The San Antonio Spurs’ ownership announced Wednesday that they’ve selected the developers who will build a planned new downtown basketball arena.
Spurs Sports & Entertainment (SS&E) chose a handful of firms to lead the $1.3 billion project anchoring the city’s multi-billion-dollar sports and entertainment district known as Project Marvel.
Of the nine, two are San Antonio-based firms.
The list of companies is made up of sports venue developers, architects, engineers, planning and financial advisers and legal counsel.
They include Marquee Development, Sasaki, Overland International, Pape-Dawson, CAA ICON, Stafford Sports, Goldman Sachs, Hunton Andrews Kurth and Jorge Rodriguez Financial Consulting.
“We are bringing together the right partners to deliver something San Antonio can be proud of,” stated RC Buford, CEO of SS&E. “We are combining world-class capabilities with local insight to ensure this project reflects the character of our city and creates meaningful opportunities for our community.”
Marquee Development projects
Marquee Development is a full-service real estate development and investment firm based in Chicago. It is the real estate arm of the Ricketts family, who are majority owners of the MLB team Chicago Cubs and the Chicago Stars of the National Women’s Soccer League.
The Ricketts also have ownership stakes in other professional sports teams globally, according to the statement from the Spurs.
The company’s early projects focused on developments near the Cubs’ Wrigley Field, Gallagher Way. The mixed-use district in Chicago opened in 2018 and featured a hotel and more than 200,000 square feet of retail and office space.
Marquee has recently grown beyond the Windy City, with three major projects set to open in 2026 and 2027.
The company has a role with a mixed-use district for the planned Tennessee Titans stadium in Nashville. It is the master developer for a mixed-use district outside FC Cincinnati’s stadium and co-master developer for another with the Kansas City Current.
Other Marvel developers selected
Sasaki, a Boston-based design firm that leads sports-anchored mixed-use districts across the country, will serve as the project’s master district planner, shaping how the arena connects to the rest of downtown. Sasaki recently led the master planning and design process for Arboretum San Antonio.
The architecture and design firm Overland International will design the Spurs arena. In San Antonio, the global firm designed the Monarch Hotel, recently opened at Hemisfair, among other projects. The company has an office in San Antonio.
Overland Principal Bryan Trubey will be leading the project.
Trubey has been developing sports venues since early in his career, starting with Hong Kong Stadium. Among his many projects while with firms HOK, HKS and now Overland are Miller Park, now American Family Field, in Milwaukee; SoFi Stadium near Los Angeles; the AT&T Stadium in Arlington, and Victory Park in Dallas, which includes American Airlines Center, where the Dallas Mavericks play.
In a 2023 interview with the Report, Trubey said: “If you can put a new asset that’s significant, like a sports entertainment venue, directly adjacent to long-term historical investment in the urban core, you get a multiplier effect,” he said. “That can be significant over time.”
The San Antonio-based civil engineering firm Pape-Dawson will lead the environmental, civil and traffic engineering and surveying efforts. Pape-Dawson is currently providing professional services for the new Nissan Stadium in downtown Nashville.
CAA ICON, a Denver-based management firm specializing in sports and entertainment venue development, guides complex projects from planning through completion. For the Spurs downtown arena and district, CAA ICON will oversee project execution and coordination.
Stafford Sports of New Jersey is a national strategic advisory firm specializing in the development of major sports and entertainment venues, including the Spurs’ home, Frost Bank Center.
Goldman Sachs, the global financial institution with an office in San Antonio, will support financial structuring and strategic advisory efforts for the arena and district. The public-private partnership law firm, Hunton Andrews Kurth, will provide legal counsel.
Jorge Rodriguez Financial Consulting of San Antonio, has been selected to provide financial guidance.
The firm’s president, Jorge Rodriguez, has more than 40 years of public finance experience as a professional investment banker and financial advisor, according to the company website, and has led the design and implementation of over $70 billion in project finance. He previously provided financial consulting for the City of San Antonio.
“I’m just proud to be a part of it,” Rodriguez said the morning after watching the Spurs’ win over the Minnesota Timberwolves in Game 5 of the Western Conference Semifinals.
“I think it’s going to be transformational for the city,” he added. “And I think it will be a project that, in 20 years, the city’s going to look back on and be very, very proud of everything that got done.”
On May 7, the San Antonio City Council approved a $6 million executive program manager contract with the global firm Accenture to coordinate and manage development within the sports and entertainment district, including infrastructure improvement.
The contract with Accenture requires that at least 14% of the total contract value be performed by certified small businesses.
The council also voted to award the Maryland-based MuniCap a one-year contract to come up with the projected costs of service impacts, perform revenue forecasting and identify new revenue opportunities for the district. The contract is valued at $350,000.
The Spurs organization recently invited local businesses to submit a form if they are interested in being involved with building the arena district. The information will be used to compile a list that will be provided to the project leads.
Business reporter Jasper Kenzo Sundeen contributed to this report.
