A bar owner near the Alamo isn’t ready to surrender his property — or his patio — to memorialize the historic battleground.
For 12 years, owner Vince Cantu has operated Moses Rose’s Hideout at 516 E. Houston St., next to the 1921 Woolworth Building, one of three state-owned structures in Alamo Plaza to be renovated as part of a $140 million museum and visitor center.
The nonprofit Alamo Trust has tried in recent years to buy his bar, named whimsically after a mercenary Frenchman who slipped out of the Alamo compound to avoid death in 1836.
Cantu said he’s turned down three attempts to purchase the bar, and state officials said he has asked for $17 million — nearly seven times the amount they’ve offered.
In an April 18 letter, Alamo Trust Executive Director Kate Rogers offered to buy the property for $2.5 million, above its value of $2.1 million estimated by a national appraisal management firm.
One of the last business holdings in the footprint of the Alamo project, a bar ironically named after Louis “Moses” Rose, who is said to have fled the fort during the 1836 siege, has been given until July 11 to surrender its patio to the General Land Office for development of an Alamo museum and visitor center. The bar, Moses Rose’s Hideout, sits near the historic Woolworth Building on Houston street, and its patio is on city property, a right-of-way known as Maverick Walk, that is being leased to the GLO for the massive Alamo makeover. The bar’s sidewalk patio permit from the city expired more than two years ago. But bar owner Vince Cantu says eliminating his outside patio area “may be the thing that puts me out of business” after surviving COVID, riots, cancelled conventions and high gas prices. He’s asking the Land Office to stand down until the end of the summer tourist season, noting that the amusement businesses fronting Alamo Plaza have until Oct. 31 to vacate.
Kin Man Hui, San Antonio Express-News / Staff photographerCantu, 60, stood firm on the asking price he sent to the trust two years ago. It included the cost of paying off taxes and a banknote and accounted for a projected value increase after the museum opening. Alamo Trust officials have said the Alamo project is expected to generate $12 billion in economic benefits by 2031 — five years after the museum’s targeted opening in 2026. Cantu seeks a purchase price that will allow him to retire and be financially secure.
He believes the museum will elevate the value of his property, currently set this year by the Bexar Appraisal District at $888,000. Though parts of the 4,700-square-foot building date to the 1880s, it is not a designated historic landmark.
“We came up with a number that we thought was not too extreme and fair for both sides,” he said.
Alamo officials disagreed. The Texas General Land Office recently sent Cantu a letter demanding he remove railings, seating, bench swings and a shade structure from an alley known as Maverick Walk on the side of the business. His 10-foot-wide patio running the length of the bar is on city land overseen by the Land Office and Alamo Trust.
Cantu had a permit with the city to use part of the alley as a patio, but it expired in February 2020. Since then, The Land Office said he has had “no legal right” to the patio.
One of the last business holdings in the footprint of the Alamo project, a bar ironically named after Louis “Moses” Rose, who is said to have fled the fort during the 1836 siege, has been given until July 11 to surrender its patio to the General Land Office for development of an Alamo museum and visitor center. The bar, Moses Rose’s Hideout, sits near the historic Woolworth Building on Houston street, and its patio is on city property, a right-of-way known as Maverick Walk, that is being leased to the GLO for the massive Alamo makeover. The bar’s sidewalk patio permit from the city expired more than two years ago. But bar owner Vince Cantu says eliminating his outside patio area “may be the thing that puts me out of business” after surviving COVID, riots, cancelled conventions and high gas prices. He’s asking the Land Office to stand down until the end of the summer tourist season, noting that the amusement businesses fronting Alamo Plaza have until Oct. 31 to vacate.
Kin Man Hui, San Antonio Express-News / Staff photographerBut Cantu said he only had to fill out a one-page form for the permit, and he wasn’t aware of any provisions requiring he remove his patio furnishings upon expiration of the permit. The city stopped billing him for about $500 in annual rent for the patio, but it required him to continue providing liability insurance for the space, he said.
In a June 27 letter, the Land Office said it would remove the patio and bill Cantu for the cost if the work wasn’t done by Monday. Cantu doesn’t question the Land Office’s right to clear the alley, but he doesn’t understand why it has to be done now. He says the patio space is crucial to his business.
He’s asked Alamo officials to let him keep the patio until the end of the summer tourist season — a timeline similar to one allowed for tenants in the state-owned buildings in the plaza. Three amusement businesses there must cease operations by Aug. 31 and move out by Oct. 31. Phillips Entertainment Inc. had leases for those businesses set to run through 2027 and 2028, but the company accepted a deal to vacate early.
