Council members, we're gonna get started.

The time is now two or four p.m.

on Wednesday, June 17th, 2026 in the city of San Antonio.

B session is called to order.

Madam Clerk, please call roll.

Councilmember Corps.

Councilmember McKee Rodriguez.

Councilmember Via Gran.

Here.

Councilmember Monguilla.

Present.

Councilmember Castillo.

Councilmember Gavon.

Councilmember Alareta Gavito.

Here.

Councilmember Mesa Gonzalez.

Councilmember Spears.

Councilmember White.

Mayor Jones.

Mayor, we have quorum.

Great.

Thank you.

This meeting is a briefing as an update.

This was deferred if you remember from about a month ago.

An update on the sports and downtown entertainment district.

Go ahead, Eric.

Thank you, Mayor.

Good afternoon, Mayor Council.

So yes, this was an item that had previously been scheduled for on May 7th, and based on council conversation that day, and the request to move it to a B session.

Today's update on the proposed downtown sports entertainment district and the progress uh made uh since the last council update.

This initiative obviously uh represents a significant investment in the future of San Antonio and includes um potentially a downtown arena, convention center expansion, uh enhanced connectivity, downtown, um, um the um uh mixed use development opportunities and other key infrastructure improvements.

Uh Shannon is kind of going to walk through the update uh since the council's approval of the term sheet uh framework and subsequent action.

Staff has been continuing to coordinate with key partners and stakeholders on the work, and and you'll see that in the presentation.

Um we uh uh you will also include in today's presentation the timeline for when we will be returning back.

There's a fair amount of work that's coming back to the council in September, and with that I will turn it over to Shannon to walk through the presentation.

Great.

Thank you, Eric.

Um good afternoon, Mayor and Council.

I'm Shannon Miller, Chief Downtown Officer.

Happy to um be with you this afternoon to walk through the presentation.

Um to start, I we wanted to provide an update related to the downtown working group that began meeting in April of this year.

Um the downtown working group, and you'll see the members listed there, is working to inventory uh relevant efforts and data around housing infrastructure and mobility in downtown.

Um the group is made up of five council members and five community leaders in housing, transportation, housing and transportation, who will help us develop a policy framework that will come back to the full city council for consideration.

At the last meeting, the working group reviewed upcoming affordable housing developments by Opportunity Home and by the San Antonio Housing Trust, and we received briefings from uh via about their downtown mobility efforts and some of the one of the presentations and some of the handouts from that last session um were passed out for you prior to the meeting.

Uh the meeting next month will include a discussion by Centro San Antonio of the draft downtown strategic framework that they commissioned, and we will also discuss public assets downtown, such as efforts related to the riverwalk strategic plan that is underway.

Um this work builds upon um adopted priorities for downtown that were included in the SA Tomorrow Downtown Area Plan.

Um, as of about a month or so ago, the city hired Accenture to serve as the executive program manager uh for the district, the overall district project, and help to coordinate um the various projects within the district.

So the EPM helps city staff to ensure that strategy, funding, governance, and delivery are aligned across projects as the district rolls out.

Accenture will be preparing a public facing dashboard to track priority metrics, which will launch in the new year.

But prior to that, the team will be bringing forward a proposal for what will be included in that dashboard as part of an update in September to receive council feedback on that dashboard to ensure that we will be providing the information that the council wants us to be sharing with the public and that the public will expect to see.

We'll talk a little bit about some acquisitions that are pending related to the district, two in particular.

The first is the federal building at Indianola and Cesar Chavez Boulevard, and it is about 5.7-acre property and is a future site of mixed-use development as part of the larger district and will help to support the financing of the arena.

The purchase price is 30 million dollars plus closing costs of up to 120,000, and that purchase price is funded through contribution from the Spurs.

Closing is expected on that property in July of this year.

The second property is the former ITC site at the corner of I 37, currently owned by the UT system.

This is approximately 13.5 acre property and is planned for the arena and the mixed use development.

We anticipate that that property will cost approximately 60 million dollars, although appraisals are still underway, and the funding is anticipated to come from the midtown tours.

That purchase should be finalized later this year, before the end of the calendar year.

The next slide is about some updates on our facilities.

The sports and entertainment district contains two of our existing facilities, the convention center and the Alamo Dome.

As it relates to the convention center, we continue to accept to assess our expansion requirements based on market analysis, our space needs, opportunities for access to the park, and based on stakeholder input.

In fact, even just earlier today, I met with the San Antonio Business Coalition to discuss the need for this expansion in order to optimize our space and to stay competitive in the convention center marketplace.

We know that an expansion of the exhibit halls and complementing meeting rooms and ballroom space will allow us to host more simultaneous events, which is important to us in order to stay competitive.

The feasibility study will be completed and presented to council in September, along with a proposed timeline for design and procurement process.

As it relates to the Alamo Dome, we're continuing our assessment of capital needs to support the operations over the next 10 years.

This feasibility work will serve as the basis for capital planning as we continue operating the Alamo Dome.

We also will assess creative capital opportunities where we can focus on the types of investments that will have a financial return or it serve to enhance the experience of people visiting the Alamo Dome.

These recommendations will also be presented to City Council in September.

I'm sorry.

So the next couple of slides relate to mobility in downtown.

So I'm going to start with an update on the downtown accessibility and mobility study.

This study will evaluate parking as one component of a broader and integrated downtown mobility system.

We know that having strong transportation options is a community priority, and that the demand for parking can be offset by offering affordable, accessible and timely alternative options.

The study will assess the feasibility of new and existing city-owned facilities as well as the utilization of existing private parking.

The study will also consider the expected increased utilization of VIA and the potential impact of transportation network companies.

Tomorrow, on June 18th, the City Council will consider a contract with Walker consultants valued at just under 500,000 to conduct the study.

And draft findings from that consultant group will be presented to council in September.

Those findings are anticipated to include existing conditions assessment, parking and mobility ecosystem analysis, findings related to user experience, an assessment of technology, curb management findings, and then preliminary future demand modeling.

They would not yet include final recommendations, of course, or any final conclusions pending feedback from city council on those initial findings.

The city was awarded a U.S.

Department of Transportation planning grant to study improved connectivity across I-37 from Houston between Houston Street and Carolina Street to the south.

The study will evaluate current like freeway crossings, including underpasses and the existing pedestrian bridge, and then consider other infrastructure needs to improve mobility in that area.

Project deliverables will include preliminary engineering for the preferred options that are determined through this community input process.

Public engagement for this project kicks off later this month with three identical workshops offered on June 25th and 27th.

So they're they're offered at different times of day, both during the day, in the evening, and one on the weekend, so that we can accommodate all different schedules.

About a year ago in June of 2025 at B session, we presented a slate of infrastructure improvements that would support large events in the downtown area both today and as the district develops and is built out.

We're revisiting those based on ongoing studies and in coordination with other efforts and with VIA and Textile.

We will also be coordinating with the Spurs as they develop their conceptual site plan for the portion of the district that they are developing and how that would impact infrastructure alignments.

And so that study will also be completed and will be brought back to city council along with estimated budget numbers in September.

And then finally, this year the city will continue will begin negotiations of the definitive documents and agreements for the arena project with the San Antonio Spurs, the Spurs Developer, Bear County, and others.

Those negotiations will be informed by all of the ongoing studies that I've mentioned, also the district study that is underway.

You'll see on the slide, this is kind of a sample of the types of agreements that will be needed, but there are many more, and likely as the negotiations begin and get underway, some of these might be combined or additional agreements might be needed.

Staff will also be updating financial models, including revenue projections, assumptions, and market conditions.

So we do expect that negotiations on the definitive documents will be completed by the end of December.

And with that, I am happy to answer questions, as are several other members of staff in the audience.

Thank you, Shannon.

Councilwoman Corps.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you, Shannon, for the presentation.

I just wanted to highlight a little bit about the second slide around the downtown working group and kind of some of the findings that we had from this last session in a little bit more depth for my council colleagues.

We printed out for you two things.

One is the housing market study, and this was a presentation that was provided to us by Pete from the Housing Trust as the CEO, and he shared with us findings around housing downtown, which were really interesting.

We had some really robust discussions about the real estate cycle and what that looks like, and how with housing supply, when you get to a peak, eventually what happens is then there is a fall, where a lot of the units that are available are actually not rented to full capacity.

But you have to go through the fall and the recovery phase to come back to stabilization and continue to use the housing supply that's there.

And so the interesting part about that is while there might seem like there is an oversupply, at some point that oversupply is going to be taken up as the population grows.

So if we don't continue to build, then we'll actually get to a place where all of the rates will rise for how much it costs to live downtown.

So it's a kind of a tricky thing about making the right assumption for when we should continue to build more and how much more investment we need to put in developing housing downtown.

The most big takeaway that I had, or the biggest takeaway that I had from this housing presentation was that affordable housing gets picked up faster downtown, which means the absorption rate is better for affordable housing.

And then the second thing I really took away is if if because we have some naturally occurring affordable housing downtown, if we don't continue to invest in affordable housing, then what's going to happen is that naturally occurring is going to increase in rents, and then it won't be affordable for our workforce downtown that we want to be able to live here.

So I thought that was a really interesting takeaway from this presentation.

There's also one of the projects that I just wanted to highlight, which is the Whitney, and it's on Bottom Street.

It's at 425 Bottom Street, and it's a hotel to workforce housing conversion.

So those of us that are on the housing trust got to vote in support of this, and that's going to be within walking distance of the Alamo of the Alamo of the Hemisphere Park and all the things downtown, so that those folks that are working in the service industry downtown will really soon have a place to live.

So I was excited to hear about that.

And then the second thing that you guys have in front of you is this really cool uh placard from Via.

And I know Councilman Via Gran will mention a little bit about this too because she enjoyed seeing this during our meeting.

But this shows you that VIA has a very clear focus on moving people in around and out of downtown and what their plan is for doing that.

One of the things that we know as a community is that via is a huge part of any transportation plan that we're gonna need.

And so, what I'm hoping that we see in September when the mobility and access study comes back, is how can we better partner with more micromobility options with more via park and ride that are closer to downtown so that we can get people moving without having to just solely resort to car traffic and parking lots.

So, this plan that they have also is looking at some really cool innovative solutions, including autonomous vehicles that are vans that can move at a faster rate using the advanced rapid transit green line that's gonna be coming straight down San Pedro, right into the heart of downtown to get people in and out faster and quicker.

And I think that's gonna be really wonderful for not only the activations that we're able to do, but also the space that we're able to utilize that right now is just kind of being defeated through the use of surface parking lots.

The last thing I just wanted to highlight with the mobility and access study that I think is really important is that while we might imagine everyone will take public transit, we know that's not true, and so we do have to have better parking and curb management structures, and so I'm excited to see what the study comes back with for electronic parking systems that includes partnerships between not only city public lots but also private lots, and so I know that's gonna be one of the recommendations that comes back along with things like curb control, booting ordinance, etc.

