taxpayer will not be paying for this ballpark,” Gorzell said.
Phases one and two of the economic development promised by Weston Urban will cause some residents living in the Soap Factory Apartments — which Weston Urban owns — to be displaced.
In the initial plan, tenants displaced by phase one of the economic development would be given the opportunity to move to another Soap Factory unit. Tenants displaced by phase two would be given the opportunity to move to another Soap Factory unit or to move to the nearby Weston Urban-owned Continental Block project. If neither option is selected, they would receive housing navigation services to find housing elsewhere.
The Continental Block project is not scheduled to be completed until after phase one of the economic development phase has already displaced Soap Factory residents.
After a question from District 5 Councilmember Teri Castillo, Smith committed to offering housing navigation services to phase one displaced tenants as well as waiving any application or deposit fees for displaced residents that want to move into other Urban Weston properties.
Another question if the city council approves the plan is what will happen to the Wolff Stadium.
Gorzell said the city owns much of the land surrounding the stadium and would come up with a concept plan for redevelopment of the area.
The stadium sits in Councilmember Melissa Cabello Havrda’s District 6. She said the old promise of the development that would come with Wolff Stadium was never fulfilled, and that she’s hopeful the move can actually be good for the surrounding Edgewood community.
“It’s a win for downtown, it’s a win for baseball, and it also has to be a win for Edgewood,” she said. “And I think that at this point, the direction that we’re heading, I think it really is going to be.”
When the council will vote on the plan is up in the air — it was initially planned for Aug. 29 but may be moved after several council members asked for more time to get feedback from the public.
If approved, the ballpark is expected to be completed before opening day in April 2028.
