85. Bexar County's Year with David Marquez

Bob Rivard [00:00:03]:
Welcome to Big City Small Town, the weekly podcast all about San Antonio and the people who make it go and grow. I'm your host, Bob Rivard. This week's guest is David Marquez, the executive director of economic and community development for Bexar County. With 27 years, almost 28 years of working for the county, he's a longtime leader in economic development and and advanced manufacturing, including cross border auto manufacturing for the county. Marquez also oversaw the building and funding of the AT and T arena. That was about 2,002, I think. Now renamed the Frost Bank Center. David Marquez, welcome to Big City Small Town.

Bob Rivard [00:00:44]:
Good to see you, my friend.

David Marquez [00:00:45]:
It's been a while. You know?

Bob Rivard [00:00:46]:
It has been. And for people that don't know you or your work at the county over all those years, tell us a little bit at the outset, David, about yourself personally and whether you're from here or how you came here. Your whole life story in 2 minutes.

David Marquez [00:00:59]:
That's that can be done. You know? You don't get more San Antonio than me because I was I was born about 4 blocks that way, and I live a block and a half behind me.

Bob Rivard [00:01:07]:
Four blocks that way must have been

David Marquez [00:01:08]:
the former. The downtown Baptist. Yeah. And I live at the Majestic Towers there, a block and a half away, and I work 2 blocks that way, and I have another office over here. So I tell people I'm gonna probably have to be buried downtown because everything about me Do you have a car? I do have a car. Yeah. I have a Tundra. Of course, you have to have a Tundra.

David Marquez [00:01:27]:
Toyota Tundra in my line of work.

Bob Rivard [00:01:29]:
HOA in San Antonio.

David Marquez [00:01:30]:
Yeah. Exactly. And, but it's been great, and I I love my city very, very much. I think I'm probably, you know, familiar with just about every part of town that hasn't been built in the last 10 years. There's so much growth on the suburban edges of town that it's hard to keep up with, but I love driving around through neighborhoods I've never been through and just really love San Antonio. It's a remarkable place. I've never lived anywhere else, but I've trip visited many, many places, and, I I will say we are certainly unique. I know I think we used to use that term to describe San Antonio more often than we than we do, or perhaps we should, because this is a unique city.

David Marquez [00:02:08]:
There's no question about it. So I I went to high school here, East Central High School. I lived on the southeast side growing up.

Bob Rivard [00:02:14]:
Go Buttons?

David Marquez [00:02:15]:
No. East Central. East Central. The Hornets. Okay. Okay. Hornets. Yeah.

David Marquez [00:02:18]:
Not not Central Catholic.

Bob Rivard [00:02:19]:
Okay.

David Marquez [00:02:19]:
Not a part of the mafia, but, East Central. Yeah, the mighty Hornets. That's us. And my parents both worked at Kelly, so the classic moved into the middle class because of the good jobs that the federal government had here. My brother worked there as well for a while and my mom said, Well, you gotta get a job at Kelly. It'll never go away. And so I did. I became a machinist.

David Marquez [00:02:43]:
I was a machine tool operator apprentice, went through a 2 year Department of Labor apprenticeship program at Kelly, and worked there for 11 years, 7 years in the machine shop, and then I started wanting to go back to school. So 15 years after high school, I got a bachelor's degree at Southwest Texas State, and now Texas State University. They used to have a program at Kelly where they offered classes there, and so we only went to the campus maybe a few semesters on a couple of nights. I say we because there were other colleagues of mine that were going through the same program. And then I got into the master's program at Trinity Urban Administration that our friend, Lou Fox, was running.

Bob Rivard [00:03:22]:
Former city manager of San Antonio under Henry Cisneros?

David Marquez [00:03:25]:
Yeah. Long time, very progressive city manager. And, they I don't honestly, Bob, I wish I could tell you what how I wound up there. I wasn't thinking, hey, I wanna be in city government, or I don't even remember exactly. Maybe it was something at at Kelly that got me involved in that program, but I went over there, and, it's been a fantastic ride ever since. That really did change my trajectory all along.

Bob Rivard [00:03:50]:
A lot of our, really strongest leaders are are products of, the Trinity program and, our city manager, Eric Walsh. The only place he's worked since graduating from Trinity is Yeah. Is is the city. You must have some, interesting feelings, your whole family, David, about watching, the sort of resurrection of Kelly as Port San Antonio and all the job creation and smart smart job creation and advanced manufacturing that's happening out there today.

David Marquez [00:04:18]:
Yeah. I, the product that I used to work on, the t fifty six engine, is still worked on by Standard Arrow. It's never left Kelly. It was privatized in those days. And, you know, there was certainly I think that's probably, there's a story in there somewhere because I recognize how much more efficient, Standard Arrow was able to do the work than we were at Kelly. It was, I think, a time of transition. We were into the peace dividend at the end of the Cold War under the Clinton administration, and closing down bases and consolidation was a really big topic of conversation. It's why my brother left.

David Marquez [00:04:55]:
He was tired of the reduction in force or the RIF conversations. So he wanted a job that would never go away. He became a SAPD patrol officer, and he, recently retired from that and did a great career. His son is a police officer, and his other son is a police officer in shirts.

Bob Rivard [00:05:11]:
Wow. Good for good for all of them and everyone in your family. Yeah.