So, this I'm a little bit being nerdy right now with all of the stuff that we're talking about in the downtown working group, but I think what's most important is that we too often do things in silos, and we talk about that all the time.

We have so many public entities doing such great work, but the more we can work together, opportunity home and housing trust sitting side by side and talking about the developments that they have upcoming via and city leadership getting very well aligned, I think is super important, and then having Centro at the table who has already led with the downtown study that has already occurred and a parking study and learning from them as well, I think is important.

So I'm grateful to be a part of those conversations and look forward to continuing to be able to report back to this body of the things that we're learning about.

So this body, which is the policy making body for the city, can actually take up those discussions.

So that's the one I wanted to highlight from that and looking forward to seeing all these studies that September.

I'm just like thinking, man, September and October are gonna be heavy months.

We got to buckle up.

There's gonna be a lot of conversations happening at that time, but looking forward to seeing how all of that comes alive because as we saw in the last few weeks, man, downtown was lit up and it was wonderful.

And I wanted to lastly not fully related, but give a shout-out to the police officers that were downtown the last couple of weeks because they did an incredible job of keeping uh people safe to the best of their ability.

So thanks and thanks, Mayor.

Thank you.

Um Troy, I wanted to give you an opportunity also to give us a brief update on on some of the items that may have changed or um updated the financial picture.

So the uh um the hotel that was originally envisioned for the children water plant, for example, um, any uh changes, updates as you see to the financing, uh either contributions to the tours or PFC or distribution there would be helpful for us to as part of this update as well.

Go ahead.

You know, as we talked about, and you've seen from SAWs that um they were conducting their study, as a result of that study, they were evaluating the movement of that chilled water plant to an alternate location.

That became from a feasibility standpoint very costly, so that was discontinued.

Um also the hotel in looking at that and not moving that chilled water plant.

You know, we're no longer considering moving that hotel or building that hotel um as it stands right now.

The actual impact of that, we did not consider the value of that hotel in terms of hotel occupant occupancy tax or property tax in any of our performers.

So that was not included or considered in the TURS, the PFZ, or any of those um financial analysis.

Um given obviously the how those things are funded, the PFC is funded, is there another hotel envisioned in that downtown area that would um make up for that thousand room hotel that is no longer going to be?

Well, it won't make up because it wasn't wasn't considered, but there is a part of the conversations.

At one point, well, to be very clear though, at one point there was an assessed need for a thousand dollar a thousand room hotel next to the convention center or in around it to support operation.

So my question is with that no longer being on the site of the chilled water plant.

Do you anticipate another hotel potentially being used to assess whatever demand you saw at some point that was going to meet?

So that demand, I'm guessing you still assess will be there.

How do you intend to meet that?

You know, right now, in terms there is not another convention center hotel that's being envisioned to replace the current one.

I was just gonna say that, Mayor.

Right now we got we got plenty on our plate in terms of the things that we need to do.

We're not anticipating, just like we said last fall in the updates to the council.

If if if the SARS feasibility came back and it wasn't, it wasn't it was too expensive to go through that effort, then we were going to stop any additional work on a convention center hotel and focus on the matters at hand.

Maybe you can talk or or maybe Shannon can talk to it as well.

Helping us understand the interplay then between the um anticipated uh expansion of the convention center, which I would understand is connected to additional hotel capacity.

If that additional hotel capacity is no longer there, how do you um envision the additional potential competitiveness of the expansion of the hotel of the convention center, rather?

If the if you don't have the uh if you don't have the hotel next to it.

How should we understand that?

Because in our minds, at least mind, those two things were connected.

I think as we contemplate, sorry, that's a what?

I said as as we contemplate moving forward, before we would have built that hotel, we would have done a feasibility study.

One to basically understand if there was needed the size of the hotel, and then enter into negotiations with the brand to build that hotel.

But right now, um as it stands, I don't know if there's any relationship between the convention center and any new development for hotel as we move forward.

Okay.

Councilman Galvan.

Thank you, Mary.

Thank you, Shannon, for the presentation.

Um, a couple quick things I wanted to ask.

I think primarily what I was looking or what I'm looking for with a lot of these pieces is seeing what ways we can uh have some more community engagement within these parts.

I know there's some parts within the reconnected communities one.

Um, but do you anticipate any uh community engagement for the larger uh district infrastructure or the mobility studies or anything of the sort?

I know they're kind of high level right now, but do you anticipate any kind of engagement with the public about what that can look like?

I think the the simple straight answer is absolutely.

I think there will be community engagement in all aspects.

So as the different projects through in the district move forward, then there would be community engagement related to each one.

So di different people will have feedback or thoughts on for the conventions that are expansion, for example, than they might on another project in the different district.

Got it.

Okay, that's helpful.

Um I guess I'd be interested in or I would like to make sure that the EPM is present during some of those engagements whenever they do take place.

That way they can kind of all be working tangibly together.

Uh of course, I know their work is again a little high level too, but I think it's important to hear that feedback directly and kind of see who some of the players are who are involved in these conversations, just so that way we can make that full effort as much as possible.

Yes, they will absolutely be engaged.

And I actually should have pointed out that um Dan Malloy from Accenture is in the is here today, who is leading the team.

So they definitely are on the ground and um and will be involved in those meetings throughout.

I think that's gonna be essential for all this, right?

I think in the public, especially folks who are uh maybe just have different questions about the the district overall, want to make sure that all the folks are in the room are there so they can kind of ask those questions.

Um we know that there's you know all of it's kind of being baked together.

So appreciate that.

Um I know you have the timeline for one of the dashboards saying it was for next year.

Uh I think for the public-facing dashboard on priority metrics.

Um do you have the timeline for that one?

So the the built the fully built-out dashboard that Accenture will be working on will be finalized around the first of the year.

So it'll take a while to build that, you know, from a technology perspective and collecting the data.

But uh we do have continue to have a website that um the city team maintains and an SA speak up site, and so we'll continue to pride it provide information in that way as much as possible, but obviously the dashboard that Accenture will develop will just um help us to communicate that information.

Um, and Councilman, before that we finalize that dashboard, we're gonna bring it back to the council to show, make sure that's kind of there have been a number of council conversations about the public dashboard, but to show you what it looks like, both um and to show the public what it looks like.

Perfect.

That's helpful just to make sure that all those things are um on the mobility and downtown access portion, of course.

We want to make sure that the Walker consultants are working very closely with the master plans that we have, whether it's for bike network or for complete streets, hemisphere, and then of course via, right?

Making sure all those things are kind of tangent or not tangently, they're all working together.

Um I think those are just really crucial.

And of course, my belief would be to have more focus on the multimodal transportation as much as possible.

Um, as Council Record mentioned, right?

Of course, we understand there's gonna be folks who are gonna still want to park here, and that's perfectly fine.

But I think understanding that if we're gonna continue to grow our downtown with housing, et cetera, uh that we continue to find ways to make it multimodal friendly as possible.

Um I know that work's being done a lot with VIA, and then of course, on the investment we've been making along market and everything of the sort, um, but just making sure that that all is still baked in there as much as possible.

Um, and then for the the pieces with uh with text.

What's the communication been like uh with TextDot overall?

So um we've had positive conversations with TechStot throughout the planning of this and think sort of thought process of it, and that continues to this day.

We're trying to understand, you know, where our pieces of infrastructure meet, and what's necessary, what's possible, those sorts of things.

And then of course the communication as well is always uh hopeful.

Um and so just however you can present during those would be helpful too.

Um last thing that I wanted to ask, um, and I know Eric, you and I talked about this during our our conversation earlier this week, uh, but I guess for some of the definitive documents, I know we're coming back around for more substantial update in December.

Um are you looking for uh any feedback on these pieces, whether it's community benefits agreement or anything else of these kind of examples listed here or others from us through public meetings like this, or it'd be through conversation with you directly, or what kind of input would you like from us on some of these ones?

So um when we get to that point, once we have the district costs of study and we actually begin negotiations, we'll initiate that conversation with you both publicly in an executive session and make sure that we're ascertaining and pulling in the feedback that we need.

Um that the goal that we have is to have that agreement to you all for your consideration by the end of the calendar year.

So I would suspect that when the the this the district cost and revenue study, which is already underway, you guys approved on May 7th.

We need that that's a that's a big component of the next steps.

It's not the only component, but it's a big component.

Um so we'll uh we'll have those conversations with you towards the end of summer, early fall.

Okay, got it.

Is that when the studies are gonna be wrapped up or that anticipated supposed to be uh supposed to be done in September?

Yes, perfect.

Yes, sir.

Okay.

I think those are all my questions.

September, right, Troy?

Yeah, yeah.

Perfect.

Thank you so much.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you.

Councilman Monkey.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, going to the slide about the mobility study.

I think that is a very important study, especially for downtown.

Uh so could remind me what was the charge of that study, though the goal that you were trying to get out of that.

So the mobility and access study is really intended to look not just at parking needs, but to look at um uh parking as a component of like the larger infrastructure and really looking at um how we can impact the demand for parking by increasing the other options, so whether it's um you know, ride share, whether it's via, all of the different types of mobility options that exist, and then layering on that better communication about where parking's available, how to get to places, how to plan ahead for traffic, so really thinking about the whole um kind of ecosystem of mobility around downtown, and and I think another important aspect of of the overall study is thinking about you know, we know where people are trying to get when they come downtown, um, but then we also know that we have neighbors that live in and around the downtown area, and they are impacted.

Sometimes they're trying to get home, they're not trying to go to the event, they're trying to get to their house.

So also being mindful of how event days impact people that live in the area, curb management study.

Um, so it's a it's a very um holistic look at mobility in downtown.

I understand that parking, of course, is very central to that because of the need that we have, and it's a very car-centric city.

I just hope that we can also take the study but remain focused on being bold about the future of transportation in downtown, because you know, my big pipe dream for downtown would be that there would be no cars downtown, right?

It'd be all micro-mobility, which would be the goal, right?

You'd have parking lots around downtown, but you would take micro mobility or buses into downtown and have that and be a truly walkable downtown, which a lot of the big cities in the United States are, right?

And I there's different historical reasons why that is, but I just want us to make sure we're not losing sight of the bigger goal, which I think is is that and reduced vehicular traffic versus making sure people can find a parking lot to park and get there.

So, you know, I would just kind of reiterate that.

Um also, you know, we've been having a lot, it's just an ongoing conversation about transparency, and Councilman Galvan kind of talked about it just a few minutes ago.

But I think what would be really beneficial to do is for you all to have probably I would say quarterly maybe meetings, and yeah, that can be online or virtual or in person, where you're just giving updates to the community about this, right?

Because I think there's a lot of people in different districts who are very interested in this uh and want to see different things happen or want to participate, or just want to you know be trackers of of good conduct by the city, and updates like these are important for us to give input, but it's not very conducive to residents, right?

And I I imagine there's residents out here today who are interested but are not gonna be able to ask us questions or ask you questions, and I think that's a really good way of including regular updates because you know this dashboards not gonna be open until January, but I think there's room for that.

What do you what do you think about that?

