LAST STAND AT THE ALAMO: TX man fights to protect his bar from eminent domain
San Antonio bar owner Vince Cantu is waging a legal battle on the Alamo grounds after refusing state offers to buy his land, prompting an eminent domain vote.
A San Antonio bar owner is facing an eminent domain seizure of his property after he rejected multiple offers to purchase the site to make way for a $150 million Alamo museum.
"The current status of my situation with the state of Texas and the city of San Antonio is we've entered into a eminent domain phase," Moses Rose's Hideout owner Vince Cantu told Fox News. "We're in between the initial offer and the final offer."
VIDEO: BAR OWNER BATTLES CITY OF SAN ANTONIO OVER ALAMO RENOVATION
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The city of San Antonio is planning a nearly $300 million renovation of the Alamo, which would include a new museum and visitor's center. But Cantu, whose bar is located on a crucial plot, says the city hasn't offered him fair compensation and has repeatedly rejected its bids — most recently a $4 million proposal.
"I've been working with the state to try to negotiate a price that would be fair to me and my family," the Texas resident told Fox News.
"The value of my property is going to skyrocket," Cantu added. "I want the future value as well as today's value if I'm going to walk away from it."
The nonprofit Alamo Trust partnered with the city of San Antonio and the Texas General Land Office to oversee the renovation project and has spearheaded negotiations with Cantu. An independent appraiser contracted by the organization valued Cantu's property at $2.1 million, Alamo Trust Executive Director Kate Rogers told the San Antonio Express-News on Feb. 24.
"The Texas General Land Office has made every attempt to negotiate in good faith with Mr. Cantu to ensure he is fairly compensated while also preserving the Shrine of Texas Liberty for generations to come," Texas General Land Office Commissioner Dawn Buckingham told Fox News in a statement.
"Ironically, last year, Mr. Cantu protested his property value on the tax rolls— stating the property is worth roughly $500,000. Now that Texans’ tax dollars are at stake, he has demanded over 30 times that value," she added. "In addition to offering him eight times what he stated his property is worth, we have offered to build and move him into a property across the street – which he has declined."
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The Alamo, a Spanish mission, was erected in 1716 and is best known as the 1836 site of the Battle of the Alamo, a pivotal event in Texas history. (Pierce Archive LLC/Buyenlarge via Getty Images)
Cantu initially asked for $17 million, though he's indicated that he'd come down.
"I would definitely say that the business is going to be worth around $4 million and the property is gonna be worth over $5 million, if you look out five and 10 years from now," he said.
Cantu's bar is "the last holdout" preventing the Alamo Trust from beginning construction on the Alamo museum, the San Antonio Express-News Editorial Board wrote in January.
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Cantu's prolonged stalemate with the Alamo Trust and Texas General Land Office prompted the San Antonio City Council to make the rare move of invoking eminent domain on the bar owner's property in a 9-2 vote on Jan. 26. Cantu told the San Antonio Express-News shortly after that he suspects his building "will be bulldozed by April."
Construction of the new Alamo museum and visitor's center is scheduled to begin in June 2023 with a completion date set for March 2026, according to the Alamo Trust and the San Antonio City Attorney's Office. The nonprofit plans to build an educational theater on Cantu's property as part of a greater redevelopment of multiple buildings west of the Alamo to suit the new museum's needs.
A depiction of the Battle of the Alamo on March 6, 1836. ( Kean Collection/Getty Images)
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Cantu said the offers he's received have been particularly unfair given that his neighbor received $9.5 million to terminate their lease early, plus $500,000 in free rent, according to the San Antonio Express-News.
"He had five years left on his lease and the state gave him $10 million," Cantu told Fox News, adding that his neighbor "didn't even own property."
To watch more of Cantu recounting his eminent domain saga, click here.
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