San Antonio City Council has approved a construction contract worth up to $9,173,961 to replace Fire Station 33, clearing the way for a new facility to rise near the Southwest Side station it will eventually take over for. The current station sits at 2002 SW 36th St., and its replacement is slated for 2935 Castroville Road.
According to KSAT, Marksmen General Contractors, LLC will build the new station, with funding tied to San Antonio's 2022 bond program and included in the city's fiscal year 2027 capital budget. The project is a straightforward swap rather than an expansion — the new building will replace the existing Fire Station 33 rather than add coverage elsewhere in the department's footprint.
For Reynaldo Rodriguez, who lives next door to the current station on Southwest 36th Street, the project is personal. He's used to the rhythm of the place — trucks pulling out, trucks coming back, and the occasional training exercise nearby, the station's report notes. Rodriguez said having Station 33 remain close to the neighborhood gives him a sense of security, a sentiment that carries extra weight given how long he's lived beside it.
Why the City Says Older Stations Need Replacing
San Antonio Fire Department public information officer Joe Arrington said the department has outgrown some of its older facilities, per the same KSAT account. He pointed to advances in alerting technology that older buildings simply aren't equipped to handle, alongside physical space constraints that have become harder to work around as equipment and staffing needs have grown.
Newer, larger stations give firefighters more room to work and store equipment, and they give the department flexibility to add apparatus down the road, the report states. That framing lines up with the stated purpose of the replacement program broadly: addressing space and technology limitations baked into older facilities built for a different era of firefighting.
Project Details and a Murky Timeline
City documents describe the Fire Station 33 Facility Replacement as a public safety facilities project that will construct an entirely new building in place of the existing station, according to saspeakup.com, the city's project information page. Plans call for a 15,700-square-foot building, per ConstructConnect, and the city's project page lists Jeff Knippel as project manager.
The city had sought competitive sealed proposals for construction services tied to the 2022 Bond program, according to a contract opportunity listing from govtribe.com. Exactly when ground will break and when the station will open remains unsettled across available sources. The city's project page has listed an estimated construction window of fall 2026 through winter 2028, while a separate snippet tied to that same page lists winter 2027 through spring 2028 instead. ConstructConnect, meanwhile, reports that construction is slated to begin in August 2027, with substantial completion set for November 30, 2028. The discrepancies mean residents shouldn't expect a firm start date until the city clarifies further.
Part of a Broader Wave of Station Rebuilds
Fire Station 33 isn't the only aging facility in line for a rebuild. City agenda records show council separately approved a contract with CGC General Contractors of up to $9,852,965 for the Fire Station 52 replacement project, funded through Certificates of Obligation in the FY 2025 Capital Budget, according to a San Antonio meeting agenda. The same agenda listed a contract of up to $8,338,226 with CGC General Contractors for the Fire Station 53 replacement, also funded through Certificates of Obligation in the FY 2025 Capital Budget.
Taken together, the contracts point to a citywide push to modernize fire facilities that have aged past their usefulness. For neighbors like Rodriguez, the practical upshot is simpler: a newer building in roughly the same spot, built to handle today's equipment and alert systems, while keeping the station — and the sense of security that comes with it — right where it's always been.
