The Alamo City doubled its two-year mayoral terms, meaning its new mayor will actually have some time to get things done.
Gina Ortiz Jones, 44, is the city’s first openly gay mayor and previously served as former President Joe Biden’s Under Secretary of the Air Force. She beat out former Texas Secretary of State Rolando Pablos, 57, in a runoff on Saturday, winning 54.3 percent of the vote to his 45.7 percent.
She listed affordable housing as a policy priority, promising in her first 100 days to streamline the approval process for affordable developments.
Meanwhile, Pablos was the undisputed favorite of the real estate industry, campaign finance records show.
Houston real estate mogul Richard Weekley, founder of Weekley Properties and co-founder of David Weekley Homes and Weekley Development Company, donated to his campaign. So did the San Antonio Apartment Association and U.S. Ambassador to Italy Tilman Fertitta.
An issue that divided the candidates was their stance on San Antonio’s bid to develop a new $4 billion arena for its NBA team, the Spurs, dubbed “Project Marvel.”
Ortiz Jones called discussions of the city’s financial support for the project “premature” in a KSAT debate with Pablos. First, decisionmakers need to determine how the city will benefit, she said.
“It’s really important, to your point, that we do everything we can to fight to keep our Spurs and everything possible to also make sure that San Antonio gets a good deal,” she said.
In addition to building a new Spurs arena, Project Marvel calls for a convention center expansion, a 1,000-room hotel, a land bridge over Interstate 37 connecting to the East Side, a 5,000-seat live entertainment venue in the John Woods Courthouse and roughly 50 acres of mixed-use development.
The San Antonio Express-News reported that Assistant City Manager Lori Houston estimated the price tag could range between $3 and $4 billion.
Local entities are already laying the groundwork to finance the project.
Bexar County is weighing a referendum to raise $450 million via a venue tax. It has until mid-August to put it on the ballot for November. The city has created a Project Finance Zone that would allow it to collect up to $2 billion in hotel tax over 30 years.
A mix of private equity, tax credits, venue taxes and public-private partnerships is expected to fund the district’s various components.
Ortiz Jones, a Filipino American, grew up in San Antonio and attended Boston University. She is an Air Force veteran who served in the Iraq War. This is her first foray into city politics, but she ran for state legislature in 2018 and 2020, losing to Republicans in both elections.
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