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When you think of economic development in San Antonio, you think of JCB’s newest North American manufacturing facility being built on the South Side, Toyota’s recent announcement to expand production operations or Amegy Bank relocating its Central Texas headquarters to downtown San Antonio.
While global corporate attraction is a large part of greater:SATX’s work, the organization also helps grow the businesses that already call San Antonio home.
San Antonio has long been a beacon for business growth and innovation. At the heart of this thriving landscape is greater:SATX Regional Economic Partnership, the organization leading the development and diversification of the San Antonio regional economy through the location and expansion of quality employers and job-producing investments.
The organization exists to grow, attract and retain jobs that provide economic mobility for the more than 2.6 million people who call the San Antonio region home. They do this by recruiting new businesses, helping local businesses grow, aligning workforce development efforts, tackling the most critical issues impacting the San Antonio region’s growth and elevating awareness of the region as the ideal place to live, work and grow a business.
As the lead economic development organization in the region, greater:SATX isn’t just changing skylines. It is impacting people in a profoundly positive way by bringing new jobs and opportunities to the San Antonio region that allow families to grow, thrive, maintain their well-being and reach their goals more expeditiously than they would in comparable size markets.
“We are the only economic development organization in the region that brings together our partners at all levels of government and the business community to leverage our regional assets that make SATX the place to grow a business,” said Jenna Saucedo-Herrera, president and CEO of greater:SATX. “That collaboration, in turn, brings more jobs, meaning more economic mobility for the region’s residents by creating pathways to prosperity.”
Founded almost 50 years ago, greater:SATX today represents the eight-county Greater San Antonio region, including the counties of Atascosa, Bandera, Bexar, Comal, Guadalupe, Kendall, Medina and Wilson. The fundamental elements of the organization’s strategy fall under three pillars: people, place and jobs.
People
Recognized for its role in shaping the region’s workforce, developing, retaining and attracting top talent, greater:SATX leads San Antonio’s largest work-based learning program. Through its internship program, the organization has connected almost 30,000 high school students to career awareness and paid internship opportunities with over 550 regional employers, including BioBridge Global, Methodist Healthcare Ministries, Southwest Research Institute, University of Texas at San Antonio and USAA.
The organization is also a national leader in implementing the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation’s Talent Pipeline Management framework across six industries. The goal is to identify the critical hiring needs of regional employers and drive alignment with education providers to prepare the region’s workforce to meet current and projected job growth.
Through initiatives such as these, the region has increased its educational attainment rate by 6.3% over the past five years to 41.9%.
Place
Quality of place investments and marketing of the San Antonio region as a unique, culturally rich, collaborative and business-friendly region, are driven by greater:SATX.
This includes supporting air service development to target markets, including the recently established nonstop flight to Querétaro, making business easier and more efficient for San Antonio-based companies like Toyota supplier Avanzar Interior Technologies to access their operations in and around Querétaro.
San Antonio recently celebrated its first trans-Atlantic nonstop flight to Frankfurt, Germany. Beyond the military ties, Germany is home to several major industries that have a presence in the San Antonio region.
As the need for more direct air service grows, greater:SATX takes notice and works with the San Antonio International Airport, Visit San Antonio and other partners to successfully establish nonstop flights.
Simultaneously, greater:SATX is introducing the San Antonio region to the world through global marketing and public relations initiatives helping to elevate our region’s net promoter score to 49, a solid score for a consumer brand. Of note is its Life Works GreaterSM campaign, showcasing a greater quality of life in San Antonio.
Jobs
The economic development team at greater:SATX is focused on attracting new target industry jobs to the region and helping current employers grow. They work to grow a pipeline of potential job-creating corporate investments through global corporate attraction.
Since 2021, greater:SATX has supported the creation of more than 13,000 new jobs and more than $5 billion capital investment. The organization has helped companies including Victory Capital, Toyota, Navistar, Aisin, PenFed and JCB establish new operations within the region.
While attracting new businesses is critical, it is equally important to support existing businesses. In fact, approximately 80% of new jobs added in Texas each year are created from existing businesses. greater:SATX’s business engagement and growth team provides regional employers in our target industries a full spectrum of services for the retention and expansion of their local operation through workforce development, advocacy, international market expansion and infrastructure and real estate.
Through these three pillars, greater:SATX ensures the region is competitively positioned to support growth and prosperity.
The impact of the organization’s recent initiatives is reflected in the significant increase in the San Antonio Business-Cycle Index, which rose an annualized 4.4% from March to April. As of June 2024, greater:SATX:
- Won 16 projects that are projected to inject 1,525 new high-wage jobs and $857M in new capital investment in the greater San Antonio region.
- Is guiding over 50 companies in the site selection process with the potential to bring 14,000 new jobs and $9.2B in capital investment.
After almost 50 years of learning, growing and relentlessly working to better its community and build a prosperous economy, greater:SATX’s momentum is at an all-time high.