David Marquez [00:05:15]:
So I think that the the work that happens at at Port San Antonio is is important. But for me, when I look at it, Bob, and I think about our current strategy around advanced manufacturing and all of the amazing things that happened that Henry Cisneros and others, Nelson Wolf and others put in place working to get Toyota here ultimately, couldn't have happened if Kelly didn't close down, because they were a strong competitor for that labor force. So there are, as you said, many jobs being created at Port San Antonio, some still in aerospace, but it's certainly a transition. I think, to my way of thinking, there's sort of 2 primary schools of thought in economic development. I think we've had this chat before, maybe on a sidewalk, as we bumped into each other. But the Richard Florida model of build a great city and really bright, educated people will come and build this great economy for you. Then there's the San Antonio school of thought, which is that we should strive every day to bring economic opportunity to the substantial portion of our population that's underemployed or unemployed and undereducated. And so advanced manufacturing is a big part of that strategy in my view.

Bob Rivard [00:06:28]:
You mentioned one of the companies out there that's not a household name that's doing the engine work now, but, I know among people that look at workforce development that they're especially known for really strong training programs inside, their company. So

David Marquez [00:06:42]:
Mhmm.

Bob Rivard [00:06:42]:
If people are out there listening and wondering where they or their children might apply for a job like that, there there's just a lot of great jobs out there that are being created. Yeah. Amazing jobs. Did you know, David, in the time you were at Kelly, could you sense that it was closing and that you did did that motivate you to go back to school because you realized that that wasn't a stable future?

David Marquez [00:07:03]:
No. That wasn't my motivation. My my motivation, you know, just, bearing my soul here, you know, I was an underachiever in high school, you know, B, C student, and middle of the class and just not motivated. My parents had been divorced for a few years, and so didn't have a lot of direction. So I worked around bouncing around just different jobs and auto parts stores and driving for little mom and pop companies and stuff. And my mom said to encourage me to take the test to get in out there. So I did, but eventually, my I had the curiosity and, I guess, the intellectual capacity to do more, but I just didn't have a reason or an outlet for it until later. And actually, it's kind of strange, because things in my life, like many people, definitely have come full circle about things.

David Marquez [00:07:51]:
Because the thing that really got me motivated to go back to school was when the Air Force was endeavouring to introduce quality control or total quality management. They called it Quality Air Force. And they were deploying the Toyota method and other, you know, kind of a mix a mix mash of of methodologies. But it really caught my interest. So I was reading a lot at the time. I had gotten back into reading, and I was just devouring all kinds of books. Bookstop was my friend, a friendly place to go all the time. And I started reading the quality books, and they kind of really motivated me to realize that I could find a career in something other than working with my hands, which I loved the job.

David Marquez [00:08:34]:
I loved the work. The people that did the work, they were all amazing. They still are. I love that kind of noble manufacturing, you know, work skilled trades. But I I was on a different path, apparently.

Bob Rivard [00:08:47]:
Well, you're looking at an underachiever from a broken family, who had quite a few years of blue collar work myself before I went back to college as a returning student. And I would argue, David, that your your background has probably made you a far more empathetic leader because many people that have that direct line to college and might come from backgrounds of privilege or the middle class or upper middle class. Mhmm. I don't think really understand the blue collar labor force and its importance and and just their ability to relate to it. And I think it's really important to have leaders that they can.

David Marquez [00:09:24]:
Yeah. I I completely agree. It's it's still remarkable to me. There are a lot of folks who talk about it, but, you know, it's sort of like like many things, like being homeless, the idea of having lived experience or having a criminal background, having the lived experience changes the way you interact with others. And I do definitely feel blessed that I have that background that's blue collar, you know, not the traditional, you know, 12 years of of high school or k through 12, and then straight into college, it was nonlinear. And in retrospect, and I'm sure you you well, you may feel the same way, I think it's a disservice to encourage every 18 year old to go to college at all, but certainly not when they're 18. I mean, I understand the logic of it, but I think there's as much damage done by that philosophy as anything else, especially in our community. I don't think that that's

Bob Rivard [00:10:19]:
It's a great opportunity for people now to go to enroll in the Alamo Colleges to to participate in the Alamo promises. And if they choose not to go on to a 4 year career to get a 2 year technical certificate that same squarely at

David Marquez [00:10:34]:
advanced manufacturing and prepares them for one of those really good paying

Bob Rivard [00:10:34]:
jobs out there where you don't need a college degree to get in the door.

David Marquez [00:10:42]:
That is certainly a pathway. But I think there are there's room for improvement there, Bob. I you know, Judge Wolfe and I, we we fought a few battles early on in the early development of SA Works, the local initiative that was funded by Charles Butt largely to help improve our workforce pipelines. Still a very important organization and doing great work. But, the judge would often say, Judge Wolf would often say, that, you know, don't waste your time with a 4 year degree. Get a 2 year degree. And I did some, a little study for him one day, and I brought him down to my office, and I said, Judge, you know, you can't say that. Because here's the thing about it.

