Editor’s note: New documents obtained by the San Antonio Express-News show that the land in question wasn’t purchased by Peter J. Holt. Instead, the deal involved a trust affiliated with his father, Peter M. Holt, who is no longer involved in the Spurs’ leadership. Please see the Current’s new story on the transaction.
Despite San Antonio Spurs principal owner Peter J. Holt crying poor to City Council when talking about the team’s capacity to pay for a new arena, media reports suggest he still has access to enough cash to buy a large chunk of a Hawaiian island.
Holt reportedly ponied up $8 million this month to purchase an additional 100 acres on the Big Island. The purchase brings Holt’s land holdings on the Island to 900 acres, which the New York Post reported he uses as grazing land for cattle.
The real estate agent who represented the seller in the deal, Paul Stukin, confirmed to the Post that Holt was the buyer and even posted about it on social media. However, those social media posts have since been deleted, the Express-News reports.
What’s more, Spurs Sports & Entertainment (SS&E) disputes reports that Holt was the buyer.
“Peter J. Holt did not purchase the property referenced [by the Post],” SS&E said in a statement to the daily.
SS&E declined to elaborate further, and the Post has not issued a correction or retraction.
Holt’s alleged purchase comes as San Antonio Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones continues to hound Spurs ownership for more money to help pay for the team’s new downtown basketball arena.
The new $1.3 billion arena at Hemisfair will be funded with $800 million in public money, primarily from the Bexar County hotel occupancy tax along with sales- and beverage-tax revenue generated around the proposed sports and entertainment complex.
Meanwhile, SS&E is contributing $500 million and has pledged to cover any cost overruns.
Even so, Jones has said that’s not enough.
Last month, the mayor sent a letter to Austin tech billionaire Michael Dell, one of the team’s owners, asking him to consider coughing up $489 million for the arena project.
“That amount reflects the San Antonio residents’ contribution to the arena’s construction costs per the non-binding Term Sheet,” Jones wrote in her letter.
Over the past year, Dell has doled out more than $7 billion in donations to the Trump White House and the University of Texas at Austin.
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