By Molly Smith, Staff writer | San Antonio Express-News (SAEN), 2024-09-12 16:15:41
由生成式人工智能翻译，译文内容可能不准确或不完整，以原文为准。
如果一切按计划进行，圣安东尼奥-贝克萨尔县的一个市政委员会将于明年 11 月 30 日前出售债券，用于为 Missions 棒球队建造一座耗资 1.6 亿美元的市中心棒球场，以便该体育场能在 2028 年的开幕日投入使用。
周四，市长罗恩·尼伦伯格 (Ron Nirenberg) 和市议会以 9 票赞成、2 票反对的结果批准了与 Missions 所有权集团达成的融资协议条款，该计划由此启动。
投票最初计划于 9 月 5 日进行，[但由于计划拆除肥皂厂公寓 引发的强烈反对，投票被推迟了一周](https://www.expressnews.com/news/article/city-council-ballpark-deal-vote-19741933.php)。肥皂厂公寓是一处经济适用房小区，位于市中心西北角体育场规划用地的阴影之下。
周四，肥皂厂公寓的居民和经济适用房倡导者在市议会关于 Missions 棒球场融资协议的会议上，通过举起红色和绿色卡片来表达他们对相关言论的反对或赞成。
市中心开发商 Weston Urban 计划在这片占地 9 英亩、拥有 381 个单元的小区所在地建造新的公寓、酒店以及零售和餐饮空间。Weston Urban 的联合创始人也是该所有权集团的成员。这些新开发项目产生的市县财产税收将用于偿还债券。
Weston Urban 和市政府官员匆忙寻找方法安抚肥皂厂的居民和 COPS/Metro，这是一个一直批评该协议的跨宗教基层倡导组织——这样议员们就不会推迟批准与 Designated Bidders LLC 的谅解备忘录和财务条款了。Designated Bidders LLC 是在 2022 年以 2800 万美元收购这支双 A 球队的集团。
Weston Urban 的联合创始人兼首席执行官、圣安东尼奥 Missions 所有权集团成员兰迪·史密斯 (Randy Smith) 在周四的市议会会议上发表讲话。
Weston Urban 最初只同意免除搬迁至该公司其他房产（例如西商业街前大陆酒店的公寓）的租户的申请费。该项目计划于 2026 年初开放，318 个单元中的 145 个将预留给收入不超过该地区平均收入 60% 至 80% 的租户。
但在投票前几天，Weston Urban 同意总共支付 25 万美元的搬迁费，市政府承诺使用未动用的联邦大流行救济资金再提供 25 万美元。这笔钱将用于为每位租户提供 COPS/Metro 主要诉求之一的 2500 美元“租金搬迁计划”。
这些让步足以说服 COPS/Metro 支持该计划。但这并没有阻止该组织的领导人在投票前斥责市政府官员。
COPS/Metro 的领导人吉米·德伦南 (Jimmy Drennan) 神父在市议会以 9 票赞成、2 票反对的结果批准市中心棒球场融资协议之前发表讲话。
“当我们回顾这段经历时，我们敏锐地意识到，对于亿万富翁、百万富翁和开发商来说，大门是敞开的，会议室是可用的，餐桌旁的位置是为他们准备的，”领导人吉米·德伦南 (Jimmy Drennan) 神父说道，他指的是 Missions 的投资者，例如 Weston Urban 的联合创始人、曾经的亿万富翁格雷厄姆·韦斯顿 (Graham Weston)。
“我们希望参与即将到来的马刺队球馆的讨论，我们将坐在桌子的第一排，”德伦南补充道。
该市公共住房机构圣安东尼奥机会之家 (Opportunity Home San Antonio) 还将免除搬迁至其 Beacon Communities 房产的肥皂厂租户的申请费和第一个月的租金。Beacon Communities 是混合收入公寓大楼，其中一些单元预留给收入低于该地区收入中位数的人。
尽管如此，一些肥皂厂的租户仍然反对该计划。
肥皂厂公寓的居民詹姆斯·博歇 (James Bocher) 在周四的会议上向市议会发表讲话。
“如果我们从未组织起来，如果我们从未大声疾呼，Weston Urban 会非常乐意不给我们任何补偿，”圣道大学的学生、租户詹姆斯·博歇 (James Bocher) 说。
第 5 区议员特丽·卡斯蒂略 (Teri Castillo) 和第 2 区议员贾伦·麦基-罗德里格斯 (Jalen McKee-Rodriguez) 是仅有的两名投票反对谅解备忘录和条款清单的议员。
