More Than One Industry Town
By Gerald Lair
Posted 10/30/07
More than the one industry town it was just a few short years ago, San Antonio has blossomed over the last ten years into a dynamic, multi-disciplined city worthy of its place as not only the seventh largest city in the United States, population-wise, but a city that takes its place among the largest commercial centers in areas once thought a pipe-dream in these parts.
Military
Recognized as Military City USA for years, owing to the presence of five military bases: Ft. Sam Houston and Brooks, Lackland, Kelly, and Randolph Air Force Bases here, San Antonio understands that they (bases), along with HemisFair ’68, were the beginnings of a now-stout tourism industry. Time has changed things militarily in the city, however; now only Ft. Sam Houston, Lackland and Randolph are active bases.
But while the government’s downsizing of the military through its Base Realignment and Closure Commission has shuttered Brooks and Kelly as operating military installations, the city has made excellent use of the two “properties,” converting Brooks into Brooks City-Base, a consortium of private and public businesses specializing in the sciences and research, and Kelly, to an inland port, with the collection, and transit, of manufactured goods and agriculture out of Central and South America destined for Canada, Europe and the Far East.
Conventions & Tourism
Today, San Antonio is the tourism capital of Texas, with the Alamo and River Walk helping to attract more Texans, and others to the city. And with the strength of the city’s convention trade, the combined tourism and convention business under the auspices of the Convention & Visitors Bureau has placed San Antonio high on the list of most popular cities in the country to visit.
Major attractions for visitors include (alphabetically): the Alamo, San Antonio Botanical Gardens, HemisFair, McNay Art Museum, River Walk, Sea World, Six Flags Fiesta Texas, and Witte Museum. In addition, over 20 golf courses ring the city (see chart at Sports & Recreation.) And facilities for hosting conventions include the AT&T Center, Alamodome, the city’s Convention Center, Pearl Stables among others, and hotels which have meeting facilities in addition to room capacity for 33,000.
Health Care and the Biosciences
While the military and tourism/conventions jockeyed for first place for many years as the city’s top economic generator, it was just a few years ago that the Greater San Antonio Chamber of Commerce undertook research and discovered that, in fact, Healthcare and the Biosciences drew the most dollars to the city in economic impact, $14.3 billion, while employing over 100,000.
San Antonio is home to outstanding medical facilities including Baptist Health System, Christus Santa Rosa Healthcare, Methodist Health Care, and Nix Health Care System. And not to be outdistanced by any stretch, two of the military’s “go to” national centers for health related subjects are located here: Brooke Army Medical Center (BAMC) and the Air Force’s Wilford Hall. BAMC is the army’s Burn Center, specializing in burn, decontamination, and behavioral and emergency medicine, where military victims of Iraq and Afghanistan, among other conflicts, and civilians, are treated and cared for. And it will become the Defense Department’s regional Level 1 Trauma Center and research center soon.
The biosciences are also well represented in San Antonio. Along with the respected and long-established Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Research and Southwest Research Institute, where important research is being conducted on a variety of levels and subjects, San Antonio is also home to, among others, BioNumerik Pharmaceuticals, Cancer Therapy and Research Center, Children’s Cancer Research Institute, Conceptual Mindworks, INCELL, Genzyme Oncology, Mission Pharmacal, University of Texas Health Science Center, a teaching and research facility, San Antonio Cancer Institute, and VidaCare.
Aerospace and International Trade
Once a major facility in San Antonio, employing over 20,000 residents and carrying the strength of the U.S. Air Force on its shoulders, Kelly Air Force Base was officially closed in 2001. But for the vision and entrepreneurship of city fathers, it would probably have gone the way of many such great expanses of land; to housing. Instead, Kelly and its jet-length 11,500-foot long runway has been transitioned into Port San Antonio, an incubator for the aerospace industry in San Antonio and an “inland port,” which is being developed as a “disseminator” of goods that are received, mostly from Central and South America, and sent on to Canada, Europe, Asia, and the Far East. To date, Port San Antonio companies including Boeing, Cessna, Fairchild Dornier, Lockheed Martin, M7 Aerospace, Pratt & Whitney, Raytheon Aircraft Services, and Standard Aero, employ over 12,000, developing an economic impact for the city of $2.5 billion.
Informational Technology/Research and Development
A major informational and technology center, San Antonio is at the forefront in development and proliferation of marketing activity for this industry, both in terms of research and operation. Among other established companies and organizations with facilities here are AT&T, the Air Intelligence Agency, Karta Technologies, National Security Agency (NSA), OnBoard Software, Rackspace Managed Hosting, Southwest Research Institute, and Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Research, Microsoft, and many colleges and universities.