I think that's a great idea, and we would be more than happy to to do that and to work with each of you.

Because I I mean I think another opportunity that we like to take advantage of is to meet with existing groups that are interested.

So we're happy to come to neighborhood associations, or I know many of you have like neighborhood leadership groups, and so any of those types of things that we could come to or industry groups that you think would benefit from an update or presentation, um, we would really welcome those invitations.

Yeah, I think those are good.

I just want to make sure that everybody can see the same question and answer being put together.

And you know, I was explaining to some folks.

I if I were to do another town hall about this, right?

I think my residents would say I'd rather see a town hall on ACS, solid ways, streets, you know what I mean.

So I think I want to make sure that the opportunity exists through your office.

And then of course we have groups and stakeholders will invite you, but I think that could be a really worthwhile uh effort and transparency.

Great.

I appreciate that suggestion.

Awesome.

Uh and then, you know, on the working group, I know some of my colleagues are there, and that's great, but is there do you think there's an ability to add minutes from these meetings to public for public consumption?

Um, I mean, I think we we can definitely discuss it's just you know, a lot of what has happened to date is presentations and obviously like like the presentation that you were that you were given, and so you know, there it's pretty high level again, no decisions are being made, it's kind of framing the topics up for future conversation, but absolutely we can look at how to document those.

Yeah, and maybe maybe more useful than minutes would be like uh kind of an after action report to the council.

I think just so people can keep track, and you know, those of us that are not on there, I trust my colleagues there, and I think they're gonna do fantastic, but just so we are kind of up to date on what's being discussed, and that way we can we always want to throw in our own opinion, right?

So I think that's helpful for us.

Sure.

Um so that's good.

Thank you, Shannon, for that.

Um so you know, Shannon, as you're doing this work, um, are you identifying you know large infrastructure projects that you see are gonna be needed to complete this entertainment district?

Well, I would say we are.

I mean, collectively, obviously, it won't it won't be up to me, and I think John wants to speak to that too.

Obviously, uh, you know, there's a previous list that was identified that was shared with the council.

We're working to refine that.

I don't know if you have a more specific project in mind that you want to talk about.

No, and I and you said you developed when was that list presented?

I can't remember off the top of my head.

Um I I'd have to also remind myself, but when the infrastructure plan was presented as a part of the the overall project, um I don't remember the exact date, I think.

It was uh early June last year.

There you go.

Okay, early June of last year.

Okay.

So I'm sorry?

You would have been on council.

Yeah, I was I was here for that.

So maybe you could just send it to the television box again, just so I can see.

Uh and I'm sure you're refining that as you go along.

So if you have any notes about that, or if there's been any updates since then, I think that'd be helpful.

And I think maybe John, you might know when we expect to have a better like full presentation on that for the full council.

Yeah, I think that that's headed to you in the August-September time frame as well.

So August, September, we'll probably get a better sense of the infrastructure projects for entertainment district.

Yep.

Okay, good.

Thank you.

Uh yeah, and I saw this.

I think this is really great that that via put out.

Uh Shannon, is this something that's sharing in in the group or what's the I guess this is a good document, but I guess what's the who's the audience for this?

Um so this is actually a document that VIA produced, and I believe someone from VIA is in the audience.

Yes, if you want to call have them.

Oh, it's okay.

Jonathan, I thank you for for being here.

I appreciate I won't call you up, but this is really nice and helpful.

I think that's that's really cool what they're showing.

And I guess my other my other note would be we would like something like this.

I think for some of the other work happening across towns.

I think this is good for neighborhoods and all that.

So if you have anything that's south side specific or west side for my colleagues or east side, I think, or north side, I think that would be helpful for us too just to see the different ways people can commute in their area.

Cool.

Thank you, Shannon.

Appreciate it.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you.

Uh Councilmember Via Gran.

Thank you.

Uh I want to thank the team for this thoughtful process about the downtown area.

And I think when we first brought this up, it really was who wants to meet on Saturdays to talk about this, and um, you know, really wanted to be a part of it because of my role and visit San Antonio, the fact that I work there, the fact that when this was initially presented to us, uh before many of my uh council colleagues got here, um, there were things where I was like, uh, there's a lot of like to have and need to have.

So I am very appreciative that we're in this process that we're not repeating that if if Via's done a study or San Antonio Housing Trust has done a study or Opportunity Homes has done a study or Centro has done a study that we're not going back and doing our own study, but we're asking what materials they have, what questions they ask when we talk about the working group, and what questions do we need to ask in our forthcoming studies and procedures.

So Shannon and John and all those that are participating, and my council colleagues that are there, I think it it is truly a working group.

We do work, and I think an after-action report uh would be helpful.

The other thing I want to encourage my council colleagues that aren't there to do is call up VIA, call up Trish at Centro, call up Opportunity Homes and meet with them and they can give you an idea for what's coming next.

And Mayor, regarding the um the, I think one thing I'm gonna task with, as you brought up the hotel is really getting Scott Joslove, Michelle Madsen, and our uh hotel and lodging association to get you that information you need about it because I think right now nationwide what our hotels are seeing is that bite that Airbnbs are making in the conference.

So I always, and Eric knows there when they brought the hotel idea and it was supposed to be a um what was it called?

A teaching, like where we had hospitality school, I was always iffy because I was like, I don't know that I want to bring a hospitality hotel.

I want a first-rate hotel, and I think the trend we're seeing right now is boutique and four-star, and that's what we heard a lot in of in Europe too.

And four star, we call it luxury in overseas, they call it four stars.

So I think there's gonna need to be a lot of conversation, and if we could get a breakdown or possibly a presentation on that, I'd appreciate it.

I think when we talk about how this came to fruition, we understood not just that um the Spurs were looking for a new facility, but we had had very successful final fours in the downtown area over I think two decades, and we understood that there was this ability to bring a sports and entertainment district uh downtown and to activate the walkability downtown.

Now, while I love the idea of walking, walking and encouraging people to walk, I do want us to be considerate that we do need to take into consideration all those with mobility issues and not exclude them from the participation.

So I I would we we're still gonna need to have traffic downtown because there are people that have mobility issues that want to get to the game, that want to get um to an Alamo activity and things like that.

So I think it's it's really important that we're thoughtful, and I think these next few steps that we're taking in terms of how we do mobility, how we ask people that are able to walk from the Alamo Dome down to Market Square with stops and highlights in between, um, is what we'd like to see that we would like to find the mobility way to get us.

If you have a concert at the Frost Bank Center, but you want to come downtown for dinner or had both ways, that we have that mobility, and I I am really excited about what um via presented because if we have that way to get down, we can say I'm starting my concert here, but I'm getting picked up here, or I'm parking here and having a way to get through there.

So this has been um very good.

The team has done extremely well in bringing forward what they need to.

I'm I'm fully confident in the city staff continuing to ask the questions and participation from our partners.

I think the one thing I wanted to stress today is that any policy that comes out of this would be policy created by council, and that that's why these updates are are necessary.

The other thing is I do think that when we talk about getting into the community and sharing, I think, yes, you can do a virtual town hall or a virtual meeting, but what I prefer, and this is what Lori and the team did uh initially, is coming to the neighborhood associations because every time Lori would do that presentation, and the Alamo Dome looked like it had a retractable roof.

I would say there's not going to be a retractable room.

So I think that's what's important because you need to have the conversations, and my residents want to see you.

So I know I will be inviting you to the best practices thing that we have as an as an offer for neighborhood associations, and then there's always my office space where you can come and meet with community members.

But as we move forward, I think continue to ask questions and um just make sure that we get a full list of what questions via asked regarding their study, what do we ask in this next round as we look at mobility and what we need to move people in and around downtown.

So the housing issue though, and you all know this, it's it's gonna be difficult.

It's gonna be difficult because of the change happening at the federal level.

So that's just one thing that uh the working group continues to talk about, but we're gonna need to address it as a whole council citywide.

So thank you.

I I appreciate you guys and all the hard work.

Thanks.

Thank you, Councilmember Mesa Gonzalez.

Thank you, Mayor.

Uh, thank you for the presentation.

Um, just a few questions.

I'm glad that to see the presentation on the downtown working group.

It's been beneficial to be in that group, and uh, not so close to downtown district eight isn't close to downtown, but a lot of our residents are going downtown on a regular basis, so wanted to make sure there is a voice there to take back to my residents, and so thank you for putting these uh meetings together.

Um, a quick question on the on the chilled water plant.

I know that what we've read recently has not been accurate, and I appreciate the email that we got uh just correcting some of that.

But what what is I guess the um option for cooling the new spaces that are the district?

Okay, so in working with SALS with the um with the option being discontinued or not being looked at for moving the central plant as they build out the district and as we look at the needs to support the district, you know, what are the needs to support the cooling for an arena or the needs for supporting the expansion, then SALS will go back working with their consultant Jacobs to actually design what they need in terms of satellite facilities or expansion of the current facilities, thank you.

Um on the June 25th and 27 workshops, how do how does how does that get fed into the parking consultants' demand modeling?

Um that's actually a really great question, and it is kind of leads to something I meant to mention earlier.

Obviously, there's a lot going on, and one of the things that we have heard from some community members is like a little bit of almost fatigue or confusion about like I'm invited to this meeting about this and this meeting about this.

So, part of our efforts around all of these studies is making sure that we're coordinating.

So, as a for example, for the reconct connecting communities um community workshops uh via is also involved so that they can speak to their planning around the green and silver lines because it would be confusing for the public if we had separate meetings, and the um the mobility consultants will also be engaged in the the public input process so that they're hearing from the community, and what we definitely don't want to do is to have citizens who come to a meeting feel like they said this last week in a different meeting and don't feel like we listened.

And so we're really working hard to make sure that we're coordinating all these efforts and they're informing each other.

And then if you can share, I mean you'll summary I'm sending I'm assuming send a report back to us on what those workshops entailed, who was there, summary of what was said, action items.

We absolutely can do that, and I think that would just be helpful for us.

I think some of my colleagues have mentioned just how do we share this with our residents, right?

And also make sure that what residents are saying were are reflected in the project, right?

That folks can really not just show up to a workshop but see that what they're saying is going into the project.

Well, and I would add that also there will be more community input in August.

So there'll be multiple opportunities for them to provide feedback based on what we heard from them initially, and then what comes out of that prior to the infrastructure recommendations that will come back to council in September.

So all of those things will help inform ultimately what comes back to you all in September.

Okay, thank you.

On slide three, um, uh related to the EPM.

Are there any the last bullet point on promoting local participation?

How are we measuring that?

Well, so where we yeah, where we are at this point in the process is really having those doing that initial outreach so that we can have meaningful participation, and I think Alex will add to this.

Yes, it's just that we have processes that we go through with our policies associated with each specific project.

So we're gonna be very intentional in making sure that we do the broad, you know, here's what's coming, here's what eventually be available, and then as we go project by project, setting the goals we've typically done for all of our our projects and solicitations.

