The San Antonio City Council approved a framework deal for a new downtown minor league San Antonio Missions baseball stadium after weeks of pushback on the deal from residents over the plan’s proposed displacement of hundreds of tenants. But many of those tenants said they still weren’t satisfied by new provisions in the deal.
The city council voted 9-2 to approve the memorandum of understanding. An effort led by District 2 Councilmember Jalen McKee-Rodriguez to delay the vote another week failed 4-7 after council members and Weston Urban representatives expressed concern that they were running up against a deadline of Oct.15 set by Major League Baseball (MLB).
Brooklyn Ramos is a Soap Factory resident and a student at Alamo Colleges. She said she and her neighbors were left in the dark about the new provisions in the deal until the last minute.
“Most notably, the residents of Soap Factory had no say in the creation of this plan,” she said. “I would also like to highlight the fact that we as residents have not been in a formal meeting with Weston Urban or the city council when decisions like this are being made.”
That sentiment was repeated by several other Soap Factory tenants who spoke to the council on Thursday.
Those new plans include $2,500 for Soap Factory tenants to relocate. Weston Urban and the City of San Antonio will each contribute $250,000 to establish a fund that will pay those costs out. $500,000 is not enough money to pay every Soap Factory Resident, according to city staff.
City Manager Erik Walsh said the city would have to consider spending some of its own money if it wanted to add to the pot down the line.
The Soap Factory Apartments currently contains over 300 tenants and is owned by major real estate developer and Missions ownership group partner Weston Urban.
Property tax revenue on the new development is expected to pay for the vast majority or all of the cost of the $160 million stadium beyond the anticipated revenues generated by the stadium and $34 million in team equity.
The city’s $250,000 portion of the relocation fund comes from extra American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding and can only be used for residents making under 80% of the area average median income and who have lived at Soap Factory for at least one year. The $250,000 from Weston Urban can be used for any tenant, regardless of their income or how recently they have moved in, as long as it’s before Oct. 1 of this year.
The idea originated from members of Communities Organized for Public Service/Metro Alliance who made the demand at the first public hearing about the plan at the end of August.
Jimmy Drennan is a Catholic pastor and leader in the COPS/Metro Alliance. He said the organization is now in support of the plan following concessions from the city and Weston Urban, but they are closely watching how the project proceeds.
“All of us need to be invited to that table, and we will accept nothing less than that,” Drennan said. “The citizenry of San Antonio needs to be treated in the same way that developers and billionaires and millionaires are treated in this community.”
But many said the fund was flawed, and that the responsibility for supporting resident relocation should fall entirely on Weston Urban.
“We could deploy these funds to address problems that are already existing, but instead we are going to subsidize the displacement of these tenants,” McKee Rodriguez said.
Weston Urban did not respond to TPR’s request for comment.
The plan says Weston Urban will also pay the nonprofit Building Brighter Communities for the next five years to help Soap Factory residents access rent, utility and moving assistance programs.
The first phase of economic development — and of the Soap Factory’s demolition — is expected to begin in October 2025. The final phase impacting the Soap Factory is expected to begin in September 2029.
Those residents that the demolition displaces will be allowed to move to other units at the Soap Factory, to the Urban Weston property Continental Block, or Opportunity Home Beacon Community units around the city. In most cases, application fees, deposits and early termination fees would be waived — and in some cases, first month’s rent would also be waived.
District 9 Councilmember John Courage, who is running for mayor, said many of the council’s decisions to improve the city involve sacrifices, and this is one of them.
“There’s gonna be hundreds of jobs that pay probably very good salaries in construction,” Courage said. “There’s going to be maybe hundreds of people over a few years that are going to be working there and making a living for themselves. There’s going to be thousands and thousands of fans who are going to be going there enjoying that over their lifetime, but yes at your expense, it’s true. But we need to think of the big picture.”
The new stadium planned for the Missions in northwest downtown is intended to replace the aging Nelson W. Wolff Stadium that does not meet new MLB standards.
Weston Urban owns much of the land required for the baseball stadium, as well as all of the land surrounding it dedicated for economic development. It still must purchase a plot of land from the San Antonio Independent School District, on which the ballpark would partially sit.
