This story has been updated.
An upscale private dining club whose members are among the wealthiest people in San Antonio is at odds with its neighbors.
The Argyle, a members-only club located in Alamo Heights, was established in the 1950s to support the work of what is now the nonprofit Texas Biomedical Research Institute, as well as provide a social outlet for members.
Argyle leaders want to expand the facility by building the kind of indoor space it doesn’t have now, one big enough for events like wedding receptions, quinceañeras, parties and meetings. The proposed 6,600-square-foot Argyle Hall would nearly double the club’s revenue, they say.
A number of Alamo Heights residents, some of them longtime members of the Argyle, oppose the project, saying a large social venue like the proposed expansion does not belong in a residential neighborhood. They have launched a yard sign campaign and spoken against the project at City Council.
Talks between the two groups in the past year have failed to result in a compromise that satisfied the residents. Now, the Argyle is requesting from the city a special use permit (SUP) that would allow the project to move forward.
Beth Smith, the Argyle’s board of governors president, said in an email that the club comes “from the same place” as its neighbors. “We love our neighborhood and want to be respectful,” she stated.
“We want to honor and preserve the historic integrity of The Argyle with revenue raised from celebrating special occasions, and we want to continue to make significant contributions towards the important research being done at Texas Biomedical Research Institute,” Smith said.
She added that the club annually gives $2 million to Texas Biomed — an amount the nonprofit confirmed — and over the last 68 years, has contributed about $100 million.
Built in 1854, the Argyle was once the stately headquarters of a horse ranch that extended for miles between downtown San Antonio and Boerne, according to the club’s website.
“Lavish entertainment was the rule, and visiting celebrities, including Robert E. Lee, traditionally stayed at The Argyle,” states a historical account on the site. “During the War Between the States, The Argyle served a grimmer purpose as an arsenal.”
Following a series of owners and various uses, the mansion was restored in 1956 by Texas Biomed founder Tom Slick Jr.’s sister, Betty Slick Moorman. It became a meeting place for scientists working at the San Antonio-based research facility, which owns the Argyle.
Located on the city’s far West Side, Texas Biomed is a San Antonio-based biomedical research institution specializing in genetics, virology and immunology. The nonprofit is funded by government and corporate grants and contracts and donations from the public.
A statement provided by a Texas Biomed spokeswoman said Texas Biomed’s executive committee and board of trustees have approved the Argyle’s proposal to construct the venue in order to better accommodate events and to provide amplified music behind closed doors instead of on the club’s lawn.
Support for research
The Argyle’s primary purpose is to foster and support Texas Biomed, according to its tax filings prepared by Michael Vlad, general manager of the Argyle. The club provides services to its members who in turn support the institute through required annual contributions directly to Texas Biomed.
In 2021, the Argyle reported to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) that its members contribute funds to the institute through dues and direct gifts, totaling $4 million a year, according to its income tax filing. Texas Biomed provides a dedicated page on its website for donations by Argyle members, with a suggested donation of $1,150 from resident members.
The Argyle is a 501(c)(4) organization, considered by the IRS as a social welfare group, distinct from 501(c)(3) nonprofits like Texas Biomed in that contributions are not deductible as charitable donations for federal income tax purposes.
Contributions to such organizations, however, may be deductible as trade or business expenses, “if ordinary and necessary in the conduct of the taxpayer’s business,” according to IRS rules.
“Part of the appeal of the club is just the scale of the club and the intimacy of it,” as well as knowing part of the annual dues go to support a research organization,” said Ted Flato, a local architect and Argyle member who also lives near the club.
But some of that appeal would fade if the venue was built, he said. “Putting up a building of that scale that will create this exponential amount of increased traffic [and] it will change the dynamics of this part of Alamo Heights.”
Nonconforming use
The Argyle as it exists now “was already pushing the envelope on a neighborhood,” Flato said.
A 1955 agreement between the city and the research institution laid out terms for how the Argyle would operate given its “nonconforming use” in a residential district of Alamo Heights.
The agreement stated that outside entertainment must end by sundown, exterior lighting kept to a minimum, and that the council could require the club to provide additional off-street parking when necessary.