Do those goals come back to us for final review or we're gonna be following our typical process where staff sets them and then we issue the solicitations depending on how that process works, you'll be made aware of what those goals will be for each individual project.

Yeah, okay.

Councilwoman, I would suspect that these types of um solicitations will be high profile, so we would be doing pre-solicitation briefings to you all where we would lay all that out, get some feedback from you all on a number of issues to include that.

Okay, thank you.

Um yeah, I think just to make sure that we are working on realistic opportunities to participate, right?

Um, and the there's value in workshops and town halls, and I understand that, but I think how do we bring those local small businesses along for the whole ride, right?

To be part of the planning, and you know, I don't know, even just even as far as our presentations, um I would have really appreciated just the word small business, literally in that last bullet point.

Um, EPM is coordinated with the city to meet with industry groups, including chambers and professional organizations, and I really think there should be including chambers, small businesses, and profession.

I mean, as simple as just including them in our presentations, I think is we've got to show that we are including them in this process at the most basic level.

So that's that's that's concerning to me.

So I just want to make sure, and I there's the word dashboard on every bullet point of the EPM's slide, and so and we need the dashboard, it's a huge project.

I completely understand that, but taking a dashboard back to residence is a hard sell sometimes.

Um, so I just how we can simplify that for them is important.

Um, and so the process that you're talking about for the small businesses, what does that include?

Is that um kind of joint venture assistance?

Is that bonding and it it's it's a number of different tools that we can use depending on what the project is requiring, and that is where we are very intentional.

And I think as far as the bullet is concerned, that the intention is absolutely to engage any small businesses that are interested and available to do this type of work.

What we do through our process is make sure that we break it apart so that we truly understand what is it that that's associated with this project and who are the businesses in our community that are available to do this and make sure they're aware of them and encourage them to participate through the various tools that we can apply through the solicitations.

Okay.

Uh thank you.

I appreciate that.

And um, those are all my comments for now.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Councilmember Spears.

Thank you, Mayor.

So uh thank you for the presentation.

Um I'm glad that you had been talking to Tex Dot.

I met with TechSot yesterday, um, our commissioner for Tex Dot.

And he has a saying he likes to use, and he says, you know, we've got 30 million people in Texas and 25 million of them have registered vehicles and so I understand the mobility desire for us to shift mobility away from vehicles but the reality is the culture of Texas is to have your own vehicle so I think we need to be forward thinking and at the same time acknowledge that in fact people want to park downtown that's what my residents are saying and they want to come and do normal things like in their everyday life it's not always about the big event it's about hey I want to visit the the local restaurant at the district but I got to pay 50 dollars for parking and um you know they're meeting friends and so they're asking too about a resident rate which I don't know if that's something we could be looking at um but there definitely is a need for parking um that being said we do need to be thinking about how we're moving people in and around because that can make her break the whole thing if you can't get there I mean we've seen it already with problems with the Alamo Dome so I'm really happy that TechS included I think that's gonna be impactful within the MPO and the UTP as it's rolling out as well and so I think we need to be constantly thinking about Text Dot's role in all of this.

On the feasibility study I I thought like the mayor thought that the hotel was going to be an impactful part of the expansion with the convention center.

Are we in a place where we would revisit that later should that become part of the study or fall out in the study that in fact we do need more capacity.

When we when we bring the feasibility of the convention center back to you all in September um there they're two distinct issues we we were and it wasn't that there weren't enough hotel rooms it was whether or not there are enough and this is originally when this issue came up was there enough block blocks of rooms where big groups can come in and three or four years or five years in advance say you know we want 200 rooms or whatever.

The capacity is not necessarily being driven by the the utilization of the convention center so we can I think at some point maybe in the future it could possibly come back obviously it would have to come back if we're looking at over the next five 10 15 20 years it probably couldn't go to the chilled water plant area because those costs that saw is identified are just going to go up and it's I'm not sure it's ever going to be feasible based on the cost that they they determined but as of right now we're not planning to do anything more than then what we've got before us and and part of that might be dictated by the market itself in terms of continued growth of of that corner downtown.

Okay.

Another thing about the mobility feasibility study I I really want to make sure we're also looking at technology integration here high level technology integration maybe we're not using it all over the city but we may need it here and there and there's a lot of um advancement here that has come to my that I've learned about recently and I I think that would be a great opportunity for a pilot program potentially even looking at pedestrian traffic just having eyes in the sky type real integrated technology um I was wondering too about the residential projects and then also the crews that are working on the construction.

Do we have a plan for where are we addressing where they're gonna park while we're trying to do all of this.

We will need to eventually, but that's a little too premature in our planning.

Yeah, okay, but it's part of the it would have yeah, there's gonna have to be, just like at the airport, we've got to have a parking plan for five or six hundred construction workers.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Okay.

I will say this too.

I feel we have everything happening in September and October.

Budget, all of this is coming back, bonds happening.

I feel all of these are so important.

And I just want to make sure we're able to give each of these the attention that they deserve.

So I'm just sharing that.

I think that let's let's be pragmatic and thoughtful about how all this information is coming to all of us, everyone that we involve from our communities.

You talked about fatigue a minute ago.

We are pretty resilient, we're used to it to some degree, but our community isn't.

And I don't want them to get just sick of it, throw up their hands and say, forget it.

I don't want to do any of this, you know.

Um, but also for our sakes, we really want to do a good job.

This is really important.

I know I know all of us do, and we need time to study these things and study them, not just get it and kind of go, okay, I've got to learn this in a week.

Um, I'm data driven, I like to look at these things and in depth.

So to the extent we can ease that in any way.

We need to just really be thinking about that timeline as a whole for all of us because I know the desire of every one of my colleagues is that we do a good job for our community, and that's a lot of balls in the air.

So I just want to leave you with that one piece, but thank you, Mayor.

Thank you, Councilmember Castillo.

Thank you, and thank you, Shannon, for the presentation.

I wanted to highlight the work of the downtown working group, and it's been uh very valuable conversations about identifying what current assets do we have, uh, which uh projects are currently in the pipeline.

Uh and then I just want to highlight in terms of the housing component, and through the housing trust, Dr.

Core requested some workforce data, which highlighted whether you're a busser, a nurse, or a city of San Antonio employee, how many units within the downtown area would be accessible based off of that workforce income.

Uh, and that's going to serve uh ideally as a model of what are the gaps of downtown housing, and then of course, right, working with their partners, the housing trust and opportunity home to see what are their plans within close proximity and or downtown to help meet those needs and preserve our existing affordable housing stock.

Uh, in addition to that, right, conversations about what parking exists and and what is some of the low-hanging fruit in terms of uh accessibility to those parking spots.

And of course, we know parking is very expensive to build, uh, and of course, I would prefer to have housing in place of a parking garage.

Um, so just very valuable conversations, but also wanted to emphasize uh what some of my colleagues have shared in terms of there's no policy uh making taking place within uh the downtown working group.

Uh, I'm grateful that there are five council representatives on that working group that represent roughly uh 140,000 constituents uh to to ensure that we're being uh transparent and sharing that information on behalf of our constituencies.

Um again, uh, within the housing component, there was a presentation on Project DC, Cattleman's care project, reenvisioning process, which uh is very community driven in that we have community ambassadors to help shape what they would like to see within the west side of downtown.

Uh, and then also important to highlight the component and relationship with uh Corazon ministries in harm reduction and outreach and connecting unhoused to services and ideally permanent supportive housing, and just wanted to connect those dots because I think it goes back to like the work that's being done uh on the on the grassroots level, especially with Corazon and their relationship to this larger um downtown reenvisioning process.

Um, in addition to that, I think there's lots of value, right?

We just recently had a really good exercise, and there's a value I think in seeing with this recent season to see what were hotel occupancies at, and then also what were some of the parking capacity uh andor issues we saw with this most recent season and the influx of folks from uh New York coming into town.

Uh, in addition to that, I wanted to uh provide support to the the point that council member Mesa Gonzalez mentioned in terms of including small businesses.

I'm encouraged to hear that that's uh going to be the intent and goal to uh plan to include uh small businesses and make them aware of ongoing processes.

I do believe there would be uh value, and I would like to test uh the executive project manager for uh being the facilitator of many of those community engagement conversations.

My constituents have asked for a follow-up meeting, but I've shared that we haven't taken any action in terms of definitive agreements, and I do believe there's value once we get to that point to talk about community benefits agreements, expectations with contractors, expectations with including small businesses within the larger project.

But I I would like to see them tasked with uh the facilitation of those meetings because again, if they are managing the project, I think it's best that they're the ones hearing as well from our constituencies what their expectations are of this project.

In addition to that, I did receive an email from Steve Resij, a district two resident, but just very engaged, comes to public comment often, and I really appreciated his framing in terms of well, you know, the public aren't necessarily investors in a hotel, a parking garage, a housing development or stadium by proxy and being a taxpayer, they are financial stakeholders in this larger redevelopment.

So again, right, ensuring that we're having those public engagement processes.

Um what folks would like to see is some type of stakeholder uh group to oversee the project and give input similar to the West Side Creeks, and they highlighted the West Side Creeks commission and or committee as an example because those appointees aren't appointed by council, it's an organic appointment process, so that way it removes what folks may perceive as a potential conflict and/or handpicking folks to serve on an oversight committee.

So I think there's value in exploring what that could look like.

I understand we're on a timeline in which we'll be receiving uh potential updates on uh infrastructure soon, and then of course uh it's moving along and identifying folks to participate that have the time to serve uh can be a barrier, but I think there's value in exploring uh what that could look like.

Uh I did have a question in terms of the federal property, and this was a question that was submitted by a constituent, so I just wanted to be sure I asked that on their behalf, right?

So, for example, um they were curious in terms of the federal property.

Can you remind us uh with this transaction uh once complete, of course, and I know it hasn't been closed on yet, uh, but who would control the land and who would capture any appreciation of the property?

Um so the question is who would control the development rights within this property once acquired um once we acquire the property, which um as you mentioned will be in during the summer in the next month or so, um the city will own the property, but then um the Spurs eventually through as part of the district process would have the development rights for the property.

Okay, I appreciate that that clarification.

Uh that was a question submitted by Jim.

Um, in addition to that, right?

Um I I appreciate Eric and Shannon both walking us through the timeline in terms of when we're going to dive into the definitive documents, because my constituents are eager for us to negotiate a deal, which of course has fair labor practices, uh fair wages, et cetera, et cetera.

Um and there's just again, right, it's not lost on any of us that we are navigating uh a budget deficit or future budget deficit, and for many of us in District 5 in particular, uh our schools are experiencing school closures.

So when we look at potentially 211 million in foregone property tax revenue and roughly 450 million for SCISD over the duration of this project, my constituents and I have a responsibility that as we move towards negotiations with the community benefits agreement, I'm hopeful that there's opportunity that the Spurs would uh would uh increase that contribution to the public.

Again, grateful for uh the work and community work that the foundation does currently do.

Um but right now our constituents are going to be faced with potentially a reduction to parks programming, department of human services programming, uh so on and so forth.