David Marquez [00:11:25]:
It matters what you study. Because a 2 year degree in philosophy will not get you a career pathway, and a 2 year degree in biology, probably not a lot of job opportunities. So, there are a number of very well paying pathways at Alamo Colleges in the 2 year associate's degree program, one of which is in advanced manufacturing, but few are the young people who take those pathways. Many of them, of course, they're doing their 2 plus 2. They're going to go on to some 4 year school. But I look at a lot of resumes in my career, and when I see those folks who have a 2 year associate's degree from here or any 2 year institution, and it doesn't seem to have been a part of their journey, they grew, they learned, they took their freshman comp and their American history classes as well. But as far as the trade part of it, that's a a small percentage of the number of people who go to community college. We could do better in this community.

David Marquez [00:12:21]:
I would argue we should be doing much, much better on that front.

Bob Rivard [00:12:24]:
That's a good perspective. Well, while we're on the subject of advanced manufacturing and you mentioned, former mayor Henry Cisneros and his successful efforts to bring Toyota here eventually, I guess under the period of time that either judge Wolf or maybe Ed Garza was mayor by the time they finally they they finally came. Are you worried at all about president Trump's threats to impose 25% tariffs on Mexico and what that could do to the Tacoma and Sequoia manufacturing here, which depends so much on cross border trade and parts being assembled south and brought up here? Yeah. I think if it was any other company, I might be more concerned. I think we should have concerns across other parts of our economy in the Mexico front, tourism, other other producers. But Toyota is about as unique and resilient a company as there is

David Marquez [00:13:18]:
in the world. As far as I know, and I could be proven wrong these days, but they have never shut down a manufacturing production facility anywhere in the world ever. The closest thing that I'm aware of is when the GM partnership in California went away. In fact, Mike. With the GM, and then they subsequently sold and invested in Tesla to start their operations there, but there's never been a Toyota plant. And this is in plants that are in parts of the world that are in, you know, civil war. And they're they're still trying to keep those plants up and running and employing people because they wanna bring back stability. So I think they're strong and smart enough to figure out how to navigate that for themselves and their supply chain.

David Marquez [00:13:59]:
That's what makes them the world's best, automaker, you know, without a doubt, is that they're just so planful and thoughtful about that resiliency. But do I think those tariffs and other potential interventions or whatever that the administration's gonna do are are worrisome? They're very worrisome for our economy. I mentioned to you on our pre conversation that I met our county manager, David Smith, at Trinity when we were attending the program there. And one of the things that he did back in that day, which I still recall, was to analyze the San Antonio economy in relationship to the U. S. Economy. And there was virtually no correlation. The U.

David Marquez [00:14:41]:
S. Economy would be going one direction and our local economy would be going the other direction. But when he compared it to the peso valuation, this is the nineties, it was lockstep. So as the peso went up, San Antonio's economy went up, the peso was down, we didn't do so well. That's probably less true because we've we've diversified a bit from the dependence on there, but I would say it's still largely true that our local economy is much more affected by what happens south of the border than, you know, north of the Cibolo Creek or whatever.

Bob Rivard [00:15:14]:
I think a more contemporary measure of that interdependence is the fact that we're about, as a country, to hit the $900,000,000,000 mark in in trade with Mexico, which is our largest trading partner, and the majority of that trade comes through Texas.

David Marquez [00:15:31]:
I had the privilege to go down to Laredo to speak at a conference, the Pathways to Trade Conference that their Laredo Economic Development Corporation puts on maybe 3 or 4 months ago. I hadn't been to Laredo in a while, certainly maybe 5 or 6 years or whatever, and I was, I have to say, stunned at the amount of cross border traffic there is there for cargo. It's you see it because, of course, we we're just down the river from them here on 35, you know, 150 miles from that crossing. But when you see it happening there in real time, I I would encourage anyone who wants to understand San Antonio's interdependence and the US's interdependence with Mexico to go down to Laredo, just hang out. You don't have to have a tour of the port. I guess that would be fantastic as well, but just to see the amount of logistics and distribution, the industry, and how it affects that whole city, and it's it's having a positive effect on them. There are a number of new, very large industrial parks built as you're entering Laredo. Mhmm.

David Marquez [00:16:35]:
So in our strategy, as you know, we we focus on regional growth, Though that growth will benefit San Antonio the same way that the Tesla plant arriving in in Austin, benefited us tremendously on in economic development without, you know, much effort on our part.

Bob Rivard [00:16:52]:
I don't think anybody could have imagined some decades ago, maybe when you started working for the county or I first came to San Antonio in the late eighties, that the Austin San Antonio corridor would be the fastest growing population center in the country, and Laredo would become the biggest inland port in North America. But here we are.

David Marquez [00:17:10]:
Just getting started. I mean, it doesn't feel like there there are certainly clouds on the horizon. We all should be concerned about water. We should all be concerned about power. I think we'll resolve those out of necessity. But, you know, it's a good time to be in this area. It's it's it's a good time to be an economic developer in this area, and it and it has been. And that was sort of what was the beginning of our of our Texas Mexico evaluation is there's just so much potential here for economic, players like a Toyota or or JCB or International Navistar to find success here.

David Marquez [00:17:47]:
So we just needed to create the predicate, lay out the the the reality of the market and the the business opportunity here, the workforce, the most important part of that. And, you know, I don't wanna say if you build it, they'll come. But once we got that word out, and other parts of Texas as well, I think it really paid off. You know, again, I I work for the county of Bear. I live in the city of San Antonio. I think that the if you look at the Dallas Fort Worth Metroplex and that whole zone, I mean, they have the Toyota headquarters. They have the Caterpillar headquarters. They have the Boeing headquarters.