他们最初推动进一步推迟投票，以便租户在搬迁计划中拥有更多发言权。但该提议以 7 票赞成、4 票反对的结果失败，只有议员阿德里安娜·罗查·加西亚 (Adriana Rocha Garcia) 和梅丽莎·卡贝罗·哈夫尔达 (Melissa Cabello Havrda) 支持卡斯蒂略和麦基-罗德里格斯的延期动议。
“我还认为，动用 ARPA 资金来试图解决我们自己制造的问题是垃圾行为，”麦基-罗德里格斯说，并补充说，该市“将补贴这些租户的搬迁费用，并利用 ARPA 来安抚他们”。他说，Weston Urban 应该支付搬迁援助，而不是由市政府支付。
卡斯蒂略说，她希望 Weston Urban 要求贝克萨尔县也为搬迁援助捐款 25 万美元。
肥皂厂公寓的现任居民路易斯·阿尔瓦拉多 (Luis Alvarado) 和西莉亚·科罗纳多 (Celia Coronado) 在周四的市议会会议上对有关 Missions 棒球场协议的声明表示反对。
协议数据
周四的投票是开始建造这座可容纳 4500 个座位的体育场的众多步骤中的第一步。该体育场将建在大部分为空地的地块上，北至金斯伯里街，南至西马丁街以南半个街区，东至北弗洛雷斯街，西至卡马隆街。
Designated Bidders 将为土地收购以及设计和工程费用支付 3400 万美元。剩余的建设成本将由市县开发局发行的政府债券支付。
债券资金将主要由体育场附近两期新开发项目产生的市县财产税收来偿还，这些项目的估计应税价值为 5.75 亿美元。另一部分债券偿还将来自业主每年 100 万美元的租赁付款和 2 美元的门票费。
Weston Urban 的第一阶段私人开发预计将于 2027 年完成，第二阶段将于 2029 年完成。
该市首席财务官本·戈泽尔 (Ben Gorzell) 表示，尚未成立的圣佩德罗溪开发局 (San Pedro Creek Development Authority) 在 Weston Urban 确定第一阶段开发的设计、融资和承包商以及第二阶段的设计方案之前，不会发行任何债券。
greater: SATX 的总裁兼首席执行官珍娜·索塞多-埃雷拉 (Jenna Saucedo-Herrera) 向议员们发表讲话，表达她对该市市中心棒球场协议的支持。
棒球场 14% 的成本可以使用休斯顿街税收增量再投资区 (TIRZ) 的现有税收来偿还。
“但这假设第一阶段和第二阶段的应税价值不会超过我们的预测，而且开发商不会推进第三阶段和第四阶段，”戈泽尔在周四的议会会议上说。后期阶段的私人开发估计应税价值为 4.25 亿美元。
该市的目标是扩大休斯顿街 TIRZ 的边界，将 Weston Urban 的一些新开发项目纳入其中，这将需要削减现有的西区 TIRZ，并将休斯顿街 TIRZ 的到期期限从 2034 年延长至 2065 年——这两项都需要市议会未来进行投票。
德克萨斯大学圣安东尼奥分校校长泰勒·艾格米 (Taylor Eighmy) 在周四的会议上表达了对该市市中心棒球场协议的支持。
该市在 1999 年创建休斯顿街 TIRZ 时，为该区域内的房产设定了基本应税价值。随着新开发项目的出现，价值会上升，高于基准的收入将由市政府和贝克萨尔县收取，用于补偿开发商的基础设施升级和其他公共设施的改善，而不是进入用于支付城市基本服务的普通基金。
卡斯蒂略对扩大 TIRZ 的规模和延长其使用寿命表示反对。
“我的立场一直是，也将永远是，公共资金用于公共利益，并继续满足我选民的要求，从照明到街道，再到公共安全，”她说。“因此，当我们审视这里与 TIRZ 的融资结构时，它抽走了本可以进入普通基金的资金，而这些资金可以用来为我的选民每天打电话给我们办公室要求我们投资的那些项目提供服务。”
圣安东尼奥 Missions 所有权集团成员霍普·安德拉德 (Hope Andrade) 和兰迪·史密斯 (Randy Smith) 在周四的圣安东尼奥市议会会议召开前交谈。
肥皂厂公寓的居民布鲁克林·拉莫斯 (Brooklyn Ramos) 在周四的会议上向市议会发表讲话。
点击查看原文：City Council OKs public funds for Missions ballpark
City Council OKs public funds for Missions ballpark
If all goes as planned, a city of San Antonio-Bexar County board will sell bonds for the construction of a $160 million downtown ballpark for the Missions by Nov. 30 of next year so the stadium will be ready for opening day in 2028.
