Moses Rose’s owner rejects final $5.26M offer, prepares for eminent domain fight

San Antonio – The holdout owner of a bar in the way of a new Alamo museum has said the City of San Antonio’s “best and final” $5.26 million offer to buy him out isn’t good enough.

Now, with the city and its partners prepared to use eminent domain, the deadlock appears to be headed to court.

Moses Rose’s Hideout, located at 516 E. Houston Street, sits a musket shot away from the Alamo and is at the edge of the footprint of a proposed Alamo Visitors Center and Museum -- a key part of the $400 million plan to redesign Alamo Plaza.

The city, Texas General Land Office, and the Alamo Trust are all partners in the plan. It’s the city that actually has the power to take a property through eminent domain, even though the Alamo Trust and General Land Office have been the ones speaking most about the process.

In a news release Friday, the Alamo Trust said the city’s latest offer includes compensation for both the property and his business, which it says an independent valuation determined to be worth “a little more than $1.2 million.”

If owner Vince Cantu doesn’t accept the offer by May 8, according to the release, the city will initiate eminent domain proceedings.

Once the valuation portion of the proceedings begins, the Trust says, the $5.26 million offer would no longer be valid, “and the City will ask the court to determine a purchase price consistent with the property’s fair market value of $2.1 million.”

Cantu told KSAT in March that his final price was $10 million for the property and business, $500,000 for relocation, and other stipulations like a plaque to recognize the Mexican soldiers who died in the battle.

He tweeted Friday that he could not accept the new “unfair offer” and compared his situation to that of the Alamo defenders.

“This is more than a fight about money, it’s about the principals (sic) fought for at the Alamo, by men willing to die for freedom and independence,” he wrote in part.

Cantu and his attorney, Dan Eldredge, say their fight isn’t over and they don’t believe the city has the authority to take the property under the circumstances.

The current deadlock has been years in the making. The Alamo Trust says Cantu rejected multiple offers worth up to $3.5 million for his property, which was appraised at $2.1 million currently and $2.8 million in 10 years.

In a 9-2 vote on Jan. 26, the San Antonio City Council approved using the city’s eminent domain power to acquire the property on the GLO’s behalf. The plan, though, was to try to negotiate a deal first.

The city would have to file a lawsuit to actually start the condemnation process, Eldredge said. After that, a judge would appoint a panel of special commissioners to determine the property’s value.

The legal fight over whether the city actually has the authority to invoke eminent domain would only happen after the valuation, Eldredge said.

Also on KSAT:

• Moses Rose’s owner ready to fight eminent domain in court if state won’t meet his price
• Moses Rose’s owner says negotiations with TGLO ‘unsuccessful,’ eminent domain threat still looming