The decision puts the city’s Project Marvel goal of a new convention center into question.
SAN ANTONIO — The future of a central Project Marvel component is uncertain due to the high cost of moving a downtown chilled water plant sitting where city officials would like to build a new convention center hotel.
Officials with San Antonio Water System (SAWS) said an engineering study found it would cost more than $300 million to move the facility currently located along Cherry Street. SAWS officials had anticipated a price tag of more than $100 million in a May 2025 meeting in which the utility approved a $2.3 million contract for a study into potential relocation and other initiatives.
The utility said the latest estimates rendered that possibility “cost-prohibitive… leading SAWS and the City of San Antonio to mutually agree not to pursue moving the plant.”
The city has said since the first public briefings on the downtown sports and entertainment district effort that moving the chiller plant would be necessary in order to build a new 1,000-room hotel to accommodate expanded programming at the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center.
Convention center expansion itself has been cited as a Project Marvel priority in order for San Antonio to be more competitive in bringing high-profile events and keep pace with other Texas cities’ billion-dollar plans of their own. An architecture firm hired to oversee expansion proposed creating an additional 200,000 feet of exhibition space, including a new ballroom, access to the River Walk and an exhibit hall that flows into Civic Park.
The enjoining convention center hotel would cost about $750 million to realize, City of San Antonio officials have said. City Council members have previously questioned the urgency, citing lower hotel occupancy rates downtown.
City officials said Thursday that it is not currently pursuing a second hotel, adding it has been the city’s approach for months that it wouldn’t do so “if the costs were not reasonable.”
The SAWS-commissioned study, meanwhile, remains ongoing as the utility continues “to evaluate alternatives that support downtown development while maintaining reliable service to existing customers.”
“These options include enhancing the capacity of the current district cooling plant and potentially developing additional infrastructure to meet future cooling demands,” said Anne Hayden, a SAWS spokesperson. “The ongoing engineering study will help identify the most effective long-term solution.”
SAWS owns the local chilled water plants, while the city is a customer. But City Council has debt approval authorities over SAWS, meaning the utility would need council’s approval to take on debt for major projects, including a hypothetical relocating of the chilled water plant.
San Antonio City Council is expected to receive its next comprehensive update on Project Marvel at its June 17 meeting. Leaders had already been told that a goal of reconnecting the east side to downtown wouldn’t happen via a land bridge, and that it was exploring other opportunities like bike paths or a more traditional pedestrian bridge over Interstate 37.