 That wall that I have right there would it would have been the mission wall that surrounded the Alamo And that's the wall that the Mexican troops hit. I'm right in the battlefield of why Texas is Texas Vince Cantu runs Moses Roses a San Antonio, Texas bar that's on the site of the famous 1836 battle memorialized on the big screen many times by the likes of John Wayne and Billy Bob Thornton He opened Moses Roses in 2010 after it had sat vacant for many years My family's been here for four generations running taverns downtown San Antonio I'm proud of my family. My great-grandfather had a tavern Four blocks that way my grandmother had a restaurant my grandfather had a restaurant less than a quarter mile that way I feel like I am on the shoulders of Giants. I like what I do and I like where I do it I never really thought about it happening to me until it happened to me I've been living under the threat of eminent domain for six years The Alamo Trust a nonprofit that manages the site wants to expand the Alamo Museum Which would include building a theater and a civil rights exhibit where Moses Roses currently stands Cantu says that in 2016 the group made its first offer of a million dollars Signed by then land commissioner George P. Bush, which would have barely covered his outstanding loans Four years later. They upped it to two million And I've told them now about times mostly because you know I'm 60 years old and it puts me out of a job come back in ten years and see what it's worth And maybe maybe that's the way y'all want to do it because I'm not gonna I'm not gonna look at ten-year money at 3% a year when it's been appreciating it like 18% a year At the outset the 400 million dollar museum expansion project was supposed to be paid for by private donors When the funding fell through the state of Texas stepped in to cover the cost The state made two more offers which Cantu rejected He said he'd sell for 15 million so state officials who declined to participate in this story countered by threatening to take his property by force using eminent domain Cantu would receive a so-called fair market price based on an independent appraisers estimate of the property's current value The appraisal came in at 2.1 million or roughly 2.8 million in 10 years In December the Alamo Trust offered 3.5 million which Cantu quickly declined They keep alleging that you're not negotiating in good faith. What do you say to that? All lies they've never called me so we never really had a negotiation They would send me an email with it with an offer. I would send them an email back saying no, thank you and some other words They've wanted to negotiate with me over my property, but they wanted a loaded gun to do it They've wanted the threat of eminent domain hanging over my head for me to take their number instead of them taking my number And running a business when you're under the threat of eminent domain is really really hard I mean, you know because you as a business person you're looking out Today tomorrow a month from now, but you're also looking out five and ten years out to see what you need You need a new AC system. You need you need to remodel a place You need to put some money into it some other way and not knowing whether the government was going to come in and take it at any at any moment Really kind of defeated the whole joy I had about thinking about the future of this place and developing 10-year strategies a Pissed off can to started tacking on an extra million dollar fee to his offer each year that the government threatened him with eminent domain And earlier this year George P. Bush who's the son of Jeb and the nephew of George W called can twos refusal to sell at the state's price Dishonorable I told my wife that if I saw him I would challenge him to a duel in front of the Alamo Would use would use squirt guns not real guns because I don't want to kill anybody And I don't want to get killed but uh, you know, I mean just to just to avenge my honor Bush didn't respond to reasons requests for comment Proponents of the Alamos plan would argue that this is necessary It's necessary that they take these buildings that they see some In order to expand the the visitor center the new theater that they're building What do you say to those people who are supporters of the Alamo really expanding their footprint in the city? Well, those people that say that That support that are the ones that read in the paper that I would not come to the table But the truth is is that I've told the museum people for six years that I would come to the table that I've been waiting for six years for My phone to ring for for them to sit down and have an honest negotiation with me Well, I've never been in the way of what they wanted to do So I would say how could I be in the way of something when I've told them I would sell to them from day one they just never have wanted to meet me even close to my price and That's the government saying we don't have to because we can emma domain you instead Cantu says that when he started Moses roses, it was in a dilapidated part of town He and his family are being denied the opportunity to reap the rewards of more than a decade of sacrifice This part of downtown San Antonio was not a place. Anybody really came. It was a bunch of homeless people here my idea was to open up a bar and grill and Um Have live music, but most of the people that played for me At first we're just homeless guys with guitars. I mean that's really kind of what we had over here really And then after a while I just kind of started clicking downtown started opening up a little bit And this part of downtown started getting a little bit more gentrified and a little bit better The San Antonio city council voted in late january to authorize the use of eminent domain Which would allow the city to condemn and acquire the property to hand to the alamo trust if cantu doesn't take their state back to offer After our interview cantu met with the trust's attorneys He says they offered him 2.4 million more than a million dollars less than what they'd offered him before the city started The eminent domain process. It was just a bad faith bullshit negotiation that they you know said they had to have Before they would start eminent domain Cantu has vowed to keep fighting Texan is small government and Um, and fiercely independent. It's stupidly ironic completely on texan