The southern edge of the proposed ballpark’s footprint ends just north of The Link’s proposed quarter-mile trail connecting the River Walk to San Pedro Creek.
For the past three years, Bexar County Commissioner Tommy Calvert has championed a project that he says would remake the sluggish northwest corner of downtown San Antonio into a people magnet. It’s been lonely work for Calvert.
The Link, as the project is known, would be a walking trail connecting the northern reach of the San Pedro Creek Culture Park to the River Walk. The area that the quarter-mile trail would traverse currently is punctuated by vacant storefronts and parking lots. It’s gritty and doesn’t get much foot traffic from residents or tourists. Calvert, whose precinct takes in the East Side, has long been the only elected official talking seriously about the project, which could cost anywhere from about $43 million to $135 million, depending on the design. That hasn’t changed even as San Antonio and county officials hone in on the blocks surrounding the trail’s proposed route. That’s where a proposed 4,500-seat stadium for the Missions — as well as new apartments, restaurants, stores and a hotel around the ballpark — would go up. Despite the buzz lately about the stadium and that part of downtown, Calvert’s project has steadfastly remained under the public radar. The Link wasn’t part of the future that the team owners and officials sketched out as they discussed the public financing terms in August, September and October for the $160 million stadium, which is expected to open in 2028. The Link was only mentioned once — by Calvert, shortly before the Commissioners Court voted on the financing deal on Oct. 8. He had zeroed in on a line in the term sheets that said the county would “contribute public amenities in the San Pedro Creek Park District .” “Is that linear park The Link, or is it something else proposed?” Calvert asked representatives from the ownership group. The answer was no, it didn’t refer to The Link. “We just wanted to have public access to the facility during daylight hours when there’s not an event going on, and we wanted to provide some public space outside the ballpark so it’s not a squeezed-in amenity center,” said Bruce Hill. But Hill was quick to mention that the stadium “does not conflict with The Link at all.” The trail would abut the southern boundary of the proposed ballpark footprint. Calvert ultimately abstained from voting on the financial terms of the stadium deal, citing his constituents’ lack of support for a publicly-funded ballpark. The vote was 3-1-1. City and county property taxes collected by the Houston Street Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone are expected to fund almost 80% of the stadium’s cost. That tax revenue will come from the apartments, hotel, and restaurant and retail space that downtown development firm Weston Urban aims to build around the ballpark in four phases over the next six years. Weston Urban co-founders Randy Smith and Graham Weston are both team owners. Smith has pledged to complete the first two phases, which would generate an estimated taxable value of $575 million. That’s enough to pay off the approximately $126 in government bonds that will be issued to fund the stadium construction. The first phase, which is expected to be complete by 2027, includes property that Weston Urban owns along Martin Street between Flores and Camaron streets — just south of a portion of The Link’s proposed route. Hill told the San Antonio Express-News in August that the Missions group wouldn’t take a position on The Link. “We want to be good partners,” he said. “We don’t want to be telling other people how things are supposed to get done.” The Link would also be in the neighborhood of another potential project, just a few blocks east of the ballpark: a multimillion-dollar, mixed-use development on the River Walk that a group of landowners, investors and developers have dubbed Riverplace. Plans for the project were unveiled in 2021. Its anchor would be a Dream Hotel, construction of which is expected to start next year, said Chuck Brehm of real estate development firm Universal Services Group. City Hall still in the dark The Link is the brainchild of the late engineer Al Groves, who designed a 1960s extension of the River Walk to the Henry B. González Convention Center. He was working with engineering firm Vickrey & Associates on designs for The Link in the years before his death in March 2022. At some point, the firm’s president, Brenda Vickrey Johnson, pitched the idea to Calvert, who represents the portion of downtown where the project would be located. In a 3-2 vote in July 2022, a fractured commissioners court approved awarding $2 million to the San Antonio River Authority to produce a preliminary engineering report with cost estimates for The Link in conjunction Vickrey & Associates. That was despite the lack of commitment from the city to support the project. The Link can’t move forward unless the city is on board. That’s because all of the design options call for closing the two-block-long, city-owned Savings Street to vehicular traffic. “The Link needs city participation, and it needs city permission in regards to the property,” County Judge Peter Saki said in late August. “I will not exercise any eminent domain. I ain’t taking away anybody’s private property in order to accomplish this.” At that time, Sakai said he had no opinion on whether the project should move forward. The judge’s position has remained unchanged, his spokesperson said recently. Calvert favors the “River Walk level” design, which would pass under Soledad Street, North Main Avenue and North Flores Street. Because the River Walk is at a lower elevation than the San Pedro Creek Culture Park, which is at street level, this option would require excavating 18 feet, building retaining walls and converting these city-owned streets into bridges. That design comes with an estimated $135.47 million price tag if the project goes to bid by early 2026 and is completed within three years. The other designs are scaled-back versions that would require far less to no excavation. The least expensive option, which is projected to cost close to $43.26 million, would add an elevator next to the stairs that connect Soledad Street to the River Walk. Calvert has criticized the River Authority’s decision to factor in a 20% contingency to the construction costs — for unforeseen events that could push up the price of the trail’s development. The cost estimates he prefers to share with constituents remove