So we have a responsibility to ensure that we're um getting a return on their investment, as Steve would say.

So again, I think there's that responsibility, and I know um we all as a body will continue to negotiate um uh a deal that San Antonio residents deserve.

Um, but again, um I'm I'm eager for getting into those definitive documents and conversations.

Uh now one of the concerns that was raised is that the dashboard may come online after the definitive documents have been agreed and negotiated upon.

Is that correct?

Or would the negotiations with the dashboard go live and we're still working our way through those definitive agreements?

Councilman, I think we'll have a better understanding of the September when we come back and show you kind of that framework for that dashboard.

I know that the January timeline that Shannon's talking about is making sure that all the back end things are connected, and that's important, but it's it's it's less important than making sure that we get the information out there, even if it's static information that we manually update on a periodic basis or weekly or monthly basis.

But when we come back at the end of the summer to kind of show you that dashboard, I think we'll be there point we'll be able to show something publicly in advance.

I appreciate that, and I'm eager to see it because I kind of I'm thinking about like budget and bond, right?

And like working our way backwards with meaningful public engagement, and as we are as council um having those conversations, I want to be sure I'm walking in armed with uh the feedback of constituents, um, and I think just working planning backwards in terms of I'd like to structure community meetings uh before we get to those definitive document conversations.

Um for example, our office uh has been working on a uh arts round table to work with uh San Antonio artists to hear what their expectations are with the downtown redevelopment.

Uh, what are past projects that they feel that there was missed opportunity to be included in redevelopment and reinvisioning?

So uh again, right, so that way we can plan ahead with those conversations, and I'd like to invite my colleagues to attend that uh round table if you or your team members available uh to hear from the arts community what their expectation is with a large-scale uh project like this.

Um, but again, lots of opportunity and eager to talk about things I brought up with Ben and Troy in terms of uh alcohol uh fee uh and how we could potentially work those into definitive documents as well.

Those are my comments.

Thank you.

Mayor, just councilwoman, um, when is the when is that meeting you're describing because that might be good to have both Crystal and Shannon and maybe the EPM there?

Yes, uh, and I've shared that with Crystal.

Um, and it's uh in a couple of weeks essentially a round table with uh our arts community to hear their expectations with Project Marvel.

Thank you.

Um Councilman McKee Rodriguez?

Okay.

Thank you, Mayor, and thank you for presentation.

I was finishing up my thoughts and adding things as folk were talking, and so I kept reorienting uh what I'm about to say.

So last meeting I was frustrated that there wasn't much substance in the briefing outside of the same calendar that we've seen all year, and so there was this idea that oh, city council is delaying this presentation on Project Marvel, and they're hiding all this new information that's coming.

And the reality was I was able to get through everything that was in that presentation in a minute, and the information that we that we did receive made up the bulk of those slides, and that was uh the presentations on the contracts that were approved that would provide the ex the basically the expertise in managing these projects from start to finish, because in the event that we don't have these consultants in place, we're relying on staff to juggle all of this from start to finish in addition to their regular workload.

And so uh I say all that to say that even this presentation that was received is not uh very enlightening.

The election for the county's portion of funding was held in November and narrowly passed, and many people believe that that was the biggest hurdle that the arena was gonna need in order to clear, and there was a lot of hurry, hurry, hurry.

We need a vote to happen.

We need to approve this term sheet, we need to send this up.

The vote needs to happen now, and now there's not much new information to share, much to the frustration of community leaders, journalists, and spectators alike.

And so, and I find that the primary reason for the rush was for the Spurs' peace of mind.

They wanted to know and lock in.

Okay, this was approved by funders, so I can count on this, or by the voters.

So that was however many millions of dollars approved.

So now that money is secured, and little else has happened on our end.

So, Eric, I will ask you a few questions.

Where are we at in negotiations with the Spurs?

We've not begun.

We have not begun.

No, sir.

So all we have is a non-binding term sheet and negotiations have not taken place at all.

What are we waiting for so that we can start?

I'd like to have the results of the district cost and revenue study uh that the country the council approved on May 7th.

Uh we'll have that at the end of the summer.

I think that's an important piece for us to have.

It's not the only important piece, but it's an important piece for us to have in order to ensure that any potential revenue opportunities in the district itself we're able to capture and any costs associated with events or games or concerts or whatever are borne by those events just like did the Alamo Dome and the convention center.

We need that information in our hands.

So it relates to the Spurs arena which is a singular component of Project Marvel um when negotiations are ready to begin I would like for us to have an open meeting in which staff lays out the timeline for negotiations and review of the existing terms and MOU and that we lay out as much as we can in a public session what our council priorities are for the negotiations.

I understand the negotiations themselves are not they don't happen in we're not calling Spurs up and negotiating in an open meeting and so I I get that but I do want as much as we can to convey uh as possible right before those negotiations begin is that possible yes sir thank you other projects including now putting Spurs arena aside including the Alamedome convention center land bridge those are in the earlier stages of conceptual conceptualization and so none of these were fully funded fully designed shovel ready projects right Eric we didn't anticipate that we're going to have thank you we didn't anticipate that we'd be right now knowing exactly where we're going to get money for each of these projects and so well we know we know how we would potentially fund a convention center as we discussed last fall it would be through the use of PFZs and our own hotel occupancy tax.

But you know part of this is making sure that that we have time to do our homework in terms of the stuff that we're required to do and and that's the timeline we're on.

I guess the the broader point I'm getting to and asking that question to you is that if people are not receiving information in a way that they deem timely and they feel as though and again there was this rush rush rush hurry hurry hurry project Marvel needs to be a go if that's not happening then people uh I don't know what word I want to use but in their mind they create an idea of what is going on and so oh this project doesn't have funding right now it is scrapped that land bridge not gonna happen because there's no funding immediately available the hotel the water those things they start people start wanting to make news for themselves correct and so we want to avoid that by providing as much timely feedback as we can but I do want to lay it plain all of this was the concept of a plan and the concept of a plan I also like getting specifically to the water plant right so my understanding was the SAWS water plant was an opportunity the staff had identified but one that to me would be too expensive to undertake and I felt like there was very little public interest in it anyway so I never accounted for the water plant but what I do want and I do recall you saying that if it wasn't financially feasible you wouldn't recommend it to us.

And so the question that I would then ask as news breaks about you know oh the money associated with this hot that this hotel was going to generate was supposed to help fund the arena and the broader project plan I would then ask why would Eric or a member of staff any of the experts that we have in our in our city why would they bake in uh projections for a development that is entirely hypothetical and also extremely expensive at the offset we already knew that was going to be super expensive and we knew that it was also not being viewed publicly very favorably so why would staff do that and I know the answer but I want you to say it.

Well because that wouldn't make any sense.

Oh so you wouldn't do it.

No we would not do it.

I mean it's I mean we we're we're we're conservative by nature anyway and to your point that it was a concept that we were running down but as as we as we started to understand the the work that SAS was doing, I mean, it looked like it was going to be expensive, and and it's not the it's not the main priority.

It was an issue of can we take a piece of property across the street from our convention center that is old and has been there since 1969, and there's got to be a higher and better use of that property right off of 37 uh in between market and commerce, and can we do something different with it?

So that's where the concept happened.

It wasn't because we were there's 15,000 hotel rooms within walking distance of the convention center.

There's plenty of hotel rooms, and there's that we had a JW Marriott coming on to Houston Street, and we had a hotel right over here.

We didn't assume any of those things in terms of projection.

So we wouldn't do that because we're gonna be conservative by nature to ensure that what whatever we do we can afford and we can maintain.

Thank you.

I also asked the question previously because it the funding was never making sense to me, and that there was this idea that the Spurs were gonna develop and that the developments they did were gonna generate, they were gonna generate funding and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

And so my question was always with what land.

And so the $30 million that we accepted from the Spurs to purchase land that is now city owned, that is where they are going to be developing.

That's a part of where they're gonna be developing.

That's a part of what they're gonna be developing.

There's there's a larger footprint, part of it is on the uh and and Shannon said in the presentation, part of it is it on the 13 and a half acre site that we would eventually acquire from the UT system.

But, but um there they they and in the in the the term sheet that the council approved last year, they they are also responsible and obligated in the term sheet to the city to pay us market rate for the lease of that property that they're gonna develop on.

So that's an added part of that contribution that's built into that term sheet.

Gotcha.

I guess so the to close the loop or to close the understanding gap on that piece is the in order to generate the funding that's needed within this zone, the tax base, all of the blah blah blah, blah, blah, blah that was never gonna be the city's responsibility.

No, sir.

It was gonna be the responsibility of the development, uh, the captured property tax through the set through the uh the tours, the arena lease, because the the city and the presumably the county would the public sector would own that NBA arena, and then the um the lease of the of the developable property of the city, those were the four main revenue streams.

Thank you.

Um I have mayor, if I may, if I could end this time and start my five minutes, I could do my second round.

That's fine.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Uh I just wanted to touch on the working group because I have a thought or I have uh several thoughts on this, but uh the downtown working group right now sounds sounds like something that it's not.

And I attended my first meeting, I think last month, uh, and what it read like to me was that organizations like Centro via the Housing Trust, Opportunity Home, these organizations that have that are doing overlapping work, at least geographically, um, are not coordinating or even communicating most of the time in a holistic way.

Of course, they do and they do interact here and there, but that's not a core thing that they do.

They don't have these sort of meetings where they convene.

And so we didn't hear at this, and what it felt like to me also was like Eric convened these groups to say, hey, let's all get on the same page about what you're doing, and you know, I'm gonna bring a few of the most impacted council members along, plus Council Member Mesa Gonzalez, and I'm just kidding, I was being funny.

So bringing some of the council members along because maybe it wouldn't be entirely appropriate for you to do it yourself and to in case anything moved into you know something that council had a little bit greater interest in, you'd have you'd have us right there.

So that's what it felt like to me.

Um we didn't hear any updates on Project Marvel.

We didn't discuss the Alamo Dome Convention Center, Spurs Arena, Land Bridge, other than passively as you know, these things are could potentially be right here, and where's this in relation to this project?

And so we heard from the housing trust what developments are in the pipeline within the footprint.

Via shared a lot of the same information they shared with with us in their presentations, including Green and Silver Line and how those run through this footprint.

Um Centro was there as a stakeholder with downtown programming that you know plays a large role in downtown, and so it was nice to um see those things all land lined up, but the pro the challenge that I have is, and this goes back to the point that council member Spears made uh about being pragmatic in the way the information is shared, and maybe I'm interpreting it differently.

But if there's no just like I was saying earlier, if there's no new information being presented publicly, even discussing downtown makes people believe that there's some sort of secret underground group conspiring and masterminding Project Marvel and in private.

And so until we figure out what we're going to do to improve public trust related to downtown planning, I don't know.

I mean any meetings will likely be misconstrued.

And so we can cancel the downtown planning work groups for all like for all I care, we can cancel it.

We don't have to do it.

