Soap Factory tenants say they’re weighing legal action over unpaid relocation stipends

The tenants union representing residents of the Soap Factory Apartments said it’s weighing legal action against the city and real-estate developer Weston Urban, saying the two entities failed to provide relocation stipends by a promised Jan. 1 deadline.

The allegation and legal threat is the latest wrinkle in a plan to raze the Soap Factory — one of downtown’s few low-cost apartment complexes — to make way for the San Antonio Missions’ proposed ballpark and surrounding development.

In late December, the city of San Antonio issued a statement telling concerned tenants those who qualified for a $2,500 relocation stipend and had vacated the apartment complex would receive payment by the New Year. Weston Urban wants to demolish the Soap Factory, which it owns, to make way for luxury condos as part of the $160-million minor-league baseball stadium project.

However, not a single eligible Soap Factory tenant has received any such payment as of press time, city officials confirmed to the Current.

“Weston Urban is actively conducting outreach to former tenants regarding the pending payments and the process to release the funds,” the city said in a statement supplied on Wednesday, Jan. 15. “Former tenants are completing the final paperwork that will confirm details so payments can be released.”

City officials declined to say why they originally said checks would be available by Jan. 1. They also declined to provide additional information on what’s holding up the payments.

Phillip Adcock, founder of the Soap Factory Tenants Union, said the failure by the city and Weston Urban to distribute the money by the promised deadline is the last straw. Since the Jan. 1 deadline passed, he’s met with the Texas Organizing Project, Rio Grande Legal Aid and Esperanza Peace & Justice Center about what recourse tenants have for securing the money.

“I’ve been keeping track of anybody who has left [the Soap Factory] and making sure they do get whatever is supposed to be coming to them — and get what the city initially said they would get,” Adcock said.

Adcock said Rio Grande Legal Aid this week told him that the nonprofit legal-aid group will begin “groundwork” and interviewing tenants due to the missed payment deadline.

Citing attorney-client privilege, Rio Grande Legal Aid wouldn’t confirm whether it’s begun an investigation into the city and Weston Urban.

Robert Laurence, who moved out of the Soap Factory in late October and said he qualifies for the relocation stipend, added that he has no idea what the city is talking about in its statement about “final paperwork.”

Laurence said Building Brighter Communities CEO Brandon Johnson — the head of the nonprofit contracted by Weston Urban to help Soap Factory tenants with relocation — told him his organization is waiting for the funds from the city and Weston Urban.

“Brandon said I was good and that I qualify, only that I have to sign an acknowledgement form when I pick up the check,” Laurence said. “But he couldn’t provide a timeline for when I’ll get the money. So, I’m just kind of waiting. I’m in limbo.”

Laurence is housesitting for a friend until his check arrives.

Former Soap Factory tenant Stephen, who declined to provide his last name due to his public-facing occupation, said he’d experienced similar excuses from Soap Factory management and Building Brighter Communities when asking about his relocation stipend.

“They told me they’ll start calling people as soon as we get the funds and that they’re working on it,” Stephen said.

Stephen recently bought a house in New Braunfels with his girlfriend and isn’t in dire need of the stipend. Even so, he expected the money to help reimburse his moving costs.

“I know that other residents really, really need the money, though,” Stephen said.

Weston Urban officials didn’t respond to the Current’s request for an interview, and Building Brighter Communities CEO Johnson declined comment.

How we got here

During public discussions of the ballpark project, City Council members including District 5 representative Teri Castillo and District 2’s Jalen McKee-Rodriguez demanded that a $2,500 stipend be included in the agreement between the city and Weston Urban prior to approving a memo allowing the project to move forward.

The stipends were to have come from a newly created $500,000 fund. The city and Weston Urban were each expected to kick in an equal amount of cash to create it.

Under the provision, Weston Urban would provide the stipend to any relocating Soap Factory tenant who signed a lease before Oct. 1. Meanwhile, the city would provide a $2,500 check to any who earned less than 80% or less of the area median income and had lived in the apartment complex for at least a year.

The funds were intended to help tenants — many of whom work low-wage service sector jobs — to make a downpayment on a new apartment. The median income among Soap Factory tenants is less than $40,000 a year, Weston Urban CEO Randy Smith told council last year.

Broken promises

Weston Urban, which purchased the Soap Factory Apartments in 2023, wants to demolish the building to make way for luxury condominiums that would be adjacent to the new ballpark. Tax revenue provided by that new development would help finance the 4,500-seat stadium, according to the proposal presented to local officials.

Both council and Bexar County Commissioners Court approved the agreement last fall with Weston Urban and Designated Bidders LLC, the Missions’ ownership group. Despite the deal calling for relocation stipends, Soap Factory tenants said they have largely been kept in the dark about how to collect that money.

Adcock, the founder of the Soap Factory Tenants Union, is taking the silence as an indication he’s been screwed by the city and Weston Urban.

Although still a resident at the complex, he is trying to relocate to another apartment on the property that’s not part of Phase 1 of Weston Urban’s demolition plan. However, he said the development company told him there’s not enough space to secure a new apartment.

That claim is despite Weston Urban officials initially telling council that anyone who wanted to stay at the Soap Factory after the first phase is torn down would be able to.

“I just want to make sure that people have a backup plan and aren’t just fading away into nothing,” Adcock said. “I’ve been fighting since the start, and I’m not giving up.”

Awaiting SAISD

The fate of the relocation stipends isn’t the only thing still up in the air. Indeed, the fate of the whole ballpark deal is unclear until negotiations conclude with San Antonio Independent School District.

Although the city and county signed agreements with Weston Urban, the land on which the firm wants to build the minor-league stadium is still owned by the district. SAISD’s Board of Trustees voted last month to begin talks to sell the 2.3-acre parcel to Weston Urban. It’s currently used as a parking lot for Fox Tech High School.

The SAISD Board was originally scheduled to discuss and possibly take action on the land sale deal during a Jan. 21 meeting. However, that item has been removed from the meeting’s public agenda.

The gathering has also been postponed due to the winter weather.

Even so, the city in an official statement last month said that the $2,500 payouts to Soap Factory tenants depends on whether SAISD sells the land to Weston Urban.

“Unless the property for the baseball stadium is secured, the stadium will not be built,” the city said at the time.

Whatever the case, those waiting for the checks said they’re losing their patience and wondering whether the city and Weston Urban plan to make good.

“It just seems like they’ve made all these promises, but nothing is really going to come from it,” former Soap Factory tenant Stephen said.

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This article appears in Jan 8-21, 2025.