SAN ANTONIO – The battle over Moses Rose’s Hideout continues, and now the bar owner is taking legal action over the latest offer for the business.
Owner Vince Cantu and his attorney Dan Eldredge accuse the city and its partners of forcing a third-party appraiser to skew the appraisal number.
“This should just be a fair business deal, but evidently, they don’t want to honor their own agreement,” Cantu said.
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.
Cantu and Eldredge said the final offer for his bar is about $4 million too low. The offer stands at $5.26 million — $4 million for the building and the projected lost revenue for selling the business.
The third-party appraiser RSI was brought on to determine that value.
Cantu and Elderege said an anonymous source told them the city, Texas General Land Office, and the Alamo Trust forced RSI to use a discounted portion of the bar’s projected lost revenue.
The owner and the attorney for the bar said the appraisal should have been $9.02 million.
“How confident are you that this source is accurate?” asked KSAT reporter John Paul Barajas.
“A hundred percent — they’re very close to this matter,” answered Eldredge.
The executive director of the Alamo Trust, Kate Rogers, sent KSAT the following statement:
“Mr. Cantu’s claims of a “bait and switch” are categorically false. Mr. Cantu has been offered $5.3 million – $4 million or twice the appraised value for the property and an additional $1.3 million for the business. The valuation of his business was conducted by an appraisal firm he selected and based on an approach that was approved by all parties. This is another disappointing example of Mr. Cantu’s years-long refusal to operate in good faith and ongoing attempts to obscure the facts to prevent the construction of the Alamo Visitor Center and Museum.”
Cantu and Eldredge have filed a lawsuit hoping to get depositions from the Alamo Trust and RSI.
“We want to get a judge to tell these individuals the details that should be able to tell us more about what happened to go on the record,” said Eldredge.
While this plays out, San Antonio city officials have said they will initiate eminent domain proceedings on May 8.
Eldredge said it won’t be an easy fight for his team, but the city won’t win.