Spurs Sports & Entertainment this week hired a slate of local and national contractors for its proposed $1.3 billion downtown arena, pushing the long-discussed project forward even as San Antonio continues to spend heavily on planning and consulting. The hires cover construction oversight, engineering, design, development and financial advice for the arena and the larger district built around it.
The company did not disclose what the contracts are worth, but the roster is wide. CAA ICON will oversee construction of the arena and nearby development, while Pape-Dawson will handle environmental, civil and traffic engineering and surveying. Overland International will design the arena at Hemisfair, Marquee Development will focus on retail and hospitality around it, Sasaki will create a master plan for the sports and entertainment district, Stafford Sports will provide advisory and strategic planning, and Jorge Rodriguez Financial Consulting and Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP will supply financial and legal help. Goldman Sachs will serve as the project’s financial advisor.
RC Buford, the team executive overseeing the effort, said the goal was to pull together the right partners to deliver something San Antonio can be proud of. That pitch comes as the city’s own costs keep rising. The San Antonio City Council this week agreed to spend $6.3 million more in consulting fees on the project, including a $6 million contract for Accenture Infrastructure and Capital Projects to coordinate and manage development of the district as executive program manager and a $350,000 job for Municap to conduct a cost-of-service study.
The numbers underscore how much money has already been committed to a plan that is still far from complete. The city has spent about $10 million on consultant contracts without yet buying the land for the arena, and much of the broader Project Marvel vision remains in limbo. Project Marvel is a $4 billion sports and entertainment complex at Hemisfair anchored by the new basketball arena, meant to reshape a large swath of downtown into a district built around sports, retail and hospitality.
That sequencing is where the tension lies. Geoffrey Proheter said last week that a consultant should have been hired before council approved a term sheet with Spurs Sports & Entertainment in August, arguing that the city is now asking questions after the fact. The criticism goes straight to transparency and accountability, even as the project’s supporters keep assembling the team they say will make it work. For now, the arena is advancing on paper faster than the city has locked down the land beneath it, and that gap is likely to define the next phase of the debate.