that contingency as well as the projected inflation adjustment, which in turn lowers the price tag of his preferred design by more than $35 million. The River Authority defended their estimates. “For The Link project, the River Authority obtained three separate cost estimates from lead project consultants as well as independent experts, each stating a 20 percent contingency,” a spokesperson said in a statement. “At the current preliminary pre-design phase, a 20 percent contingency is considered standard.” “Including inflation on major public projects is a standard practice,” the spokesperson added. READ MORE: How Bexar County is trying to help the Missions’ owners get land they need for a new ballpark When the preliminary engineering report was made public in early April, Calvert said it was the right time “to begin to engage the city again about what these estimates look like.” That hasn’t happened. City Manager Erik Walsh did not make himself available for an interview for this story. Instead, a city spokesperson provided the following statement: “The City has not received any information about the scope, cost or status of this concept from Bexar County or the San Antonio River Authority.” District 1 City Councilwoman Sukh Kaur, who represents downtown, said she has received little information about the project, aside from Calvert showing her videos of the design renderings on his smartphone when they ran into each other at an event a few months ago. City staff never mentioned The Link during any of their discussions with the council ahead of its Sept. 12 vote to approve the financing deal with the Missions’ ownership, Kaur said. “I don’t have enough information to give you a response to that,” she said when asked whether she supports The Link. 2 projects take the spotlight Calvert said he intentionally hasn’t talked to Sakai, his fellow county commissioners or City Council members about The Link since the River Authority unveiled its report. That’s because he said they’ve been fixated on the Missions stadium as well as a larger undertaking that would involve expanding the Convention Center, renovating the Alamodome and potentially moving the Spurs from the county-owned Frost Bank Center to a new arena at Hemisfair. City officials refer to this potential sports and entertainment district by its code name: Project Marvel. City leaders have been talking with Spurs Sports & Entertainment about the possibility of a new downtown arena since at least early 2023. Separately, county commissioners, including Calvert, gave Sakai the OK in mid-June to negotiate with the Missions’ owners on a stadium deal. “I don’t actually think it’s the right time, for a couple of reasons,” Calvert said. “Project Marvel and the baseball stadium have been the focus, and so that is also part of why the timeline for me talking with county and city colleagues is going to be after we get the economic study and some more details on finance.” Calvert asked the River Authority on Aug. 9 to conduct an economic impact study for The Link, said county spokeswoman Monica Ramos. The River Authority tapped Steve Nivin, a St. Mary’s University economics professor, to conduct that study, which should be completed early next year. The River Authority is using $18,800 of the $434,787 that was left over from the $2 million the county gave them for the engineering report. “With the recent community conversation about the Missions Baseball stadium being located at the north end of San Pedro Creek Culture Park, we’ve been asked to obtain a quote for an economic impact analysis on the Link project,” the study scope notes. Who would pay? Calvert set aside $41.1 million of his precinct’s capital improvement dollars for The Link in 2021 — well before Commissioners Court approved the preliminary engineering report. He’d previously floated the city’s 2027 bond as a potential funding source, despite having no luck getting the city to include it in its 2022 bond program. He also suggested tapping city and county property taxes collected through the Houston Street TIRZ. However, Calvert now says that additional county or city dollars may not be needed to make up the remainder of the project’s cost. “I think there’s going to be some very creative financing that will take the burden off of government,” he said. Calvert declined to say who would devise The Link’s financing plan. He wouldn’t say whether it would entail the private sector, namely developers, footing most of the costs. “This is preliminary work that we’re doing, and we’re not finished with the preliminary work,” he said. Brehm, of Universal Services Group, said it’s unlikely that developers would be willing to pitch in to pay for The Link. “It would be my opinion that in today’s market — as tight and as difficult as development is — to add an additional burden on to that would not be realistic,” he said. Brehm wants to see The Link become a reality. He told the court so in July 2022, when commissioners debated funding the preliminary engineering report. “We’re having to make contingencies with The Link or without The Link,” Brehm said at the time. “We’re making an assumption that it will happen, so that’s our first priority.” The Dream Hotel that Universal Services Group plans to build would be near Soledad and East Martin streets, near what would be the start of the proposed Link trail. The Link “would add a tremendous amount of value” to this part of downtown, Brehm said. But he is skeptical that funding it through the private sector would work. “I do think it will take a joint venture” between the city and county, he said.
Weston Urban Universal Services Group How Bexar County St. Mary's University Missions Baseball San Antonio Express-News Houston Street TIRZ San Antonio River Authority Frost Bank Center District 1 Spurs Spurs Sports &Amp Tommy Calvert Al Groves Bruce Hill Peter Saki Sakai Sukh Kaur Chuck Brehm Missions Erik Walsh Brenda Vickrey Johnson Steve Nivin Monica Ramos Weston Urban Missions Missions Graham Weston Randy Smith Vickrey Camaron San Pedro Creek Culture Park San Pedro Creek Park District River Walk San Antonio San Pedro Creek Bexar County East Side Dream Hotel Riverplace Soledad Street North Flores Street Martin Street Houston Street Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone Savings Street Henry B. González Convention Center City Hall Flores North Main Avenue East Martin Convention Center Hemisfair Alamodome OK Missions Project Marvel Missions Ballpark Vickrey &Amp The Link. 2 Link The City
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