David Marquez [00:18:22]:
You know? Of course, we would love to have some of that. We certainly are posturing for more growth. But it just points to the Texas strength of our ability to just, you know for for businesses and entrepreneurs to find success here.

Bob Rivard [00:18:37]:
Yeah. We almost seem to be our own independent economy, almost like another nation state rather than something that trails the US economy for better or worse. We just seem to be growing exponentially. And speaking with somebody in the comptroller's office recently, I learned that in addition to the $34,000,000,000 windfall that we had in the 2023 legislative session, David, we'll have at least 25,000,000,000 more in this session. And also, I was unaware that constitutionally when the rainy day fund was established, that at the time they put what was seen as an unattainable level of of $20,000,000,000 that once it reached that level, if it ever did, they would have to start to disperse it at least 10% of it, I think. And we've reached it or we will by January. And I just wonder since the county is a state entity constitutionally, do you think very much about ways that some of that that windfall should be invested in the major metro areas? We're we're kind of in a situation where the state republican leaders have been at a something of a war with the mayors, whether they're democratic mayors in cities like Houston or whether they're quote nonpartisan mayors here, but clearly of a different political line. And we haven't seen a lot of that windfall money come our way, but there's more of it.

Bob Rivard [00:20:00]:
And the scale of it's incredible. I think it's it's greater than something like the whole state budgets for 35 states.

David Marquez [00:20:07]:
Yeah. I mean, I I have, I guess, complex feelings about that. I appreciate the kind of frugal nature of the state, you know, because it can you can certainly create a very dangerous economic situation for yourself if you're if you're too liberal with, and I don't mean that in a political sense, but too free with the money and the programs and such. Because I've learned over my years with the county working with, an amazing county manager with David Smith and his fiscal prowess that, you know, these these costs don't go away once we create something. And they they will grow just because of inflation. So we've gotta be very thoughtful about what we put our money into and make sure that they are investments as much as possible. So I think in that regard, that's the biggest observation or criticism I would have is that there are some long standing investments that could pay dividends for the state regardless of political persuasion or where you are that that could and should be made. And they're the obvious ones, infrastructure, power grid.

David Marquez [00:21:14]:
There's the more social aimed, you know, focused ones, the mental health issues and, things of that nature. The public school versus voucher, that's gonna be a big one. But these are the kinds of things that, that we should be investing in, that that states that perform well do invest in. And I think we've we've kind of gone a little bit maybe cheap on some of that over the years. And now as we built up this reserve, but to your point, now that it's built, it's probably time to think about making those kinds of strategic investments. Yes.

Bob Rivard [00:21:47]:
The I 35 traffic suggests that, we have the population density to develop serious mass transit systems in the state. And, I'm wondering whether or not you would see a train between San Antonio and and Austin with stops in the corridor cities to be an economic development initiative as well as a mass transit improvement.

David Marquez [00:22:09]:
Yeah. So I've been privileged, Bob, to have gone to Japan many times in my career since 2,005. I've probably been there 10 or 12 times. And I've also had the opportunity to go with the Hispanic Chamber to Spain, where they also have high speed rail. It's probably a little more akin to Texas, because Japan is a unique place in the world. So I I I'm a fan of the idea of bullet trains or or that kind of mass rail based transit, but I worry that people, don't understand that the reason it works so well, particularly in Japan, is it's part of a much larger network of transportation, that's necessary there because, as you know, there are a 120,000,000 people, on a very relatively small island. Yeah. And even smaller of which is is populated.

David Marquez [00:23:01]:
So these these kinds of even even at a very small scale, the east line, west line, the the via things that are being discussed are part of it. And, you can't build part of a bridge over a canyon. You need the entire bridge or your stone. It doesn't matter how well it's built. We need the the total solution and and thinking about that. And then you, of course, you have to do it in phases and stages. I think, there's some interesting discussion from the Mexican president, Steinbaum, about about rail to the border, which could obviously benefit us and might be the catalyst that we need. Because that would be, again, more like the Spain model, where the the trains are going through unpopulated, you know, more rural or even arid parts of Spain to get you to the population center.

David Marquez [00:23:47]:
Whereas in Japan, to your point, it's city to city, and there's express trains and other things. So it's it's a there's a solution there. I think there's a problem to be solved with capacity and stability of a rail line. But I recognize that there's some serious impediments to getting it

Bob Rivard [00:24:04]:
done, primarily the the cargo. It will be interesting to watch, president Scheinbaum in Mexico. Most people may not realize that Mexico all but eliminated rail service. They do have the the tourist Chihuahua to Pacifico train and now they have under, AMLO, the president, you know, led the efforts to get a train to the Yucatan that's still under construction in part. But, the days of when you could go down to the border and take a train to Mexico City, those are long gone, but apparently, they're going to return and I think people will be excited about that and a train from Mexico City to Monterrey to the border to San Antonio and onward would be a very exciting proposition, I think, for people.

