The growing tech and manufacturing campus on the city’s Southwest Side has more than doubled its economic impact in 10 years.
A report released by Port San Antonio officials shows the 1,900-acre former U.S. Air Force base generates nearly $9 billion in economic activity every year.
The growth is driven by major strategic development projects that have attracted and supported more than 80 commercial and industrial tenants at the Port, stated officials.
“What we have done is connect a couple of demand drivers — we’ve had a military presence here for well over 100 years, we’ve had an aeronautical presence,” said Jim Perschbach, president and CEO of Port San Antonio. “By connecting those up, you’re connecting buyers and sellers, and you’re plugging into that market.”
“What we do is we create an environment that allows these different companies that have market synergy, to each other, to co-locate and to exist here,” he added.
Port SA commissioned the economic impact study, led by consulting firm Zenith Economics, which showed its economic impact increased from an inflation-adjusted figure of $4 billion, as revealed in a 2015 study by the Texas Comptroller, to $9 billion in 2024.
The Port’s tenant base includes several U.S. Department of Defense commands and a growing number of locally headquartered technology firms.
They employ more than 18,000 people across the campus, adding 8,000 since 2017. Aircraft manufacturer Boeing is the largest Port employer.
With jobs in aerospace, cybersecurity, national defense, space exploration and advanced manufacturing, the average salary at the Port is $110,700, which includes benefits. The average annual salary in Bexar County is almost $62,000, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
This pay bump is a result of major changes to the tenant base at the Port, which operates less today as a port of entry for goods, and more as a tech and manufacturing hub.
“We used to have a lot more jobs on the campus that were in the logistics area,” Perschbach said, referring to a time when the Port housed air and truck logistics operations on the campus. “Those jobs have moved away.”
They have been replaced by jobs in electronics, robotics, aerospace and national defense, he said.
The study also takes into account the incidental impact of that workforce, finding that more than 13,000 additional jobs in the region and state are indirectly created or induced as a result of Port SA.
Wednesday’s announcement follows recognition by an international association of research parks late last year which named the Port, “Outstanding Innovation District.”
The Port is a decades-long reenvisioning of the former Kelly Air Force Base which traces its beginnings to 1916 and ended operations as a military base in 2001. At its peak, the base employed approximately 30,000 people and was the largest industrial complex in South Texas, according to the Air Force Civil Engineering Center.
Perschbach joined the Port in October 2014 as the organization’s executive vice president of Business Development. In March 2018, Port board of directors named Perschbach the organization’s interim president and CEO, following the resignation of Roland Mower who left his post amid pressure from the board for new leadership. Perschbach was named CEO in June 2018.
Under his leadership, the Port has built what he calls an ecosystem “where everything adds value to each other.”
“We have the national security assets, and we have the aerospace assets,” Perschbach said. “We have critical infrastructure and automation assets and true cyber security assets, and each one of them can sell to everybody else. You see this in industrial operations all the time.”
Since 2017, the Port also has added over 800,000 square feet of new commercial and industrial facilities, including the 130,000-square-foot Boeing Center at Tech Port that opened in 2022 and has since attracted over half a million visitors.
Construction on the Port’s planned new Innovation Tower is expected to start early next year. The 300,000-square-foot office tower with an estimated price tag of $300 million is Perschbach’s most ambitious project to date.
He has full confidence that the tower can be leased given the rapid lease-up of other newly built office space that was built during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the revenue it has generated for future growth.
The Port’s office space is currently 96-97% occupied. “We have people knocking on our door every day that we just don’t have buildings for,” Perschbach said.
Also in the works are office buildings, a vertiport for air taxis, a child care center, a gym and hotel and new education facilities operated by the Alamo Colleges District.
A grocery store is also planned and is among the capital projects funded by the Port and private and public sector partners.
Perschbach said he’s optimistic the economic impact study will demonstrate to grocery operators and other developers and potential tenants that there’s value to be had in serving the Port’s population.
Threats to the growing success of the Port, he said, include everything from global trade imbalances to the city’s ability to keep pace with the Port’s growth and that of the rest of the city, including downtown where major redevelopment plans are in the works.
“It’s going to require a really coordinated effort to make sure that we, as the Port, we as a community, we as a state, are growing things as efficiently as we possibly can,” he said.