The future is nothing but bright for San Antonio. An imaginative workforce, buoyed by the addition of 40,000-45,000 new residents every year, bodes well for this city and its economic generators. Long considered a small town big city, it continues to retain that moniker, but while small might conjure up in some people’s minds just that, small, this city is now large in thought and energy, a major player in conversation and thought of a far-flung world.
Military
Recognized as Military City USA for years, owing to the presence of five military bases: Ft. Sam Houston and Brooks, Lackland, Kelly, and Randolph Air Force Bases here, San Antonio understands that they (bases), along with HemisFair ’68, were the beginnings of a now-stout tourism industry. Time has changed things militarily in the city, however; now only Ft. Sam Houston, Lackland and Randolph are active bases.
But while the government’s downsizing of the military through its Base Realignment and Closure Commission has shuttered Brooks and Kelly as operating military installations, the city has made excellent use of the two “properties,” converting Brooks into Brooks City-Base, a consortium of private and public businesses specializing in the sciences and research, and Kelly, to an inland port, with the collection, and transit, of manufactured goods and agriculture out of Central and South America destined for Canada, Europe and the Far East.
Conventions & Tourism
Today, San Antonio is the tourism capital of Texas, with the Alamo and River Walk helping to attract more Texans, and others to the city. And with the strength of the city’s convention trade, the combined tourism and convention business under the auspices of the Convention & Visitors Bureau has placed San Antonio high on the list of most popular cities in the country to visit.
Major attractions for visitors include (alphabetically): the Alamo, San Antonio Botanical Gardens, HemisFair, McNay Art Museum, River Walk, Sea World, Six Flags Fiesta Texas, and Witte Museum. In addition, over 20 golf courses ring the city (see chart at Sports & Recreation.) And facilities for hosting conventions include the AT&T Center, Alamodome, the city’s Convention Center, Pearl Stables among others, and hotels which have meeting facilities in addition to room capacity for 33,000.
Health Care and the Biosciences
While the military and tourism/conventions jockeyed for first place for many years as the city’s top economic generator, it was just a few years ago that the Greater San Antonio Chamber of Commerce undertook research and discovered that, in fact, Healthcare and the Biosciences drew the most dollars to the city in economic impact, $14.3 billion, while employing over 100,000.
San Antonio is home to outstanding medical facilities including Baptist Health System, Christus Santa Rosa Healthcare, Methodist Health Care, and Nix Health Care System. And not to be outdistanced by any stretch, two of the military’s “go to” national centers for health related subjects are located here: Brooke Army Medical Center (BAMC) and the Air Force’s Wilford Hall. BAMC is the army’s Burn Center, specializing in burn, decontamination, and behavioral and emergency medicine, where military victims of Iraq and Afghanistan, among other conflicts, and civilians, are treated and cared for. And it will become the Defense Department’s regional Level 1 Trauma Center and research center soon.
The biosciences are also well represented in San Antonio. Along with the respected and long-established Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Research and Southwest Research Institute, where important research is being conducted on a variety of levels and subjects, San Antonio is also home to, among others, BioNumerik Pharmaceuticals, Cancer Therapy and Research Center, Children’s Cancer Research Institute, Conceptual Mindworks, INCELL, Genzyme Oncology, Mission Pharmacal, University of Texas Health Science Center, a teaching and research facility, San Antonio Cancer Institute, and VidaCare.
Aerospace and International Trade
Once a major facility in San Antonio, employing over 20,000 residents and carrying the strength of the U.S. Air Force on its shoulders, Kelly Air Force Base was officially closed in 2001. But for the vision and entrepreneurship of city fathers, it would probably have gone the way of many such great expanses of land; to housing. Instead, Kelly and its jet-length 11,500-foot long runway has been transitioned into Port San Antonio, an incubator for the aerospace industry in San Antonio and an “inland port,” which is being developed as a “disseminator” of goods that are received, mostly from Central and South America, and sent on to Canada, Europe, Asia, and the Far East. To date, Port San Antonio companies including Boeing, Cessna, Fairchild Dornier, Lockheed Martin, M7 Aerospace, Pratt & Whitney, Raytheon Aircraft Services, and Standard Aero, employ over 12,000, developing an economic impact for the city of $2.5 billion.
Informational Technology/Research and Development
A major informational and technology center, San Antonio is at the forefront in development and proliferation of marketing activity for this industry, both in terms of research and operation. Among other established companies and organizations with facilities here are AT&T, the Air Intelligence Agency, Karta Technologies, National Security Agency (NSA), OnBoard Software, Rackspace Managed Hosting, Southwest Research Institute, and Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Research, Microsoft, and many colleges and universities.
The future is nothing but bright for San Antonio. An imaginative workforce, buoyed by the addition of 40,000-45,000 new residents every year, bodes well for this city and its economic generators. Long considered a small town big city, it continues to retain that moniker, but while small might conjure up in some people’s minds just that, small, this city is now large in thought and energy, a major player in conversation and thought of a far-flung world.