David Marquez [00:24:45]:
Yeah. I think so. I think I think I'm optimistic about Mexico. And, of course there's Canada as well. There's discussions about potentially changes up there. At this conference I mentioned in in Laredo, the former head of the NAND Bank here, the North American Development Bank here, Jeronimo Gutierrez, who you probably know Sure. Has served as the ambassador for Mexico to the US in the Trump administration first round through the USMCA negotiations, was one of the speakers there as well and had some very interesting, remarks about how USMCA came to be, how it how it was negotiated, why they put this 5 year kind of sunset review of it, and and pointed out that that this is one of those cycles where Mexico, the US, and potentially Canada are all gonna have leadership changes. Certainly, we have had them both in Mexico and the US, and that, the last time that that happened was when NAFTA was signed.

David Marquez [00:25:46]:
And, you know, it isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it is certainly something because sometimes you gotta break an egg to to get the omelette that you're after.

Bob Rivard [00:25:56]:
Well, some eggs are gonna be broken if tariffs are imposed because that would violate the agreement as it's currently structured.

David Marquez [00:26:03]:
Yeah. I I I wish I could understand the the where the line is between the rhetoric and the posturing versus the the actual people who are truly watching the global economy. I mean, it seems so, trite to say it these days, but NAFTA was not created for the purposes of of Mexico, Canada, US trade. It was for North America to be competitive against Asia and other, you know, parts of the world. So shooting each other in the foot doesn't seem to be very productive for anybody. It doesn't benefit us in the in the notion that we should be partners with our neighbors, and it certainly will harm us in our ability to be globally competitive. But, but I get the you know, it's tied in with the immigration. It's tied in with the the drug trade.

David Marquez [00:26:52]:
It's tied in with a a range of other social issues that are politically, you know, hot button issues, and we'll see how it turns out.

Bob Rivard [00:27:01]:
I think business people from both sides of the political aisle hope that the tariffs do remain a rhetorical threat and not not something that actually gets imposed and Right. We see the effects of it. I mentioned at the outset, David, that that over the course of your years at the county, you oversaw the building and funding of the AT and T arena for the San Antonio Spurs, which is now the Frost Bank Center and where the Spurs are. And although you may not be directly involved in these directly involved in these 2 major downtown projects, the western urban, one on the west side which would, lead to a new ballpark for the missions and then what the city has labeled project marvel in hemisphere which would be a much more expansive redo expansion of the convention center, the Alamodome, but it would include a new sports arena for the spurs. And the county is participating to some degree certainly in the negotiations I think, but what will happen to the AT and T arena or the Frost Bank Center as we should call it now Mhmm. In the event that something like that

David Marquez [00:28:03]:
is

Bob Rivard [00:28:03]:
developed in in the ensuing years because your lease with the spurs goes to 2032, I believe, although there's a, I guess, a buyout provision.

David Marquez [00:28:14]:
Yeah. So, you're right. I was the project manager when we built the project. The special project I was on right before that was the y two k project to tell you how long ago it was, Bob. So in November of 1999, the voters opted to give the Spurs a new arena. And through this proposition that the county had put together under then Judge Cindy Taylor Cryer and Republican Court, you know, I think, you know, you and I have got a little bit of gray hair on our heads, and and some of the folks in this room are probably too young to remember. But the, the reality is before that, that if you go back and look at the media, it was all Spurs are leaving. They're gonna lose them.

David Marquez [00:28:54]:
They're gonna move here. They're gonna move there. And that was the primary motivation behind the way the county struck its deal. We struck the deal with the idea that we wanted to make sure that the Spurs could be successful in this smaller market, small media market. And that meant that meant giving them an amazing financial deal, which we did. And you can argue that that's 25 years plus of success. I mean, that's that's a pretty good record. Right? Not to mention, you know, 4 more championships.

David Marquez [00:29:25]:
Right? And an amazing run for the rodeo of of, large indoor rodeo of the year and growth and and and all of their key metrics. The Freeman still stands, even though many people, envision that we should demolish that as well, and it serves a great purpose for us and as a community. Come May, June, every large building in the city is is under great demand for graduations and trade shows. There's a whole range of things that happen now that we've got, that campus built for ourselves and for the community overall. So I I I wanna look at it all as a great success initially. And then when I take that approach, or when I take that perspective, I I look at what might be the motivation for, for leaving that. The first question is, is it not successful today? I think from a fan perspective, I don't know anybody who thinks that the AT and T or excuse me, the Frost Bank Centre is not a first class, world class facility, well run by the Spurs, well maintained, modern, feels fresh. I get the idea of an entertainment district.

David Marquez [00:30:34]:
I've had the privilege to see those as we've gone to tour other buildings over the years in Los Angeles and Las Vegas and New York. So I understand what they're after, and I think it's an ambitious plan. As a down towner myself, I I can see the merit in it. But I I struggle with the kind of push to make it happen. You know, you can obviously, I I have a lot of affinity for the for the project that I helped to oversee, and I still believe in it. And I think again, I don't think it's broken, but I just think they're after more opportunity that, hopefully, they will get. I'm I have a hard time understanding, and I'm not a part of the deal at all. I have no zero visibility into it.

