More than 13 years ago the Wheatley Heights neighborhood was overwhelmed with flood waters from Salado Creek. The city eventually bought out the houses in the area of the flood plain.
In 2007 Nelson Wolff brought together a team of community leaders to develop a sports complex in the same area. He says, at the time, it was hard to imagine.
“Looking out across the neighborhood - all the abandoned streets - it really looked eerie and it was kind of hard to envision what would this turn into if we did this,” said Wolff.
Bexar County contributed $7.5 million of visitor tax revenue into the project.
The football field will be available to the high school and middle school football teams in the San Antonio Independent School District. There is also a track field and soccer fields on the complex. Two more soccer fields will be added eventually.
Wolff says it turned from a devastated area to something absolutely beautiful. Other leaders say once you put the park complex in, everything else develops around it.
