Precinct 4 Bexar County Commissioner Tommy Calvert speaks during Saturday’s town hall meeting at Freeman Coliseum. Credit: Michael Karlis

The Frost Bank Center and its surrounding miles empty parking lots could become a destination similar to the Fort Worth Stockyards if Precinct 4 Bexar County Commissioner Tommy Calvert gets his way.

Calvert trotted out the plan for what could become San Antonio’s latest mega-project during a packed town hall Saturday at the East Side’s Freeman Coliseum, which lies in the commissioner’s district.

The Town Hall was a way for long-disenfranchised East Side residents to express opinions about what they’d like to see happen to the Frost Bank Center should the Spurs build a new arena downtown.

Although residents did express opinions on the matter, the event also included a project Calvert has been planning for years. The development would be a multi-use tourism district that includes affordable housing, elevates local businesses and provides economic development to the East Side while generating tourism revenue for the county.

“It’s a plan called River East,” Calvert told Current during a Friday interview. “It’s an $80 million tunnel that takes water out of the floodplain. When you do that, you can develop housing, restaurants and hotels along Salado Creek.”

The Salado Creek floodplain

The city-owned Willow Springs Golf Course — located across Frost Bank Center Drive from the arena — is situated in the middle of the Salado Creek Floodplain. However, if Calvert’s tunnel is built, half of the 18-hole golf course could be used for lodging, restaurants and entertainment.

A rendering of what the River East district might look like after the Spurs move to a new arena. Credit: Michael Karlis

Calvert argues that low-wage service industry jobs such as those offered at the Frost Bank Center don’t present the economic opportunity the city initially promised when the arena was built on the East Side.

Instead, the commissioner envisions a district where half of commercial leases in the new district for East Side-based businesses are subsidized by the city and county. He also imagines a program that would train East Side residents to work on the construction site for the new district.

“We’ve got high unemployment census tracts on the East Side,” Calvert told the Current. “But if you teach someone a construction trade, they can take that into a good middle-income job for life.”

Something Calvert also has that Project Marvel lacks is plans for funding and a powerful partner committed to economic development on the East Side.

Turning a floodplain into federal funding

The first source of funding for Calvert’s grand scheme is federal dollars.

Since Willow Springs is on a flood plain, it’s eligible to receive federal funding for flood relief. Indeed, the Fort Worth City Council and Tarrant County Commissioners Court in 2022 landed $403 million in federal funding for Panther Island, a human-built island in the middle of the Trinity River that will feature housing, entertainment and its own River Walk.

Fort Worth and Tarrant County won the money because the development of Panther Island also qualifies as a floodplain barrier.

Another source of funding would be the visitors’ tax — the same funding mechanism that Spurs Sports & Entertainment tried to strongarm Bexar County Commissioners Court into posing to voters in the May election.

SS&E wanted the Commissioners Court to ask voters to approve using the entirety of that revenue on the new Spurs arena at Hemisfair.

One signifiant problem stands in the way, according to Calvert.

First, the Spurs haven’t provided the exact price of the arena to Bexar County Commissioners. Calvert said builders and construction analysts he’s spoken to estimate the arena will cost about $1.3 billion.

However, estimates show the total capacity of the visitor’s tax could raise more than $2 billion in revenue, according to Calvert.

“Frankly, all the projects around the county could probably get a spruce-up, and we can do some new things,” Calvert told the Current. “That’s why I’m doing this.”

San Antonio residents line up to speak during Saturday’s town hall. Credit: Michael Karlis

Calvert wants to use the additional revenue from the tax, which would first have to be approved by the Commissioners Court, for his River East Project and other existing county-funded projects that require upgrades.

He said he has support from colleagues on Commissioners Court.

Although Bexar County Judge Peter Sakai didn’t stay for much of Saturday’s town hall, he previously told the Express-News that he wants to see an economic development plan for the area surrounding the Frost Bank Center before moving forward with a downtown arena plan.

A committed partner

San Antonio Stock Show and Rodeo CEO Cody Davenport said his organization won’t abandon its commitments to the East Side should a new downtown arena be built. He added that he’s fully on board with Calvert’s vision.

“I know we have some differences. I get it,” the cowboy hat-wearing told East Side residents at Saturday’s town hall. “But I want to commit to you guys.”

Davenport continued: “We reside here. We’ve been here since 1949, since the Freeman Coliseum was built. We have been your loyal tenant to the county. We’re the ones that have never wavered in our commitment on what we will do and what we will do in residing here.”

According to Davenport, the Freeman Coliseum could be become a perennial attraction like Fort Worth’s Cowtown Coliseum, complete with daily rodeo shows. The new River East district also could be home to daily cattle drives, similar to ones held in North Texas city.

“The stockyards up there, it was a heavy industrial area — a run-down area,” Davenport said. “They took a little arena there, they activated it on a regular basis. And guess what? That whole strip up there is full of restaurants and hotels and stuff that I’ve listened to our commissioners dream about for years. If they can do it up there in Fort Worth, then we sure as hell can do it here in San Antonio.”

Calvert plans to hold his next town hall meeting on the River East project and the future of the Frost Bank Center district at 10 a.m. Feb. 1 at Freeman Coliseum.

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This article appears in Jan 22 – Feb 4, 2025.

Michael Karlis is a multimedia journalist at the San Antonio Current, whose coverage in print and on social media focuses on local and state politics. He is a graduate of American University in Washington,...