David Marquez [00:31:15]:
I I'm busy with other assignments that are now part of my portfolio, but with seeing how they could craft a better deal than we gave them. They get all the naming rights. They get all of the parking revenue. They get all of the concession revenue. They get most of the other nights in the building, some of which they do not count towards, you know, the the building revenue. Those are revenues of the franchise or the Spurs sports and entertainment. And then the rodeo is in there for, you know, a couple weeks a year, but they pay into a revenue and replacement fund. I think it's one one or $1,200,000 a year.

David Marquez [00:31:51]:
So it's it's a heck of a deal still. And it there's it's not hasn't changed. So

Bob Rivard [00:31:56]:
The Spurs have become a, a sports franchise with a book value in excess of $1,000,000,000 thanks to the deal that they have had over the last 20 plus years at the, at the arena that's helped helped them become a much more profitable enterprise and and and a very competitive one all along.

David Marquez [00:32:14]:
Yeah. I mean, and I appreciate you saying that. Full credit to the Holt family and the leadership team there because, they're a well run organization. There's no question that franchises around the world see them and the the character and the nature of their operation. And I think they've earned everything that they're getting. I never had the fear as as Peter John had to kind of continually tamp down the idea that they were trying to get out of town and move to Austin. I could understand their motivation if they did because of just the size of the market for that type of NBA fan, and all the other things that fit in with the Circuit of the Americas and all the other things in Austin. But he's he said he's staying.

David Marquez [00:32:56]:
I don't have any reason to doubt his integrity or honesty. I think he's an he's a, you know, telling us exactly what he means. He wants he and his family wanna keep that franchise in San Antonio. And so, I suppose if that's what it takes after 25 years from the last time we've had this, it's a pretty good record. I think you could look around the country and see the average duration of a well run building. Most of the ones that we looked at when we built ours are still operating. Indianapolis, the Salt Lake City, Denver. They're still in the same arenas, but they do have a life cycle, and, we, of course, put a $100,000,000 into it a little over 10 years ago for a technology upgrade.

David Marquez [00:33:37]:
It's probably due more investment in that regard. The other thing I think about is the idea that there's opportunity around the Frost Bank Centre grounds to build that kind of entertainment district. I looked at every square inch of land within anywhere of a couple miles of the of the building when I was running the project before, because we wanted to be very serious in looking at that. We did a study in partnership with the city, Emil Montseweis, and we and the county and some other partners did a formal evaluation of opportunities, and and it's tough. It's a it's a tough area to rebuild. If you talk about the dollars that the city is considering for this building, and you put half of that away, you probably could make something happen. But there are probably other factors at play. I'm sure the player relation thing plays into that, and just the perception of being downtown.

David Marquez [00:34:37]:
I can understand, that they want to look at it, and I hope it works out for the best. Now you asked a question, what happens to the, to the Frost Bank Centre? I mean, we we've known that one day there would there would come a day when unless we demoed that building and built another one at the at the grounds that that the Spurs would have to be looking to move to, their next generation building. So I think I'm I'm optimistic. I mean, Derek Howard and, Cody Davenport, amazing leaders. Both of them are gonna put together, I'm sure, something very strong. Again, I'm not privy to the conversations, but I mean, that rodeo organization is very strong, and I would feel very confident that they would want to have increased opportunities for themselves as well. And the the key thing will be to, because the other thing we did for the for the Spurs when we built it was gave them basically control of what we booked. Right? We gave them for for all intents and purposes, we gave them our book of business.

David Marquez [00:35:38]:
That can't remain. They can't, prevent us from competing if their intention is to move. That just doesn't seem appropriate, because this building is needs to be able to sustaining itself, And it's an expensive building to operate compared to the framing Colosseum. A lot of people

Bob Rivard [00:35:55]:
in our city would like to see us compete a little bit more with that city north of us on I 35 in the music realm. Yeah. And, of course, the Spurs, book so many dates there. It's not open for a lot of concerts when touring bands are in the state. Do you see it being acoustically lending itself to becoming a more active concert center if it were available without the Spurs?

David Marquez [00:36:19]:
Yeah. I mean, I I think that Frost Bank Center certainly does, and then we have restrictions on the Freeman as well, which is a, you know, long standing beloved concert venue all the way back to Elvis and KISS and Fog Hat and whoever else has played there.

Bob Rivard [00:36:35]:
You know? You are dating yourself.

David Marquez [00:36:37]:
I know. It's like who? Who? Who? Who? You know? But they could do the same for us. Yeah. I think I think I think any and all of those things are on the table. There's gonna be opportunity. It's a fantastic facility. Again, testament to the community arena's board, the county, and the rodeo, and the Spurs for running a first class operation. I am very proud of that whole project, and still am.

David Marquez [00:37:00]:
That's why I would understand the notion of planning out for the future, but, I don't think anybody should be of the impression that the current building isn't, you know, in 1st class shape.

Bob Rivard [00:37:11]:
I agree. Well, before we run out of time, David, I want you to talk about the other side of your job, which is community development. And if you were at the city, you wouldn't have both of those titles. Those jobs would be separated with pretty large staffs, but, the county is leaner and you're both economic and community development. And, just talk for a minute what that means and the programs you're overseeing. The county's invested, substantially in some areas, particularly mental health, I would say, since the pandemic. And you oversee some of that community development, don't you?

