San Antonio City Council is slated to decide Thursday, May 7, whether to sign off on about $6.3 million in consultant contracts tied to Project Marvel, the city’s planned downtown sports and entertainment district. The package centers on an approximately $6 million executive program manager agreement with Accenture Infrastructure and Capital Projects LLC, plus a $350,000 cost-of-service study to be performed by Maryland-based MuniCap. City staff say the overall collection of projects could total between $3 billion and $4 billion, with a convention center expansion and a new Spurs arena at the top of the priority list.
What’s on the May 7 agenda
As reported by the San Antonio Express-News, a city-appointed evaluation committee ranked Accenture as the top choice to serve as executive program manager and recommended the roughly $6 million contract for an initial phase that would run through March 30, 2027, with options to extend into fall 2031. The committee scored Accenture highest for experience, qualifications and its proposed plan, and city staff are expected to brief council members at Thursday’s meeting before the vote.
KSAT reports the Accenture deal is framed as a first phase that can be renewed in additional one-year increments through September 2031. MuniCap, meanwhile, would be tasked with producing forecasts of service costs such as police and fire coverage, traffic management and park maintenance, along with revenue potential for the district. According to KSAT, MuniCap was selected over finalists including Oliver Wyman and Baker Tilly. Both contracts, while chosen through a competitive process, still need council approval.
Funding and the big picture
According to the San Antonio Report, city officials plan to cover the contracts using a mix of hotel-occupancy tax collections, a capital fund and the capital budgets of projects inside the district. Hoodline’s earlier reporting traced Project Marvel back to 2024 feasibility work and to the original $3 billion to $4 billion estimate for a district that could bundle convention center upgrades, an Alamodome renovation and a new Spurs arena. Those pieces remain the core focus of what the city is trying to pull off downtown.
Why some critics say the timing feels backward
“These are the sorts of questions you ask before you make a decision,” Geoffrey Propheter, an associate professor of public finance, told KSAT, arguing the city is now trying to plug information gaps after council already approved a term sheet. Critics and some council members have pushed for clearer, independent analysis of costs and service impacts before major deal points are locked in.
Council members are expected to take up the items during the May 7 meeting. If the contracts are approved, Accenture would begin coordinating development activity across the proposed district, and MuniCap would deliver its cost-and-revenue study within the year. The San Antonio Report notes that the Spurs also plan to announce their project leads for the new arena in the coming weeks, a move that could sharpen the timeline and the questions council members bring to next week’s vote.
