Port San Antonio project striving to get development right
Once a decade or so, a city’s leaders have a chance to raise the community’s standard of living by redeveloping a significant piece of land, but all too often, our politicians fall short by mistakenly focusing on economic development.
Creating private wealth is not synonymous with promoting a population’s well-being. Texas has led the nation in jobs, construction and investment, but still ranks poorly for education, health and wages. Thousands of people move here for opportunity, while many natives see little benefit.
San Antonio’s redevelopment of the old Kelly AFB is a chance to get it right. The latest proposal to build an Innovation Center at what’s now called Port San Antonio is a step in the right direction.
“It needs to be our goal to make sure that we’re fundamentally working on lifting up the community and all of San Antonio,” said Jim Perschbach,
president and CEO of Port San Antonio, a publicly supervised, but independent development authority. “What we need to do is provide opportunities for the people in the community.”
Port San Antonio, on the Southwest Side, shares a runway with Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland. Defense contractors work on government aircraft, but most of the old base is empty. Perschbach’s job is to attract companies and develop a high-tech ecosystem.
In recent columns, I’ve written about two successful companies at Port S.A. — the computer vision start-up PlusOne Robotics and the cybersecurity company CNF Technologies. There’s room for many more.
Just outside the fence line is an impoverished neighborhood and the Edgewood Independent School District.
Edgewood is most famous for suing the state in 1984 and triggering the so-called Robin Hood school finance program. In 2016, the Texas Education Agency placed the district under state management due to persistently poor performance.
The ‘typical move’
Typically, a vast space next to an impoverished neighborhood in a fastgrowing city is a recipe for gentrification. Many civic leaders would have thrown tax incentives at major corporations, encouraged construction of
high-end housing, and let the market push the poor people somewhere else.
Anyone who follows real estate in Austin or Dallas has seen that movie. Houston’s Midtown is headed in that direction with Rice University’s plan to turn the former downtown Sears into a tech hub.
Perschbach said private developers urged him to build housing at Port S.A. and attract new residents. But instead, he and the board are considering plans for an international esports arena, a co-working space, a new home for the San Antonio Museum of Science and Technology, as well as restaurants and other amenities for both port workers and the neighborhood.
Today, the museum is in an old chapel. There’s only one restaurant on Port S.A. property.
“We’ve got thousands of people on this property, some of them very young, some not so young, and right now they really don’t have a place to go and socialize,” Perschbach said. “Creating something that attracts people from the neighborhoods, you are showcasing not only what’s being done on this property, but the opportunities that are available.”
Getting poor children to visit the museum, see and play esports or just eat a slice of pizza is critical to opening their eyes to jobs that their parents may not know exist. Businesses at Port S.A. already are working with local schools to promote science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
“We’ve added almost 3,000 jobs on this campus
in the past 18 months, and what we’re going to have to do as a community is make sure that we’re creating pathways and opportunities for people to fill those jobs and fill those careers,” Perschbach said.
Deep roots
Port S.A. is working in partnership with American Triple I Partners, a new company started by people with deep San Antonio roots, to create the Innovation Center. Port San Antonio — which survives on lease income and not taxes — is obligated to act in the public good.
Relocating workers from other parts of the country might be simpler, but failing to develop a qualified, local workforce along with the land would make the project a failure. If the majority of Port S.A.’s neighbors lose their homes to gentrification, the redevelopment will have done more harm than good.
Pure economic development is about generating wealth by the most expedient means. But redeveloping public land must concentrate on improving the community’s wealth, health and comfort.
Port San Antonio has a monumental task. Still, with thoughtful leadership and public scrutiny, it can generate an economic tide that lifts all boats and sets a statewide example.