David Marquez [00:37:43]:
Yeah. Not the mental health so much. We did also create a few years ago a public health department now that's run by a colleague and friend, Andrea Guerrero. She's doing an amazing job. And, it includes some other functions that also serve the public. But yeah, Bob, I mean, we had some issues with the previous organization. There was a leadership change. The previous longstanding executive director retired, and they struggled to find a successor.

David Marquez [00:38:11]:
So Judge Wolfe asked me to take it over, whereas before, I was just doing economic development completely. And so he had some ideas about improvements that could be made. And so we focused a lot on these social issues. And I think the benefit of having someone like myself go in there is that I don't profess to be a social worker or an expert in that area. But because going back to the early part of our conversation, because of the background I come from at Kelly with this process orientation and this continuous improvement orientation, I've been striving to get that kind of orientation into this social services world because most social workers aren't trained that way. Right? They're trained in a transactional sort of way. This person in front of me needs help, and I'm gonna evaluate them and assess them and come up with a plan of action and serve them, and then I'll move to the next one. And that that's if I'm ever in front of a social worker, I hope they treat me that way.

David Marquez [00:39:09]:
So it's not a criticism of the process, but it is a recognition that in the context where they work organizationally, there probably is benefit if you if you evaluate more holistically how the overall system works. So, you know, what do I mean by that? Let's talk about a topic that you and I are passionate about, the homeless issue homelessness issue. I I like to say that we really don't have a homeless problem in Bexar County because it's not a problem at all. It's a symptom of a series of other problems. And that's really important. In in the world of quality control, you never solve a problem by working on the symptoms. You're looking for the root cause. So the root cause of homelessness in our community would be wrapped around the mental health and substance abuse.

David Marquez [00:39:53]:
Maybe there are people who have a certain criminal background, a registered sex offender, for example, is never gonna get a good job or a good apartment anywhere. It's just the nature of that type of crime. Whereas, we're pretty forgiving on most other criminal background if someone can find redemption, but RSO is just a tough category. There are other factors out there, PTSD and other types of issues that people face. Domestic abuse, please. Domestic violence, certainly. There's just a whole range of them. Some of them very well may be economic, that they just can't afford a place to stay.

David Marquez [00:40:26]:
But for the most part, we don't evaluate them that way, because I don't need to if I'm working transactionally across whomever comes into my office. But as a government, as a society, as a community, I think we should be evaluating more holistically what we're implementing and deploying, because these are many, many 1,000,000 of dollars for a relatively small population. You know, the point in time count will be coming up soon, and I've looked at the numbers over the last 10 years or so, and it's stable. That's a great credit to the city of San Antonio and Haven and SAM Ministries and the county and others. Of course, it doesn't mean that the population is stable, because it's different people, perhaps, year to year. But it's still a gigantic investment for a relatively small portion of the population, and I I don't think anybody thinks we have it under control. I happen to be, recently a friend of mine got me back into just bank fishing here on the San Antonio River or over at at Elmendorf Lake, and you walk around from the bank, and you see these encampments and the trash. I mean, it's a serious issue, and neighborhoods are affected by it.

David Marquez [00:41:34]:
And it's, of course, not a downtown issue. I would say we're probably gonna reach a point, if we're not already there, where the population of homeless outside of the core downtown is probably gonna be larger, because there's every part of town. And yet we still have a very downtown orientation. We should. That's our tourism area. I just walking over here from the courthouse, saw an individual having an episode, you know, angry, yelling at a at a couple walking by from Mexico. They only spoke Spanish, and, you know, there was no harm done, but it's certainly not a pleasant It's intimidating. It's intimidating.

David Marquez [00:42:09]:
It's not pleasant. So, yeah, I I I kinda strayed off your initial point about the department, but that that's the point. The these social issues you know, Nelson used to say, there's no better social service program than getting somebody a good job. And so that's sort of what we strive to do. We got way sidetracked by the pandemic. We were making great progress towards becoming more data driven and more analytical about the way we deploy these social focused programs. And even though the pandemic was, you know, 3 or 4 years ago now, we're just now getting back to the point where we can start to really delve into looking at things more systematically and formally and analytically, and try to find improvements that we can make to, to continuously improve the outcomes that we're after.

Bob Rivard [00:42:59]:
Well, it's important work, and it's, I think, unusual that somebody has a portfolio for economic development and community development, but but you do it well. Yeah.

David Marquez [00:43:08]:
I had a colleague in my office today, an individual I just met, from Hidalgo County, McAllen area. He's worked for an economic development organization down there, and he had the exact same thought. He came up really to find out, how does this work? How did you wind up with this odd portfolio with our Texas strategy and Mexico strategy, and, and yet you have all these other functions. So it was a it was an interesting conversation.

Bob Rivard [00:43:33]:
Well, thank you so much, David, for your service to the community for Bexar County and for coming on to Big City, Small Town today.

David Marquez [00:43:39]:
Hey. You've always been somebody I admire, Bob. I you know, I've gone back a long way, and, and I think you don't get enough credit for all the good things that you do for our community as well. So thanks for that.

Bob Rivard [00:43:49]:
You're kind to say so. The feeling's mutual. Yeah. Merry Christmas.

David Marquez [00:43:53]:
Merry Christmas to you.

