San Antonio advances $60M land deal for Spurs arena

San Antonio is inching closer to a new home for the city’s NBA team, the Spurs. 

On Thursday, a divided City Council approved funds to buy land for a new downtown arena. San Antonio will use up to $60 million in Midtown Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone (TIRZ) funds to acquire the arena site.  

The arena will be constructed where the former Institute of Texan Cultures stood until recently at Hemisfair. The University of Texas Board of Regents controls the site. Negotiations are ongoing.  

The Midtown Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone (TIRZ) has helped spur redevelopment in the Pearl district for the past two decades. The TIRZ board approved the funds last week. Thanks to the TIRZ, what was once home to the blighted former Pearl Brewery has been transformed into one of the wealthiest parts of the fast-growing city. 

City Council voted 7-2 to extend the end date for the Midtown TIRZ from 2041 to 2060, although they also tasked city staffers with looking into the possibility of wrapping up the TIRZ prior to the new 2060 deadline they’d just approved. 

The 20-year extension is expected to generate an estimated $580 million in additional funding for public and private development. 

The proposed Spurs arena is part of an estimated $1 billion total development known as Project Marvel. San Antonio has committed $489 million to the project, while Bexar County has pledged another $311 million. In exchange, the county is expected to gain control of the Frost Bank Center, the Spurs’ current home, for continued use by the San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo and other events. 

Story by Jacob Fisher; image courtesy City of San Antonio