Neighbors of the club who oppose the project say those terms have been broken and that most Argyle members live miles away and are not affected by the noise and traffic congestion of the club.
While the club is nestled amid private homes in Alamo Heights, where the median price per square foot is $312 (versus $165 in San Antonio), just over 400 of its members and their spouses reside in the ‘09 burg, according to a membership directory. Hundreds more live in Terrell Hills, Olmos Park, other parts of San Antonio, and in cities throughout the United States.
The Argyle’s 15-member board of governors, while elected by the membership, makes decisions on behalf of their fellow members.
‘Wedding venue’
The main Argyle facility, a grand, plantation-style mansion on Patterson Avenue described by the county tax assessor as a country club and restaurant, is valued at $2.85 million, according to tax records.
The facility hosts large private events throughout the year, often pitching a party tent in an adjacent parking lot to accommodate hundreds of guests while private dining service goes on in the facility’s formal rooms and tavern-like spaces.
Plans for Argyle Hall include a Greek Revival-style building with 16-foot ceilings in a 6,600-square-foot ballroom, spacious enough for a “wonderful 450-seat wedding venue,” states a business plan. The room also can be divided into multiple smaller rooms for events of varying sizes.
Argyle President Smith described the project in an Aug. 1 letter to club members, emphasizing Argyle Hall is not an event center.
“Yard signs labeling the addition as an ‘Event Center’ have been placed in a number of front yards,” she wrote. “These signs unfortunately are designed to imply a large ‘center’ open to the public in the heart of Alamo Heights when in reality, the addition is designed in part to continue to improve the member experience.”
Earlier this year, Alamo Heights residents Mike and Ann McGlone formed the Neighborhood Preservation League of Alamo Heights to fight the project, distributing anti-event-center yard signs and putting up a website to inform their neighbors.
A 30-year resident of the neighborhood, Mike McGlone said it’s not personal — they have close friends and clients who are members of the Argyle — but he also knows many prominent members of the club and the community who are against the plan to build a hall.
It wasn’t easy to find legal and professional support for their cause, Ann McGlone said, because people did not want to damage business relationships by appearing to go against the Argyle, whose members are very influential.
One Argyle member who asked to remain anonymous said others could fear speaking out because it could put their pending club membership applications in jeopardy.
The league has been meeting with Argyle representatives to find a compromise that has so far eluded them. “We may be tilting at windmills, but we’re doing the right thing for our neighborhood,” Mike McGlone said.
On Friday, McGlone and his neighbors watched as a small group of Trump supporters gathered near the Argyle protesting a luncheon inside for GOP presidential candidate Ron DeSantis. The protesters waved signs and shouted, “RINO” [Republicans in name only].
Dave, a protester who did not want to give his last name, said they weren’t disturbing anyone in the neighborhood. “We’re behind our barricades and doing what we’re doing,” he said. “Now, we would like to be over there in front. We were not allowed. We’re following what we were told to do.”
He added: “If you don’t want to be near an event center, don’t buy your home near an event center.”
Added profits
A business plan that describes Argyle Hall features a pie chart that shows the facility earns revenue from two types of private events — social and corporate, with the largest share being social affairs. Another chart projects a split of 60% social and 40% corporate when the new venue is built.
The plan states that over the past five years, the private dining venue has generated an average of $1.9 million in revenue a year. Projected revenue from the added space and “450+ potential new events, at 65% occupancy,” is expected to total almost $3.5 million a year.
The business plan also states that the cost to build the venue will be $8.25 million. But the Argyle and Texas Biomed will not “absorb direct expenses” for the development of Argyle Hall, according to the plan, “as it will be underwritten through private member contributions.”
The Argyle estimates a return on investment of 11% in the first year, increasing to 13% by the fifth year.
The added profits will be used to improve the facility “without requiring as much financial assistance from Texas Biomed. This is tantamount to additional financial contributions to Texas Biomed, our core mission,” states the plan.
Special use permit
The Argyle’s special use permit request is under review by city staff and attorneys and would have to go before the city’s Planning and Zoning Commission and the Architecture Review Board for a recommendation before the council votes on it.
A document signed by Texas Biomed, as owner of the property, authorized the Argyle to submit the notice of intent for the special use permit on its behalf.