Bob Rivard [00:43:59]:
Welcome to the last word, my weekly commentary on life and work in San Antonio and Texas. For this and the next two episodes, you'll hear the last word as part of my Friday podcast. Starting in the new year, I'll separate my weekly interview subject from the last word commentary. The interview subject will still be released as an episode every Friday, while the last word will be released on Saturdays. The Saturday episode also will contain my comments on the week's news, giving me a more timely platform to remark on major developments, opportunities, and challenges that come along. I also invite listeners to go to our website, big citysmalltown.com, and sign up to start receiving our newsletter, which we'll begin distributing in the new year. It will contain alerts to our newest episodes, it will suggest listening opportunities from our growing archive, and it will allow me to share timely viewpoints to news developments. No spam, we promise, and we will not share your email with any other entities.

Bob Rivard [00:45:00]:
Once 2024 comes to a close, a look back at the most momentous events shaping San Antonio's urban future are found in 2 major redevelopment projects downtown, both deserving strong citizen and government support and both representing multibillion dollar public and private investments. Together, these projects promise to change the urban experience for locals and visitors and attract greater national attention to San Antonio as a desirable city to live and work. The more immediate project is Western Urban's ambitious redevelopment of a large swath of the mostly vacant and blighted western sector of downtown. The project promises at least 1,500 new residential units, where right now there are only a few 100 units at the shabby, outdated soap factory apartments. The protests that aim to block the demolition of those units have been one of the most misguided protests I've witnessed in the 35 years I've worked in San Antonio as a journalist. The soap factory apartments were a lousy place to live even back in the 19 nineties when I was the editor of the San Antonio Express News, and we rented units there to house out of town interns and journalists on fellowships. The units were substandard housing then, and now more than 50 years after their construction, they still remain substandard. The 300 plus units are spread over 9 acres.

Bob Rivard [00:46:26]:
That's a terrible waste of valuable property that could probably hold 10 times as many units in a modern, well designed project. The Western Urban Project itself also will bring the San Antonio Missions downtown to a new minor league baseball park, a great and affordable public amenity on that side of downtown. The project appeared to be at risk as trustees of the San Antonio Independent School District repeatedly canceled sealed bid sales of its land at the former Fox Tech High School, and then held public hearings that drew dozens of organized speakers to protest the removal of the soap factory lofts. The school board, of course, has absolutely zero authority over area development or housing, and would have been far better off to partner with the city, county, and western urban to approve the project that will bring new families into the district, which has been steadily losing families and students for more than a decade. Fast forward to 2029 when Western Urban's multi phase project is set to be completed. As people experience the rebirth of this downtown sector, many of them, I predict, will wonder what was all the protest about. The rebirth of Western Downtown also will serve as a reminder that Western Urban remains the most community minded development company in San Antonio, headed by CEO Randy Smith and cofounder Graham Weston. They are sponsors of this podcast, full disclosure, but I would add in the same breath that Weston's Charitable 80 20 Foundation is one of the biggest philanthropic supporters of the school district, having given 1,000,000 of dollars along with Charles Butt at HEB to create the Cass Tech High School and Advanced Learning Academy.

Bob Rivard [00:48:14]:
If you attended any of the school board meetings, all we heard was loud, uninformed rhetoric about, quote, greedy developers, close quotes. Western urban is many things. It's not a greedy developer. The other major downtown development that promises to shape the urban core's future is what the city code named Project Marble. It's centered in and around Hemisphere, which has been under redevelopment for 15 years now. What lies ahead, however, if it becomes reality, will dwarf the improvements already completed. The plan envisions a new state of the art basketball arena for the San Antonio Spurs, a park like land bridge spanning I 37 and creating a pedestrian link to an updated Alamo Dome in the Near East Side. Henry b Gonzales Convention Center will be expanded, and an additional convention hotel and parking facility will be built in addition to Zachary Corporation's The Monarch Hotel, now under construction along South Alamo Street.

Bob Rivard [00:49:16]:
South Alamo Street itself will soon become a complete street, much more inviting to pedestrian and cycling traffic. The new arena and a surrounding entertainment district will serve as a bookend to the western urban project, bringing new life to the eastern sector of downtown and connecting south town to downtown as the southern flank of hemisphere is redeveloped. I am all in on both projects and believe you should be too. Ask those who oppose the projects, what do you propose instead to increase housing downtown to create more jobs and more public amenities to replace the blight and vacancy? Don't expect much of an answer. It's easy to be against change. It's a lot harder to invest in positive change and actually see it through to completion. My only caveat, please, San Antonio, let's not take project Marvel and do it on the cheap. It promises to be transformative.

Bob Rivard [00:50:14]:
Let's keep it that way. That's my last word for this week. Thank you for listening. Watch for our new Saturday releases starting January 11th, and go to our website and sign up for the newsletter. It's free, and we will make it worth your time and attention. Thank Thank you for listening, and please share this episode with friends and colleagues at work. And please check out our new YouTube channel where we are starting to post videos of some of our events and episodes. A special thanks to our sponsor, Westin Urban, building the city our children want to call home, and Geekdom, where startups are born and nurtured into new businesses.

Bob Rivard [00:50:52]:
Shouldn't you be a member? Special thanks to our production team, producers Ashley Bird and Maura Bobbitt with Blooming with Bertie, and Erica Rempel, videographer and content creator, and Alfie De La Garza of Sound Crane Audio. We'll see you next week.