Mayor Ron Nirenberg and City Council’s 9-2 vote Thursday to approve the terms of the financing deal with the Missions’ ownership group put that plan in motion.
The vote had initially been planned for Sept. 5 but was pushed back a week because of backlash over the planned razing of the Soap Factory Apartments, an affordable complex in the shadow of the stadium’s footprint in the northwest corner of downtown.
Residents of the Soap Factory Apartments and affordable housing advocates express their opposition to or approval of statements made by raising red and green cards during a City Council meeting on the financing deal for a Missions baseball stadium, on Thursday.
Downtown developer Weston Urban, whose co-founders are part of the ownership group, plans to build new apartments, a hotel, and retail and restaurant space on the 9 acres on which the 381-unit complex sits. City and county property tax revenue generated by that new development will repay the bonds.
Weston Urban and city officials scrambled to find a way to appease Soap Factory residents and COPS/Metro, an interfaith grassroots advocacy group that has been critical of the deal — so council members wouldn’t postpone approval of a memorandum of understanding and the financial terms of the deal with Designated Bidders LLC, the group that purchased the Double-A team for $28 million in 2022.
Randy Smith, a co-founder and CEO of Weston Urban and a member of the San Antonio Missions’ ownership group, speaks at a City Council meeting on Thursday.
Weston Urban initially agreed to only waive the application fee for tenants who move to another one of the firm’s properties, such as the apartments at the former Continental Hotel on West Commerce Street. Set to open by early 2026, 145 of the 318 units will be set aside for tenants earning up to 60% to 80% of the area median income.
But days before the vote, Weston Urban agreed to put up a total of $250,000 for moving expenses, with the city committing to match that with another $250,000 using unspent federal pandemic relief dollars. That money will go toward a $2,500 “rental relocation package” for individual tenants — one of COPS/Metro’s main requests.
The concessions were enough to sway COPS/Metro to support the plan. But that didn’t stop the group’s leaders from chiding city officials prior to the vote.
Father Jimmy Drennan, a leader of COPS/Metro, makes remarks ahead of the City Council’s 9-2 vote to approve a financing deal for a downtown ballpark.
“When we look at this experience, we are keenly aware that doors were opened, conference rooms were made available and seats were placed at the table for billionaires, millionaires and developers,” said leader Father Jimmy Drennan, referring to Missions investors, such as Weston Urban co-founder Graham Weston, a one-time billionaire.
“We expect to be included in the upcoming discussions for the Spurs arena, and we will have the first seats at the table,” Drennan added.
Opportunity Home San Antonio, the city’s public housing agency, will also waive its application fee and first-month rent payment for Soap Factory tenants who move into one of its Beacon Communities properties, which are mixed-income apartment complexes where some units are reserved for people earning less than the region’s median income.
Still, some Soap Factory tenants remained opposed to the plan.