One of the last business holdings in the footprint of the Alamo project, a bar ironically named after Louis “Moses” Rose, who is said to have fled the fort during the 1836 siege, has been given until July 11 to surrender its patio to the General Land Office for development of an Alamo museum and visitor center. The bar, Moses Rose’s Hideout, sits near the historic Woolworth Building on Houston street, and its patio is on city property, a right-of-way known as Maverick Walk, that is being leased to the GLO for the massive Alamo makeover. The bar’s sidewalk patio permit from the city expired more than two years ago. But bar owner Vince Cantu says eliminating his outside patio area “may be the thing that puts me out of business” after surviving COVID, riots, cancelled conventions and high gas prices. He’s asking the Land Office to stand down until the end of the summer tourist season, noting that the amusement businesses fronting Alamo Plaza have until Oct. 31 to vacate.
Kin Man Hui, San Antonio Express-News / Staff photographerCantu said the Land Office has threatened to use eminent domain to acquire his property. The state agency denies that.
“Contrary to Mr. Cantu’s claims, the GLO does not have eminent domain authority,” Land Office Communications Director Stephen Chang said in a statement. “In fact, the GLO has tried on multiple occasions to negotiate with him in good faith based on factual, third-party valuations of his property to no avail — to which he has countered with an asking price of $17 million — twenty times the property‘s appraised value.”
Chang didn’t reveal how Cantu’s building, if sold for the Alamo project, might be used. But he said it could be an important asset for the project’s goal of memorializing one of the founding sites of San Antonio and Texas.
“With respect to the future use of this area, like the other areas leased by GLO from the city for 100 years, this space is an instrumental part of the overall Alamo plan, which is focused on ensuring that we honor and remember the defenders and preserve the Shrine of Texas Liberty,” Chang said.
As for the demand that Cantu clear the patio by Monday, Chang indicated Alamo officials would allow additional time for that — but only as much as necessary. He said the situation with the patio was unlike the voluntary agreement with “our tenants” in the plaza.
Another possible point of negotiation, if Cantu doesn’t sell his bar, is to rethink its theme. It’s humorously named after Louis “Moses” Rose, who fled the Alamo a few days before the battle or perhaps during the early morning fighting on March 6, 1836. Rose died 15 years later in Louisiana.
Moses Rose’s Hideout bar owner Vince Cantu sits on a swing outside of his bar that is beside Maverick Walk on Thursday, July 7, 2022. One of the last business holdings in the footprint of the Alamo project, a bar ironically named after Louis “Moses” Rose, who is said to have fled the fort during the 1836 siege, has been given until July 11 to surrender its patio to the General Land Office for development of an Alamo museum and visitor center. Cantu’s bar, Moses Rose’s Hideout, sits near the historic Woolworth Building on Houston street, and its patio is on city property, a right-of-way known as Maverick Walk, that is being leased to the GLO for the massive Alamo makeover. The bar’s sidewalk patio permit from the city expired more than two years ago. But Cantu says eliminating his outside patio area “may be the thing that puts me out of business” after surviving COVID, riots, cancelled conventions and high gas prices. He’s asking the Land Office to stand down until the end of the summer tourist season, noting that the amusement businesses fronting Alamo Plaza have until Oct. 31 to vacate.
Kin Man Hui, San Antonio Express-News / Staff photographer
“I’m so close to the Alamo, I wanted to come up with a story about how it’s sort of a secret spot that Moses Rose might’ve hidden out in,” said Cantu, whose grandparents opened Audry’s Mexican Restaurant, a family-run downtown fixture that operated from 1949 to 2009.
Some have called Rose the “coward of the Alamo.” He fought in many battles in Europe and Texas, but he saw the hopelessness of some 200 men in the fort surrounded by a much larger Mexican force.
“He decided he wasn’t going to die here that day. That was his decision. I think in hindsight, maybe that didn’t help his legacy,” Cantu said. “But one man’s decision is to stay and fight; another man’s is to leave. Who are we to judge?”
Cantu’s willing to ponder the idea of recasting the bar’s motif, perhaps as something more heroic or reverent, to be a better fit next to the museum, which he predicts will “be an incredible attraction downtown.”
“I would consider anything that anybody asked me,” Cantu said. “If this really was something they felt was a deterrent to their theme, I’d definitely give it careful consideration.”
shuddleston@express-news.net
:quality(70)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/tronc/MT32UR36GFEUFB446QMHEUA3T4.jpg)