We could live stream the meetings, but if we were, I don't want to give people the impression that it's an official meeting, and live streaming comes with its own costs and expectations, and if people are tuning in, and you know, if Councilmember McKee's McKee Rodriguez is not there, you know, he's not doing his job, even though there's nothing substantive happening at that meeting.

And so I don't want to create something that doesn't already exist.

So we know we do need to coordinate, but it's really not, I don't know that it's very helpful right now.

Um I do recall a CCR that council member core filed calling for a commission to oversee the spending of the potential two million dollars a year from uh the Spurs as part of the CBA.

I think there's interest in expanding the scope of a group like that to provide ongoing feedback as an advisory commission over the broader uh the broader scope and projects associated with Project Marvel as they progress.

Um do we know where we are in and sorry, it's been a lot of different meetings, a lot of different CCRs and things are places.

Um, where is that CCR right now in the process, or where we are, where are we at in thinking about the dashboard CCR, the this thing, all of that?

So um that CCR that you're referring to from Councilwoman Corps went to governance, but it it got it it's it it's still in governance right now, it hasn't gotten out, and but it hasn't all also hadn't been placed back on the agenda.

There was a number of follow-up conversations, and this goes back to gosh, it was last uh October or November when it went to governance initially, um, and um it hasn't gotten out of governance.

So what I've so what I'll convey then uh because I anticipate it will come back to governance at some point, is that I think there were a lot of piecemeal CCRs and goals related to Project Marvel and people having ideas and wanting to address uh constituent feedback in real time.

I think now that it's been some time since that CCR has been filed.

I feel like I've heard that yes, the 75 million dollars total, you know, people want to be able to have some say and influence into that, but they really want to have a little bit more say and be able to provide more guidance and feedback as it relates to this massive downtown development that is going to eat up into the bulk of a good it's going to eat into a lot of resources, time, staffing and all that, and public interest.

And so if we can reshape what that commission could look like, I think it might be uh it might be in our best interest and in the community's best interest.

That's that's a great point, Councilman, and we will uh work with, I'll work with the mayor because that item has been has been um just in a holding pattern to do that because frankly the good timing, you all should have that conversation, both at the governance and the full council, um maybe in advance of or at the same time, we're talking about negotiating priorities.

Perfect.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you.

It's been a while since we discussed that.

Um, that CCR.

Um, and if I remember correctly, part of it had to do with um, do we need a dashboard to track 2.5 million dollars?

Um, you almost just need kind of an Excel spreadsheet.

Um the um but thank you, Shannon and and Troy for the presentation.

Um, I want to ask a little bit about um the finances.

Troy, one of the things that you mentioned during our pre-brief, which I appreciated you and Shannon taking the time to do, is that um, for example, on the uh ITC site uh with that being funded from the midtown tours.

If uh the TURS, if something happens to the economy, if it's COVID, something happens to the availability of funds from the TURS, um, I wanted you to give me the simple answer of of what then, right?

And you very helpfully explained, um, while there is not a legal obligation for the city uh to pay for that, uh, to pay for those revenue bonds.

Our credit agencies uh would want us, would want to see us make the TURS whole.

And one of those sources then could be the general fund.

Have I characterized that correctly?

As a result of um, as we actually move into those financings and we actually develop.

Come a little bit closer.

Thank you.

Mm-hmm.

So as we develop the financing, there's a number of things that we put in place to make sure that there is not a legal, there's not a default on the bonds.

For example, when we actually structure the debt, we do a feasibility study to ensure one that the bonds are marketable and that we can actually support the debt over the term of the life of the debt.

We look at um putting in place debt service reserves.

Also look in place of coverage reserves.

And before we even went to a default on the debt, we'd look at opportunities to restructure the actual debt.

But in the event that there was a default, there is no legal obligation to pay for that debt outside of the backing of the TERFs.

How are in our past experience your point with working with the credit agencies?

They, in the event there was a default, there's a moral obligation to make that whole.

Yeah.

Just based on if you bring up the slide actually on the acquisition piece, for clarity, please thank you.

The um slide four, please, acquisition.

Just for those that are following along, this one, for example, the ITC site, it says funded from midtown tours.

So there not being other sources identified at this point.

And thanks to Shannon for clarifying, other options will be explored through negotiations.

That was potentially, you know, land swaps, right?

Is is what those folks had had contemplated.

Um but again, as this is very clearly from the midtown tours, understanding if there's not TURS money, where could that potentially, who could that potentially fall back on?

And Troy very uh helpfully explained that a source of that could be the general fund.

Okay.

I want to um echo the comments of my colleague uh councilman McKee Rodriguez.

I I think there's great benefit in the working group having a much more public aspect to it.

I think no offense, no shade to the county, but uh I think we saw some of their mistakes in how they conducted some of those engagements with the public, and we certainly want to avoid that.

Again, I have full trust and confidence in my colleagues that are participating in that.

I think though there is a greater appetite in the public not to be briefed on what was discussed, but to either see in real time what is being discussed or certainly maybe understand beforehand what is being discussed.

Um so the working group, I think we can help ourselves to the councilman's point uh to either make that uh a public meeting fully or we uh that work is done in a different way, Eric.

Um on the EPM, I want to build upon the comments that um councilman councilwoman uh Mesa Gonzalez made, which I think is really important in terms of this idea of quote we're going to promote local participation in future contracting.

I think we can help ourselves, uh and this may be for our for the lawyers, understanding the changes at the federal level.

But um, Andy, I'd ask that uh your team draft us a resolution that that helps us understand what is the most that we can ask in that regard.

Um, and that I understand, I appreciate Alice's Alex's explanation in terms of we normally kind of bring something to you all, but um, us understanding kind of the full legal agency we have when it comes to um doing all we can to promote local participation in future contract contracting would I think be um very helpful.

So thank you in advance for that.

Okay.

Um on the I see a connection between the working group and the mobility study um in in both of these things and I certainly can appreciate you know landscape analysis kind of where are we how did we get to here um I remember very and I don't I think she's left but I saw um uh Trish de Barry was here earlier and I saw the previous version of their district not district excuse me it was their downtown study um that talked about having 12,500 folks currently living downtown with the goal being 25,000.

Um when I spoke to her initially, though, that was well, actually I wasn't elected yet, but it was helpful just to know their plans.

But I remember sitting with her and asking, you know, how is this reflective of baseball and how is this reflective of um the Project Marvel stuff?

And it and it hadn't been.

And I say all that because while it's helpful to understand the understand the plans that exist, um, understanding their utility in today's world is only helpful if we understand what we are planning toward.

And so in the absence of common assumptions of how many people are we planning to live downtown, how many people then do we have to move downtown?

How many businesses, how many miles of walkability?

Councilman Wangia's point, how many miles of green space, etc.

etc.

If we don't have some of these very basic planning assumptions to guide our work, then it's really hard to understand if some of those plans need to be modified slightly, or frankly need to be scrapped and just reimagined.

Um so some of this seems um, especially the mobility study, it seems hard to um uh uh understand exactly what they are going to do when they don't have an idea of how many people they're going to have to move.

And I certainly appreciate the via chart on um on their efforts, moving people into downtown, moving people within downtown, moving people out of downtown.

That's great.

When I first read this though, I'll be honest with you, it remade it reminded me of that community engagement I went to at I believe it was the um at the uh at the um with Tommy Calvert on the east side and he talked very clearly about the cones problem and the cones problem being what folks felt on the east side, which is cones were designed to get people into the arena, and then as soon as that game was done, get them out of the arena.

So there's no benefit to the local community of all those people being in the area to really experience it and having those local businesses, actually, some who suffered more so during some of those events because those cones were there designed only to get people in and out.

So when I look at this plan, and I think this this goes back to right again, us understanding what is the problem we are trying to solve.

Are we solving for you know just 25,000 people downtown or no kidding, 75,000 people by a certain amount of time?

I think clarity on on those kinds of things would really ensure that everybody knows the direction we're going and the planning efforts, whether they be a mobility study or even any further discussions by a downtown working group, are informed by the goals period.

Um, how might what Eric, what is the best way for us to provide some of that information to you then in terms of planning assumptions to best informally not just the goals of the of the community, but I think also then to help us vet who is best experienced of the vendors that are applying for these contracts to see who has who has worked at that level.

I mean, I say that because we had um we issued a contract for the strategic plan for the riverwalk, right?

And so certainly then we would do something similar for our downtown understanding it's much more complex.

Yeah, I mean, I don't think it's a responsibility of the vendor.

I think that's a that goes back to some of the comments the council members, council members have made already.

It is looking at the uh planned um housing units, for example, that the housing trust and opportunity home and other known, maybe potential private developers are coming.

I think I don't think we can hire a vendor that's gonna tell us to solve these your planning items, but I think that's one of the benefits and you know whether it is me meeting with those five entities or the working group is to ascertain what do we have in production, what do we have?

Because the other part of this is it's gonna be it's gonna I think hopefully inform the council is if you guys have a continue to have the bond conversation, there's a housing component of that that undoubtedly would be part of it.

So we drive as much of that planning next to me as possible.

I think I think when you look at moving the people the number of people, I think it's gonna depend on as we get a little bit more clarity from the Spurs over the type of development.

We know the activity around the convention center and civic plaza now, and as that area continues to grow, we knew we know that the transitory nature of visitors that come downtown right now in that area.

But I don't think that's a I don't think we can hire a vendor to do that for us.

Yeah, and so I want to make sure that there's clarity on on what I'm saying in terms of um us providing um you or the staff sufficient planning assumptions as your targets, right?

And so for example, I remember when I when I talked to Tristan Berry, I remember her currently we've only got 12,500 folks that work downtown, and their goal before these major projects was 25,000.

And that got it helpful.

Um, but if that is if we want to do a hundred thousand people downtown just based on one, the growth that we see, go talk to Secretary Cisneros, hello, uh, as well as what we are anticipating downtown, as well as what we want, right?

We want more affordable housing downtown.

We want more housing of XCOM downtown, and so that so that is less reflective than of the current plans that we have.

I think those would inform to your point the gap between where we are and where we want to go.

But we need as a council as the policymakers to settle on where are we going?

Is that number 100,000 by 2032?

Is that number 150,000 by 2040?

What are we planning toward to ensure that we've got a district mobility study?

Do we ensure that we've got SAS, CPS infrastructure, all those things?

So it's less about do we understand what we've got today, and more so do we have clarity on where we are all going together as part of this plan?

This once-in-a-lifetime generation, like generational opportunity that we've got.

Yeah, so maybe that meet meetings like this are appropriate for you all to share what you're planning.

If you want us to plan to move 150,000 people out of downtown or 50,000 or what have you, meetings like this are important.

Um if there's other thoughts that council members have, more than happy to sit down with you.

I think we I think if I as I get that information, I think making sure that we um circulate that back to the full council.

If it happens in my monthly one on ones or regular meetings, but that way the council's kind of seeing the full picture of what what maybe some of you as council members, individual council members have from a planning standpoint.

But I think it's I think it's difficult to set the motion for something that we don't know yet, that we don't experience yet, and that we think we have a general good plan of what we need to do in terms of housing mobility, mobility.

