La Prensa de San Antonio.- Port San Antonio is a profit-driven self-sustaining business that owns the 2,000-acre transit-oriented mixed-use development just five minutes from downtown San Antonio. The Port is now an aerospace complex and logistics hub with significant economic growth, in spite of the economic turndown, and has already added 10,700 jobs, with another 3,000 projected this year, 2010.
After several transformations since 1995- when Kelly Air Force base closed and was renamed Greater Kelly Development and later still, Kelly USA, Wayne Alexander, chairman of the board of Port San Antonio recognized it needed a brand.
“People need to know what you are,” he explained. “Port San Antonio truly is an inland port.”
That transformation is the mission – to make the former Kelly Air Force Base an economic force and job creator in San Antonio.
The mission seems to be working and is actively translating into an economic boon for San Antonio, defying one of the worst economic recessions in our history –to the tune of more jobs and economic growth for the city of San Antonio.
But Port San Antonio is not just about jobs and industrial space. The vision is far greater and includes a high performance industrial airport, rail port and a town center, where San Antonio residents can live, work, learn and play.
So far, the complex has revitalized South Gen. McMullen Drive to add a connection between Port San Antonio and the community.
“This is an opportunity to create a new community in southwest San Antonio – a new town complete with homes, offices, schools and jobs,” the former San Antonio Mayor and U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Henry Cisneros told La Prensa.
Already, Building 171, which houses 460,000 square feet of office space, houses 11 U.S Air Force agencies.
Next, a converted 1940s warehouse will house almost 3000 Air Force personnel at work who are slated to start this fall.
The organization currently helps support 25,000 area jobs, and a study just completed by the SABER Research Institute, a joint effort between St. Mary’s University and the San Antonio Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, projects that coupled with the real estate developments at the complex, the regional impact of Port San Antonio for 2010 will be 4.23 billion.
Cisneros explains that no matter how high tech society gets, “the truth of the matter is we have to move goods.”
The reliable infrastructure that Port San Antonio represents will be smart, green and an onsite trade zone with multimodal capabilities to connect San Antonio to other American cities and to Mexico.
“Port San Antonio makes the new dynamic possible because we are building from the ground up – we are starting from scratch with a vision,” Cisneros said in his remarks.
Cisneros explained that future funding is indicative of the success of the plan, because Port San Antonio already has grants worth about $80 million, “grants the whole country tried to get.”
The cluster concept plays a huge role in the plan for Port San Antonio. “Port San Antonio is very steadily moving to infrastructure capabilities that increase prospects and anticipates the challenges and opportunities ahead to generate thousands of jobs,” Cisneros added.
After the presentation, Alexander told La Prensa that 400 acres will be dedicated to the town center. They also look forward to partnerships with local schools and the community.
“We want the port to be developed at the highest possible standards so it will compare favorably to any other development in the city,” Bruce Miller, president and CEO of Port San Antonio, said.
“We are very close to the point we can say we’ve created something,” Cisneros said.
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