James Bocher, a resident of Soap Factory Apartments, makes remarks to City Council during a meeting on Thursday.
“If we had never organized, if we had never spoken up, Weston Urban would have been perfectly happy not to compensate us,” said tenant James Bocher, a student at the University of the Incarnate Word.
District 5 Council Member Teri Castillo and District 2 Council Member Jalen McKee-Rodriguez were the lone council members to vote against the memorandum of understanding and the term sheets.
They initially pushed to further delay the vote so tenants could have more say in the relocation plan. That failed by a 7-4 vote, with only Council Members Adriana Rocha Garcia and Melissa Cabello Havrda joining Castillo and McKee-Rodriguez’s motion for a delay.
“I also think it’s trash to use ARPA dollars to try and fix the problem that we’re manufacturing,” McKee-Rodriguez said, adding that the city was “going to subsidize the displacement of these tenants and use ARPA to try to appease them.” He said Weston Urban should pay for the moving assistance, not the city.
Castillo said she would like Weston Urban to ask Bexar County to also contribute $250,000 for moving assistance.
Luis Alvarado and Celia Coronado, current residents of the Soap Factory Apartments, showed their opposition to statements made during a City Council meeting concerning the Missions baseball stadium deal, on Thursday.
Deal by the numbers
Thursday’s vote was the first of many steps toward starting construction on the 4,500-seat stadium that will be built on mostly empty lots between Kingsbury Street on the north, a half-block shy of West Martin Street to the south, North Flores Street to the east and Camaron Street to the west.
Designated Bidders will put up $34 million for land acquisition and design and engineering expenses. The remaining construction costs will be paid by government bonds issued by a city-county development authority.
The bond money will mostly be repaid by city and county property tax revenue generated by two phases of new development near the stadium that will have an estimated taxable value of $575 million. Another portion of the bond repayment will come from the owners’ annual $1 million lease payment and a $2 ticket fee.
Weston Urban’s first phase of private development is expected to be complete by 2027, and the second phase by 2029.
The yet-to-be-created San Pedro Creek Development Authority won’t issue any bonds until Weston Urban has designs, financing and a contractor in place for the first phase of the development and design plans for the second phase, said Ben Gorzell, the city’s chief financial officer.
Jenna Saucedo-Herrera, president and CEO of greater: SATX, addresses council members to voice her support for the city’s downtown baseball stadium deal.
Fourteen percent of the ballpark’s cost may be repaid using existing tax revenue in the Houston Street Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone.
“But that assumes that the taxable value for phases 1 and 2 don’t come in above our projects and that the developer doesn’t move forward with phases 3 and 4,” Gorzell said at Thursday’s council meeting. Those later phases of private development have an estimated taxable value of $425 million.
The city aims to expand the Houston Street TIRZ’s boundaries to include some of Weston Urban’s new development, which will require cutting into the existing Westside TIRZ, and extend the Houston Street TIRZ’s expiration term from 2034 to 2065 — both of which will require future City Council votes.
UTSA President Taylor Eighmy voices his support for the city’s downtown baseball stadium deal on Thursday.
When the city created the Houston Street TIRZ in 1999, it set a base taxable value for the property within the zone. As values rise with new development, revenue above the base is collected by the city and Bexar County to reimburse developers for infrastructure upgrades and other public improvements, rather than going into the general fund, which pays for basic city services.
Castillo voiced her opposition to expanding and extending the life of the TIRZ.
“My position has and will always be public money for public good, and to continue to provide the needs that my constituents ask for, from lights to streets, public safety," she said. “So when we look at the financing structure here with the TIRZ, it siphons off dollars that could be going into the general fund that can service those things that my constituents call our office day to day and ask that we invest in.”
Hope Andrade and Randy Smith, members of the San Antonio Missions’ ownership group, mingle ahead of the San Antonio City Council meeting on Thursday.
Brooklyn Ramos, a resident of Soap Factory Apartments, makes remarks to City Council during a meeting on Thursday.
By Molly Smith, Staff writer, via San Antonio Express-News