We we know the number of people I think we need to move in and out.

But if you got a different assumption that you'd like for us to run, then we need to hear that.

Well, I think it's about um the downtown growth that we know is coming on top of what we're probably expediting as a result of all this development on top of what we want.

We want more affordable housing downtown as we've talked about numerous times.

Um and so we will provide you better guidance on that.

I would actually ask um councilman Mungia as the head of planning committee uh to help guide um survey council members in terms of what what is that number?

What is an acceptable number that we can help ensure that we are planning for and make sure it's please informed by uh those around the dais.

Okay.

Okay.

On the mobility piece, um, thank you, Shannon, for highlighting that.

I know that's a kind of a time-sensitive thing that we've got.

We've about about 3.7 million dollars that we've got to spend by the end of the year.

Do I have that right?

Okay, 3.7 million.

I did think um there may be an opportunity to um potentially fund councilman McKee Rodriguez has a great idea to um ensure that there's greater mobility tied to um better situational awareness around train activity.

So if that is an opportunity, I'd I'd welcome um welcome seeing some some potential collaboration there, as well as some of the projects that were not funded in the 2022 bond.

Um that clearly there's some community interest already for uh in the interest of time and those being some level of community support for it'd be helpful to review those things.

Troy Shannon um this entire effort this entire update uh does this assume that SAWS has completed the infrastructure improvements that they need to uh do and would only be able to do as a result of a rate increase.

Mayor we have not had any direct conversations with SAWs about how the timing would impact them from an infrastructure standpoint.

Okay so we may is your question about the about the SAWS water rate issue that you all are discussing right now.

Well that's right I don't want us to get all liquored up on the arena and Toyota expansion and then all of a sudden we forget the water that both of those folks need well there's no licking up here going on mayor so but but to your point that's a great question because the the the chiller system the the the downtown chiller system that SAS operates is its own separate utility.

The you and I as rate payers don't pay for that the users pay for it so the users are going to have to pay for any expansion or growth or maintenance of that system.

The council a couple of years ago um uh updated the rates and with the council approved that that allowed SAWs to do the necessary maintenance uh and infrastructure improvements to that system um but but what the the general rate payer will not pay for expansion of chilled water systems downtown great question so then just a finer point on that if some of the infrastructure um updates upgrades uh that are envisioned and to be funded by SAWs uh the SAW's rate increase if um if those do not take place this all of this is still a go?

Yeah they're they're gonna have how would it be impacting they're gonna have to take place and so let me so they have to take place.

Let me let me give you an example right so um if if we expand the convention center for 1800 square feet we're gonna need a little bit more chiller capacity so the city's gonna have to pay for that a development um in that area and it only makes sense because chill because saws has got you you were part of the board conversation when the there's infrastructure there's chilled water infrastructure between where it's at off of Market Street and the southeast corner of the Alamo Dome.

So the infrastructure is there it would make sense and it's more efficient from a cost standpoint and an energy standpoint for any development to be incorporated into that chilled water system.

And frankly the more users on that system the the less the city's gonna pay because right now we pay the majority of that chilled water system because we're the biggest user.

Okay thank you thank you um so I heard you say that the work has to be done in order to support this effort.

Mayor about what you know the the work should be done because it's the most efficient way to cool large facilities if if somebody wants to air condition it and put a big chiller on the top of their building then they can do it if they want but it doesn't make any sense from a cost standpoint.

Thank you.

Okay.

On the uh on the convention center Shannon.

I look forward to the to the feasibility study.

One of the other things though I want to make sure that we also have have clarity on just given this is a significant investment 750 million I think is the last estimate to the update on the update to this council.

We recognize though that many of our um uh cities the cities around us uh in Texas in particular Austin Dallas Houston are making significantly um more and uh significantly more financially but also kind of more complex expansions or or complete redoes of their convention centers so um how do we understand the feasibility of it is kind of what can we do but helping us understand how our expansion is going to help us compare to Austin, Houston, Dallas given they're making billion dollar investments and significantly expanding their convention center.

So help help us understand that the connection we're making between our modifications and how that actually helps us be competitive.

My understanding is 80% of the conventions in the major conventions in the country happen in 20 cities, and we're already in those 20 cities and and you know, they come here for the Rivewalk and the Alamo and and other things.

So I wonder if um we have as good of an a good of an understanding of how that investment in that it doesn't expand our convention center as much as it does as as what's happening in the other cities, what it's actually going to do for us.

Mayor, take a swing at that.

Um and Alex can kind of jump in to add some uh color as well.

Um the the feasibility study is gonna update what we shared with the council last year is that is that we believe that 180,000 square feet that is mainly exhibit space helps us maintain our position in the industry.

It does not give us it additional ground, and when you look at what Austin and Dallas are doing, they are tearing down their buildings, but they're not significantly adding square footage, they're rebuilding the buildings.

Houston is adding square footage, so it's a little bit different in those three cities.

What we we feel like that we have the the latest expansion of the convention center opened up in 2017.

Um we don't need to do what Austin and Dallas are doing because we've got a great facility.

We need a little bit more exhibit space, um, and we're operating right now at max capacity.

When you take into consideration the move in, the move out, and our and our booking dates.

I'll remind the council that last year, visit San Antonio went back and forecasted, you know, what what have we what have we lost and what can we gain when you look back five years minus the forgotten years of COVID, and you look forward ten years.

There's a billion dollars worth of business that we could that they could help secure because we'd have the additional exhibit space.

So the feasibility study will update that part.

You'll see it in February and in September, but but we're not talking about doing what Austin and Dallas is doing because we've got a we've got a big enough facility.

We need a little bit more space, and and and we we are at max capacity in terms of usage of that building.

We can't grow anymore in terms of business.

Alex, did I miss anything?

Okay, okay.

I'd appreciate that chart though, Shannon.

As I mentioned, that helps us understand kind of what we're doing, where we're going, and how that actually compares to what those other cities are doing.

Because there's a little bit of like build it and they will come.

Um, and I'm not that's a big assumption for $750 million.

Mayor will uh that we had a that chart uh in last year, we'll we'll reproduce that and get that to you all.

Great, thanks.

Because as we've talked about, some of the funding for the PFC would go into would go to the convention center, and so not understanding where the economy could go, understanding we may need to pull from the PFC to pay for other things.

Um we want to have as good of an understanding of what we're actually getting out of that as a result.

Okay.

I know we asked um, but we did not get an answer on it.

Can the PFC pay for affordable housing, Troy?

Yeah, and as a follow-up to the briefing yesterday that we had, I went back and looked at a memo that we'd issued after the January time um B session.

And I think Ben had laid out kind of a pretty articulate answer as far as um what can be used in terms of the PFZ for that.

Yeah, no, I read the memo.

Um and it didn't specifically answer the question about affordable housing.

Then no, it cannot be used, PFZ cannot be used for affordable housing.

Um do you have that definitively?

Yes, ma'am.

Okay, because in that memo it talks about infrastructure, like very loose definition of that, which is why as a result of that I asked for clarity on that, but we've got a definitive answer that we cannot use PFC resources for affordable housing.

Yeah, and I'll refer back to the memo the the the intent of the PFZ uh in the eyes of the state is that it's an investment in state revenues into venues, and we've already identified the venues to drive tourism and travel industry.

Any use of the PFZ, even for the convention center or for an NBA arena, we're going to have to go to the Texas Attorney General's office to get their review and approval.

They're gonna look to make sure that the use of that money meets the legislative intent, and as we advocated for that up in Austin a couple of sessions ago with the help of uh Senator Menendez and and uh representative Hawkins, um we we talked about convention center, Alamo Dome, and NBA arena, and the infrastructure with related infrastructure, but we did not talk about public housing, ma'am.

Or uh affordable housing.

Right.

And I think if I remember the direct the conversation was also, though, because the the definition of infrastructure supporting those things was loose, right?

That's why we asked about potential it potentially being part of that.

So those three things, you're right, and the related infrastructure, and if we had an ability to uh to ask or um include in that, we would we would consider that.

So related infrastructure is generally a uh generally, yeah.

Is generally defined in the Texas local government code, so it's already a defined um uh um area.

It includes um any store, restaurant, on-site, hotel, concession, automobile parking facility, area transportation facility, road street, water, sewer, facility park, or any on-site or off-site improvements that relate to enhance the use value of appeal of a venue.

We've identified the venues already, and anything we do with that is gonna require the approval of the Texas Attorney General's office before we can spend any of that money.

So it's it's it's um related infrastructure, and I think we've talked about this in the fall, the the utility connections, the the sidewalks along the convention center or the Alamo Dome or an NBA arena, that's related infrastructure.

Um, but but I know that's an issue that the council has talked about, has brought up before, and we'll continue to look at that issue as we uh uh engage in those conversations later on the year around the bond.

Yeah, you appreciate that given how small our bond is and the potential uh for having to raise property taxes to pay for other things outside of the downtown area.

We'd want to make sure that the PFC, we have a full understanding of all the PFC can cover across basic things like roads and streets, that we would actually be investing in rows and streets outside of that if we had the opportunity.

Okay, councilwoman core.

Thanks, Mayor.

I just wanted to quickly clarify since the CCR that I filed um last fall was brought up that the intent of that was to create uh basically an advisory board that would help us oversee the community benefits agreement.

What I heard from the community after the last round of community engagement that was done was they felt like they wanted more and they wanted to be able to provide more input on how those dollars were being spent.

And so the request for that organ that board would be to go out and help us do that community engagement and talk to residents about where they wanted to see those dollars and how they wanted to better um provide us with that input so we can make that determination, and they would additionally get some support.

We had had some set aside dollars for those second phase of community engagement, but we never were able to execute on that.

The board would have been comprised by a member from each one of our offices along with an SCISD board member because we felt like they should the education community should be included or SAIC representative, sorry, because we wanted to include the school district in the conversations, and we also wanted to include the county.

Um, since we are trying to collaborate with them more, we only uh we gave them one appointment.

So the city council still has the majority, but the idea was to demonstrate collaboration across entities.

As Eric mentioned, the CCR did not make it out of governance, but if folks are interested in it, would definitely support the idea of having another discussion about it.

But there was two separate CCRs.

So this one was just solely focused on the CBA as well as community engagement, and then Councilmember White led another CCR that was focused on the dashboard.

So I just wanted to make that clarification of the purpose of those two.

Yeah, Councilman White and Councilwoman Um Castillo.

Oh, sorry.

Okay, thank you, um, councilwoman core.

If I remember that, and I was looking to have Councilwoman Viegadon here to clarify because if I remember some of the the um concern with that is that was like a consultant-led effort to engage the community.

If I remember some of that feedback, but either way, we'll uh revisit that CCR.

Thank you.

Uh count was that it councilwoman?

Count she's done okay.

Councilman Castillo, please.

Uh, thank you to vote upon that point.