The council could hear the case before the end of the year, said Alamo Heights City Manager Buddy Kuhn, who is not an Argyle member.
“The Argyle’s been there a long time,” Kuhn said. “So this is kind of a unique situation. But SUPs are not unique … they do come up and the Argyle is not the only [entity] that’s ever received one.”
In 2018, the club sought a permit to turn a two-acre parcel in a cul de sac at 423 Argyle Ave. into a parking lot for its employees. Despite a neighbor’s protests, the council voted unanimously in favor of granting the permit.
Opponents of the latest SUP request say they are concerned because three of the six-person Alamo Heights City Council are members of the club: Mayor Bobby Rosenthal, Councilwoman Lynda Billa Burke and Councilman Blake Bonner. But council members are not required to recuse themselves from voting on any matter if they don’t stand to benefit financially from the decision, Kuhn said.
In documents submitted to the city, revised after meetings with neighborhood residents opposing the project, the Argyle states that it will limit the size and frequency of the events hosted in the ballroom.
Only five daytime functions of between 601-750 people will be allowed per year, the documents promised, and functions with 301-600 people are limited to 12. There is no limit on events with less than 300 people attending.
For evening functions, the Argyle plans to limit the number of events with 901-1,400 in attendance to four per year; 601-900 to eight a year; 301-600 to a dozen.
For events with an expected attendance of less than 300, there is no limit.
But the headcount does not include those who are dining as members of the club, separate from the event, and special holiday functions are exempt from any limitations, the documents say.
The SUP is under review and Kuhn said he expects it will “look significantly different” before it lands at council. “I’m not sure that the council has an appetite for attendance as big as it is for the number of events that they’re requesting and things like that,” he said.
Parking spaces
The permit request also states that the Argyle will be required to provide complimentary valet parking for all events.
The neighbors and others who oppose the plan question how that will work considering the size of the proposed venue. During Fiesta, thousands attended the Queen’s Ball at the Argyle.
A Maryland-based event planner, Hoverton and Wooten, recommends one parking space for every 2 to 2.5 guests, and a commercial real estate advisor recommends a ratio of five to 10 spaces per 1,000 square feet of leasable area.
A count of parking spaces at the Argyle using satellite imagery shows less than 100 parking spaces on site; 48 of those will be eliminated when the new venue is constructed, according to the Neighborhood Preservation League.
By contrast, the San Antonio Country Club, with a ballroom that seats 350, appears to have an on-site parking lot with well over 200 spaces. The west parking lots at Alamo Stadium have almost 500 spaces.
These days, the club’s members and guests, and the valet service, often park their cars in one of several small lots owned by the club or along the street curbs of Patterson and other surrounding neighborhood streets. There are no sidewalks.
Delivery vehicles, shuttle services and ride-shares bound for the club also traverse and park temporarily along neighborhood streets extending out from the Argyle.
Community safety
Ed Dingivan has lived two blocks from the Argyle for 40 years. Sitting on his porch, he can sometimes hear live bands playing there in the evenings.
When attendance at Argyle-hosted events exceeds 200, parked cars begin to line up along the street in front of his house, blocking access to his home, he said, and he’s had to cope with intoxicated guests in his yard.
The added traffic that the club would draw with more large events is a safety and security issue for the entire neighborhood, especially in an area popular for walking and cycling, Dingivan said.
He pointed out that the vast majority of Alamo Heights residents are not Argyle members. “This is not an Alamo Heights community facility,” he said.
Kuhn said the city receives very few complaints about parking issues or noise involving the Argyle, so he’s not sure why there’s opposition to the club’s plans now.
“Surely there’s an impact on the neighborhood when you get the really large things down there — I’m not denying that whatsoever,” he said. “I can see if we were receiving 20 or 25 complaints per event, but some of these events go off and we don’t get any.”
But Kuhn foresees the two groups coming to an agreement that allows the Argyle to meet its needs but respects the neighbors’ wishes.
“The Argyle existed before this, they had events before this, and they will most likely continue to exist after this,” he said.
The Texas Biomedical Research Institute is a financial supporter of the San Antonio Report. For a full list of business members, click here.
