+34The San Antonio Missions baseball team is soon to embark on building a stadium with developers planning to build up to $1 billion of development around it.
Two time-related adages came to mind after the Express-News Editorial Board met Wednesday with Randy Smith, the real estate developer who is part of the group that owns the San Antonio Missions baseball team and is soon to embark on building a stadium and up to $1 billion of development around it in the northwest part of downtown.
“Good things come to those who wait.” “A day late and a dollar short.” Smith and his colleagues, along with San Antonio and Bexar County leaders, are hoping the first adage will be true. The idea of bringing the Missions to the urban core has been batted around for years. Now that it’s on the verge of happening, with the City Council expected to approve a financing agreement before an Oct. 15 deadline imposed by Major League Baseball, they’ve got one shot to get it right. RELATED: San Antonio initially called new ballpark proposal ‘far out there.’ Here’s how a deal was reached. The ballpark is the easier part. The elusive task of using a sports venue as a catalyst for economic development in an unrealized part of downtown looms large. What did the Frost Bank Center for the Spurs ever do for the East Side? One of the biggest challenges will be designing and building around a ballpark in a way that is not so big that it overwhelms, but not so small that it accomplishes little. “The scale of this can get screwed up really easily,” Smith said. “The pedestrian experience and urbanism — whichever design team wins … is bringing a real urbanist to the table.” That comment is a reminder that nothing has been designed. When huge dollar values are bandied about — a $160 million stadium and $575 million in multifamily and mixed-use development for the first two of four phases — those are budgets, not cost estimates. Architects, engineers and construction companies will be tasked with producing structures and infrastructure for that amount of money. While what they create won’t be realized until 2028, the visioning, imagining of what’s possible, has already begun. In at least one tangible and significant respect — price — it’s unfortunate that San Antonio is bringing its minor league team to the urban core so late in the game compared with many peer cities. The price tag for the future Double-A Missions stadium is more than twice the cost in 2014 of the larger Triple-A stadiums in El Paso and Charlotte, N.C., and nearly twice the cost in 2015 to build the Triple-A stadium in Nashville, Tenn. The contractor who built the ballpark in El Paso, as well as venues in Las Vegas and Worcester, Mass., told Smith it would cost more to build those projects in San Antonio at current prices than what's been proposed here. “Escalation in the construction industry is rampant,” Smith said. “It far has outpaced a historic inflation environment.” EDITORIAL: San Antonio Missions stadium downtown will be a hit On the other hand, Smith and team can examine what’s been done elsewhere. In the summer of 2023, Smith and his family visited seven minor league baseball stadiums in seven days “Clark Griswold style” — including in Indianapolis; Columbus, Ohio, and Nashville — soaking in the ambience of those venues as well as the urban development around them. Smith is also well-versed from experiences in El Paso, Oklahoma City and Charlotte. In those cities, downtown stadiums have been catalysts for development and/or enhanced urban quality of life. In Oklahoma City, the stadium that houses the Triple-A affiliate of the Los Angeles Dodgers opened more than a quarter-century ago and is a key component of the city’s Bricktown entertainment district. The Bricktown Canal is reminiscent of the River Walk, flowing past Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark much like San Pedro Creek will flow beside the future Missions stadium. Truist Field in Charlotte, home of the Triple-A Knights, was the cornerstone of what economic leaders there describe as “ballpark-oriented development.” The area around Truist has seen $1.5 billion in adjacent and complementary development — commercial, residential and recreational, said Michael Smith, CEO of Charlotte Center City Partners, a nonprofit economic development organization that was tasked with championing the project. Southwestern University Park in downtown El Paso leverages its proximity to cultural and entertainment sites, including the Plaza Theatre Performing Arts Center, the El Paso Museum of Art and San Jacinto Plaza. Similarly, the Missions stadium site is near the Tobin Center for the Performing Arts, the San Antonio Museum of Modern Art, and Travis and Milam parks. But placing a ballpark downtown hasn’t always been a hit. Nearly 30 years after Salt Lake City opened Smith’s Ballpark, home of the Triple-A Bees, the team announced it will move after the 2024 season to the suburb of South Jordan, about 15 miles south. Jay Evensen, a columnist for the Deseret News in Salt Lake, wrote that the area surrounding Smith’s Ballpark “doesn’t look much different than it did then.” And again — Frost Bank Center. With help and perhaps inspiration from all those examples, good and bad, the task is to envision and execute something that’s right for this particular — largely inactive — part of downtown San Antonio. I’m hopeful Smith, who calls thinking and talking about such things his “love language,” is capable of and motivated to get it right. And then maybe another adage will apply — “better late than never.” Tony.Quesada@express-news.net
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Frost Bank Center Express-News Editorial Board San Antonio Missions Major League Baseball Spurs City Council Deseret News Truist Los Angeles Dodgers Triple-A Knights Randy Smith Quesada Michael Smith Jay Evensen Clark Griswold Travis Missions San Antonio Downtown El Paso Smith's Ballpark Southwestern University Park Salt Lake City Charlotte Bexar County Missions Stadium Nashville Columbus Tobin Center For The Performing Arts Tenn N.C. East Side Mass. Worcester Las Vegas Indianapolis Ohio San Jacinto Plaza El Paso Museum Of Art San Antonio Museum Of Modern Art Milam Plaza Theatre Performing Arts Center Oklahoma City Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark South Jordan Bricktown Bricktown Canal San Pedro Creek River Walk Double-A Missions Triple-A Truist Field Triple-A Bees Tony.Quesada@Express-News.Net
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