Editor’s note: This story was published through a partnership between KSAT and the San Antonio Business Journal.
Alamo Trust Inc. leadership and other stakeholders vested in the redevelopment of the famous Texas site and surrounding plaza have overcome a series of battles in advancing their monumental plan, but their biggest challenge lies ahead.
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They will need to raise roughly $140 million through private sources to fund the landmark improvements — a heavy lift in the best of times.
The cost of the Alamo Plan project, which has moved deeper into the design stage and includes the redevelopment of multiple buildings immediately west of the Alamo into a new visitor center and museum, is roughly $300 million. Half of that funding will come from the state of Texas, Bexar County and city of San Antonio. Private support is needed to cover the balance.
Alamo Trust Executive Director Kate Rogers said her group has quietly raised enough funding or commitments to knock its fundraising goal down by about $10 million. That effort will become more intense as the Remember the Alamo Foundation is now building out its board that will lead the campaign.
Securing so much private money amid a pandemic could prove more challenging. Yet Rogers believes the support is there for a project that’s already cleared several major hurdles.
“I’m still really optimistic about the money,” she said. “People want to see the Alamo treated with the reverence and the respect that it deserves.”
Work is now underway to determine structural needs to support the redevelopment of the Crockett, Woolworth and Palace Theater buildings into the new Alamo Visitor Center & Museum. Preliminary designs for the venue are expected to be completed by the end of the month and construction is slated to begin by early 2023.
The plan is to open the new center in spring 2026 — the 190th anniversary of the historic Alamo battle.
“We’re going to do our best to meet our goal,” Rogers said.
Should supporters come up short, there is some indication, according to Rogers, that the state could chip in more public money to ensure the Alamo Plan is fully funded.
“If we stay on track, if we continue to show the momentum and the progress that we have in the past several months, I think that’s a very real possibility,” she said.
Click here to read the full story in the San Antonio Business Journal.