Hemisfair is lining up a hefty request at City Hall: $37.8 million in the 2027 municipal bond package to finally complete Tower Park, the last major phase of its long-running makeover. The nonprofit says the money would help ready the park’s eastern edge for the Spurs-backed Project Marvel arena, while also covering roughly $27 million for remaining park work and more than $10.8 million to rehabilitate nine protected historic structures along East Nueva Street. If the request makes the ballot and wins voter approval, Hemisfair leaders say it would speed up work that has been rolling out in phases for more than a decade.
“The public needs to invest in finishing the public space,” Hemisfair CEO Melissa Robinson told San Antonio Report, which first detailed the dollar amounts and the bond pitch. The nonprofit is framing the ask as funding for public park amenities rather than private development, and notes that current tenants help cover operating costs by paying a percentage of sales. According to the report, Hemisfair would use the bond dollars to finish Tower Park, upgrade East Nueva Street and kick off rehabilitation work on the cluster of homes and pavilions that lines the park’s eastern border.
Where the money would go
Tower Park is billed by Hemisfair as the third and final chapter of its park system, sitting east of the Tower of the Americas and designed to stitch together Yanaguana Garden and Civic Park, according to Hemisfair. One early feature, the Red McCombs Community Court, is already open, and the organization has concept and design documents that spell out how the eastern edge of the site could be activated.
Hemisfair leaders say finishing Tower Park and reconnecting East Nueva Street is key to unlocking nearby public and private investment tied to the arena project. In their telling, the park and street grid need to be in place if the larger Spurs-backed development is going to work the way the city hopes.
Historic homes, local vendors and the sales pitch
Part of Hemisfair’s argument leans on its track record of turning protected houses into small-business spaces, a model that has already brought a mix of local tenants into restored buildings around the park. As reported by San Antonio Report, the group estimates that rehabilitating the remaining historic structures would cost roughly $500,000 to $5 million each, with the Woman’s Pavilion alone needing about $3 million in work. Park leaders and prospective tenants say that level of public investment is what makes it realistic for local operators to step into storefronts that would otherwise be too expensive to retrofit.
Bond math and City Hall’s tough choices
Where Hemisfair’s proposal lands will depend on how the city shapes its next bond program. Axios reports that San Antonio’s capacity for a May 2027 bond package could be about $625 million, roughly half of the $1.2 billion that voters signed off on in 2022. That smaller pot has council members already debating whether to increase the debt-service tax rate or to narrow the focus and prioritize categories such as parks, drainage, streets and housing. Hemisfair’s $37.8 million request will be jostling with those traditional bond priorities as city staff assemble a draft program for the council to review.
What comes next
City staff are expected to spend the summer and fall building out a 2027 bond proposal and deciding whether to call a May or November election, according to Texas Public Radio. If the council includes Hemisfair’s request and voters give it the green light, park leaders say the new bond money would be used to complete Tower Park in advance of the larger Project Marvel build-out. For now, the pitch is putting a bright spotlight on a broader city debate over how much public money should flow into downtown revitalization versus other neighborhood needs.