I did go ahead and pull up the meeting minutes from that conversation, and uh the government's committee did unanimously vote to delay this item, but given the uh high request from the public for an oversight committee, part of the request of the councilman's council consideration request was for an oversight committee uh on a community benefits agreement, and why I understand this is one component of the larger project.

I do believe there's value in having a full B session uh based off of the the conversation and the meeting minutes, right?

A number of reasons that uh it was delayed was uh concerned about the the makeup of the committee, right?

Conversations and concern about the Bear County, uh Bear County rather participating.

Um it was stated that we already have too many boards and commissions, uh, and then of course the consulting component, but I do believe there's value in a full B session conversation about how we can shape uh what that could look like for the community benefits agreement oversight committee, because this is something that constituents have asked.

Um, again, right, as folks have highlighted, uh many members of the public are under the impression that we've already negotiated uh and we've already uh expense the CBA funding.

And I think there's a value in terms of creating that framework in terms of the structure.

Of course, as of in a B session, determining who should be on that uh proposed committee.

Uh and then also in terms of the consultant, right?

I think there's value in uh the CNE team has done a great job, whether it's it's bond and or uh budget conversations to potentially facilitate what that framework could look like for the city of San Antonio, and like an example that comes to mind, right?

Is like would we expect and were proposed to the public to consider um relying on the CBA to address a budget set deficit and or uh one-time expenses, right?

But I think um the CNE team or city staff rather um can create that framework to engage the public, and then of course, uh full council conversation on what that composition could look like, but I I believe this is uh a CCR that um we we should move forward with uh again in the meeting minutes.

It's also stated that um is it appropriate to create the committee if we haven't fully negotiated the contract.

And I think it's important at the very least to create the framework so that way we're prepared.

Uh and we do allow the community to participate on oversight committee.

So um I'm supportive of having that conversation sooner than later and preferably a B session.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Would anyone else like to speak on this item?

Councilman Vicaran.

Uh yeah, I think it was asked about community benefits agreement.

I I love the idea of community benefits agreement.

The one and and we've been doing them in district three in terms of uh with new development coming in.

So I just want to make sure as we develop a framework that council members who have groups coming in and uh and downtown is different because it belongs to the entire city, is that we are we are under the consideration of the needs of the different districts.

So I don't mind a framework, but again, I think again, I do think it is the responsibility of each council member within their district to come forward with something that is needed within the district, and as y'all know in the southern sector specifically, um when we talk mortality rates, it's a lot different than the northern sector.

So where I may come with something that's health oriented, that may be not the districts, eight, nine and ten may need something else.

So that's why the only thing is as we talk community benefits agreement, we don't limit it just to the spurs because we have other groups coming in, and some of them are their filling their philanthropic efforts or towards uh health or seniors or education, and they're going to be driven that way too.

So just making sure we have everything on the list that we are prioritizing here in the city of San Antonio in terms of projects.

So is as wide as we can make that list, I think the better.

And the other is I want to think about the southeast side of town also, because that is uh where we may want it those that want to just help with economic development, we've got a lot of opportunities there as we look uh regarding this move.

So I'm all for having the conversation, but I again I do not want us to be placed in a box that we cannot get out of.

So thank you.

Thank you.

Would anyone else like to speak on this item?

Councilman McKee Rodriguez.

Thank you.

I know I used both my rounds so I'll be very, very brief, but just a response to what I'm hearing.

I do want to clarify my request as it relates to Councilmember course CCR was expanding the scope of that.

Two million dollars a year is nothing.

We don't know what we're going to be like, we don't know what our priorities with that are.

We also haven't discussed as a body how are we going to make right to the east side uh, you know, our role in all of this from the frostbank center to this new arena.

What are we what role are we going to be playing?

And is any of the 75 million dollars going to be a part of that?

And so there I understand the desire for community engagement there.

That was my comment that uh governance was that until we decide what one until we negotiate and then also until we know that what direction we're going are we going to spend it all up front or are we going to do two million dollars a year um I'd still a little iffy there but what I'm hearing from people is that they want to be more engaged and more involved and have an some sort of an oversight advisory type commission for the ex uh the entire scope of project marvel because this is going to be more than a single year project and we do have oversight commissions that meet to discuss other including the bond like that's a where folk are still discussing or were at one point discussing drainage projects even after uh the bond pro the bond uh committee stopped meeting and so that's what I would like to see come out of governance if we get to that point but uh just wanted to clarify thank you.

Thank you councilman any other folks want to comment on here.

Okay.

Troy I know there's been some question about the um the the PFC and the the projections that get us to 2.5 billion over 30 years.

Can you share with the with the council um you can speak to it now but it's certainly like the uh the projections the profile that helps us understand how we get to 2.5 billion over the 30 years.

So the PFZ over time is going to grow it's um there's a base year for 2025 for the PFZ.

Any incremental value over that will accumulate over time through the 30 years through the agreement with the PFZ.

And that will grow typically at a rate of and the state had a value of about six percent we're estimating about 3% growth over the term.

No understood the I get the math but I want to see the things that like are that we anticipate are going to to make up that and maybe this comes still from the uh project agreements uh the actual things that the uh Spurs entertainment folks are going to put in those things we we want to understand how do we get to 2.5 there's the there's the math of it but there's like what are actually the investments that we can have confidence that that will also get us there.

And if it's just the first phase if I mean if we at this point if you can just speak to the first phase understood but what it looks like so we have confidence in the 2.5 is helpful.

Mayor just just to just to clarify you that you're you asked about the PFZ but what you're describing is the the contractual guarantee on the development.

Well so they're they're two separate but they're two separate things no understood but they're connected no they're connected to the agreement but they're two separate things the the 2.5 million billion dollars or the the state estimated of six percent compound annual growth we estimated about three which was more in line with our historical that is all driven by the capture of the increment of hotel occupancy tax within that three mile area understood yeah I think but what you're asking is is about the phase one and phase two 500 million and 900 million so just want to clarify what the question is for Troy.

Well so the circle that we're going to make around the area that helps us to get to 2.5 billion dollars help us understand as well as you know it now how we're going to get to 2.5 billion dollars.

It's based on hotel occupancy taxes and the increment in growth.

All of it.

Okay and there are specific projects that are tied to it that you can help lay that out not at this point or no at this point based on what the state did is they took the the three mile radius and they took the existing hotels and the radius and the income produced off of that in terms of hot and related hotel occupancy tax and there's purely a growth rate um based on historical values so we there's currently there's not included any additional development there to influence the PFZ over that term.

Okay.

How soon might we see then the kind of where we are and certainly this will be something that we track on the on the dashboard but the things that are going to help us that we can have confidence get us to 2.5 we'll update that as part of the definitive agreements before and and with the council later on the year I guess my my my estimate here is that based on uh the passage of time, which has only been six or seven months, our projections aren't going to change.

We'll update those probably with the adoption of the or the proposed budget when we lay out.

We'll we'll go back and and do a barometer check on our estimates.

We were generally pretty conservative on that companional growth the the state was a little bit more liberal than we were um so we're we're shooting a little bit low, but we can update it as part of the proposed budget.

Thank you.

Um Councilman McKee Rodriguez, I'd like us to look at how we might potentially look at some kind of ledge agenda um opportunity given the importance of affordable housing in those areas and that potential source.

Okay.

For the public's benefit, just because it was also asked uh when it comes to to Project Marvel, but this idea as folks are looking across the uh the state and other ways in which some of these um arenas and developments have been financed, uh, this idea of an admissions tax and and a parking tax um 10% is what uh is allowed under state law for an admissions tax, and then it was five percent, excuse me, five dollars per day maximum for parking.

Uh that is what uh Fort Worth, for example, utilized to help pay down their the public's portion of the Dickies arena.

Um I did ask our uh our council and the team to help us understand if that was feasible for us.

That is not something that the city of San Antonio is able to levy unilaterally.

The county has identified the venue project as the arena here, and so if they they and they have the taxing authority for that.

So if uh there was a desire to levy an admissions tax, again, maximum 10%, and a parking tax maximum five dollars per day, all to help pay down the public's contribution, 311 for the county contribution, then that is up to the county, and that is something that would have to go to a public vote.

But again, in this instance for the arena, that is all um under the purview of the county.

Wanted to address that as a as an affordability issue and understanding, of course, city taxpayers are also county taxpayers.

Um last time we were gonna get an update on this, Troy.

Uh, there was gonna be a discussion of the um uh baseball stadium.

So can you talk a little bit about where that stands as we are thinking about all of this at the same time?

Uh I don't think we had that built into the May 7th presentation, Mayor.

Uh there was a little bit of a discussion of it.

Um do you want to just go ahead and give give us an update as we're in general talking about downtown?

Sure.

No, Mayor, I think we haven't had any conversations with the missions baseball team for a couple of weeks to three weeks.

Um they're currently out looking at their phase one development and how they're gonna finance that development.

And Randy and the team will come back to us once they have an update, then we can provide that to the council.

Okay.

Are we roughly on schedule with that, or do we anticipate the team needing to be granted an extension based on kind of where they are with financing?

I think it's largely dependent upon what Randy comes back in terms of this financing, and once we have those conversations and finalize those conversations, we can come back to you with how that's gonna impact the timeline.

Mayor, I think the I think the timeline of the baseball portion of that is gonna slip a little bit.

Okay, we're waiting to hear back from them.

That was the last update we gave you all uh uh to you and the mayor and the council or to you and the rest of the council.

Um we we think that that the phase one development as Troy uh indicated is on schedule, and the baseball park may slip a little bit.

But once we once we hear back from them, then we'll commute since we don't have council meetings for the next couple of weeks, we'll make sure we get something to you guys immediately.

Okay, I appreciate that.

Thank you.

Okay, thank you.

Um do we have an update uh by chance on uh from the Spurs on the MLS agreement?

Uh I do, and I'll brief the council and you um uh here shortly.

Okay, that's great.

That's helpful.

Um as we all know.

I mean, we're making some significant investments here, eight hundred million dollars from the people on top of the investments that we'll make in in terms of the uh the bond infrastructure.

So I think our community understands as we're talking about all these agreements, the validity and um how well we uphold these things is going to be in part based on how well we've previously upheld these, and this contract just being five million dollars, that's still outstanding.

Okay.

Um any other comments, Eric or from the team?

Uh no, ma'am.

Okay, great.

Uh the time is now 4 05 p.m.

This meeting is adjourned.

Mayor, we're we're gonna do that.

Exactly.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

The time is now four or five p.m.

On June 17th, 2026.

The City Council of the City of San Antonio will now meet in executive session to consult with the city attorney's office pursuant to chapter 551 of the Texas government code and to deliberate or discuss the following items.

Economic development negotiations pursuant to section 551.087.

The purchase exchange lease or value of real property pursuant to section 551.072, and legal issues related to litigation involving the city, emergency preparedness, and collective bargaining, all pursuant to section 551.071.

The time is now 4.39 p.m.

on June 17th, 2026, and the San Antonio City Council will now reconvene in open session.

No official action was taken in executive session.

The time is now 4 39, and this meeting is adjourned.