(rshsdepot) San Antonio, TX

[Jim Dent <jdent1_@_optonline.net>]

Then & Now: City and VIA's settlement resulted in Sunset Station complex
Web Posted: 04/04/2004 12:00 AM CST

Scott Huddleston
Express-News Staff Writer

Two government agencies that built the Alamodome - the city of San Antonio
and VIA Metropolitan Transit - were locked in thorny negotiations 10 years
ago over ownership of the multipurpose stadium, site of this year's NCAA
Final Four.


When the talks ended, VIA, the bus agency that partnered with the city in
the $197 million dome's 1990-93 construction, released full ownership of the
facility to the city. The deal let VIA focus on converting a historic train
depot north of the dome to an entertainment venue - today's Sunset Station.

In March 1994, the transit agency, which collected a five-year half-cent
sales tax to fund the Alamodome, threatened to withdraw a proposal to cede
ownership of the dome to the city, which designed, built and now manages the
dome.

"I have been instructed by the board that if we don't hear of a resolution
in one week, transfer of the dome will be a dead issue," VIA Chairman Arturo
Sanchez told the San Antonio Express-News after a March 22, 1994, closed
session with his board.

VIA and the city had informally agreed a month earlier the city would take
ownership of the dome and be responsible for the cost of cleaning up
contaminated soil south of the dome's underground bus terminal.

VIA, which acquired an old iron foundry and the sagging train depot for the
Alamodome project, would be responsible for environmental costs north of the
bus station.

Under 1700s Spanish rule, the land had been used for farming to support
Mission San Antonio de Valero, the home of an indigenous colony that later
became the Alamo fortress.

Use of the land by the railroad and iron industries began in the 1880s and
lasted more than a century. In a well-documented case often studied today by
college public administration classes, the city and VIA were beset in the
Alamodome construction with handling - and mishandling - of dirt laced with
lead and hydrocarbons.

VIA threatened a decade ago to try to retain ownership of the dome. In
response, the city threatened to invoke a 1988 stadium agreement that
required VIA to force the original landowners, including Alamo Iron Works,
to assume liability for contamination. Cleanup was expected to cost up to
$20 million.

"We will try to hold VIA responsible for all the contaminated soil cleanup
costs," then-Mayor Nelson Wolff said, according to the Express-News.

In his 1997 book, "Mayor," Wolff recalled "enduring a shotgun marriage of
VIA and the city until the baby was successfully born." He said VIA and the
city quibbled over the dome's construction and the costs to restore Sunset
Station and build an underground bus station at the dome.

Wolff wrote that the relationship "ended in a divorce when I gave $1 to VIA
for alimony" - a token amount the city paid to legally sever dome ties with
VIA.

On April 28, 1994, the dome was officially transferred to the city, which
then sued the previous landowner and four contractors to recoup
environmental cleanup costs.

VIA then concentrated on its project with private developers to restore the
circa-1902 train depot, heralded in the early days of the light bulb as the
"building of a thousand lights."

Thwarted by a surprise discovery of charred roof timbers and blackened walls
from a 1907 electrical fire, the dining and entertainment project was not
finished in time for the Final Four at the Alamodome in 1998.

After a $25 million facelift, Sunset Station held its grand opening Jan. 29,
1999, with a mix of new restaurants and nightclubs and a covered outdoor
concert pavilion.


Today, rain or shine, Final Four fans and locals can see the dome and depot
function together as a visitor-friendly public space that sprang from the
feuding 10 years ago. The Dasani Fest, an admission-free event, will offer a
variety of live music and a family stage show.



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shuddleston_@_express-news.net
http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/metro/stories/MYSA04.02B.Then&Now_Depot_0404.232bb097.html


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The Railroad Station Historical Society maintains a database of existing
railroad structures at: http://www.rrshs.org

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