The role of the city’s economic development department is to figure out ways to attract more investment and jobs.
In a briefing to a council committee on Monday about expanding those efforts, the issue brought one councilwoman to tears.
The “framework” presentation by Austin-based consultant TIP Strategies centered around the same three goals as previous plans — innovations and industry, placemaking and real estate, and talent and workforce — with some new and improved strategies.
The overall goal is to “level up” the city’s economic development work, said John Karras, vice president of business development at TIP Strategies.
“The way that we’re answering that is increasing the competitiveness, competing again nationally, internationally, creating new employment opportunities at every level, from entry to high-skilled, high-paying, and also just expanding the the wealth and the asset base of the community for your residents, for your businesses, and for the city itself,” he said.
“We know that commercial tax base is something that needs to continue to expand.”
But it was the placemaking piece, focused on amenities and infrastructure, that struck a chord with Councilwoman Teri Castillo (D5).
Hard hit by storms over the weekend, Castillo’s Westside district is an area of the city with high poverty rates, diminished investment and potentially limited means to cope with the fallout from downed trees and power lines and days without electricity and air conditioning.
As Castillo began to ask a question about economic development incentives and how she’d like to see funding used for improving infrastructure that would encourage businesses to move into the district, she halted.
“It’s really hard for me to concentrate today when I have a large swath of constituents that have been without electricity for several days,” she said. “I’m looking at the [CPS outage] map right now … it’s just a lot. It’s overwhelming.”
On Tuesday, during a council budget workshop, City Manager Erik Walsh addressed the problem. “For the last day or so, we have been working on developing an emergency homeowner repair program to aid those residents that were affected by Friday’s storm,” he said, listing several assistance programs. “We hope to have that proposed plan to you all by the end of the week.”
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Castillo later during Monday’s meeting urged the department to include funding amounts tied to its strategies, like business facade grants, as a way to show that, “yes, we’re tightening our belt, but there is value in investing in placemaking within the strategic plan.”
Councilwoman Ivalis Meza Gonzalez (D8) also urged the department to look at how improving the city’s basic infrastructure would contribute to economic development.
“Obviously considering the budget that we have right now and it’s limited but are there any you know short-term or near-term projects that we can do on the infrastructure side versus just sitting and waiting for those long-term projects that most likely would happen either through a [tax increment reinvestment zone] or a bond?” she said.
Led by Director Brenda Hicks-Sorensen, the city’s economic development department last outlined a strategic framework in 2022 and began the renewal process in May.
While much of the newly presented framework is similar, Karras said most of the strategies are new or enhanced in some way.
“One new item that has really come up is telling the story, the city’s story as a business destination,” he said. Supporting the entrepreneurial community is another example.
“The change in strategy that Geekdom is doing to really focus on scaling up companies, that fits into this … as well as trying to attract more investment capital for startups and scale-ups,” Karras said.
Councilwoman Phyllis Viagran (D3) said she also wants more emphasis put on encouraging existing major employers to not just stay in San Antonio but also expand operations.
In July, Toyota selected San Antonio over other cities for a major assembly line expansion after the city and local utilities agreed to an incentive package valued at $182.5 million. Toyota plans to double the size of its Southside plant by 2030, adding 2.5 million square feet of factory space and 2,000 new jobs.
In 2022, the framework also included a plan to evaluate the city’s nine tax increment reinvestment zones (TIRZ) and how they contribute to placemaking and development beyond housing projects.
In the updated version that will be presented to the full council in October, the framework positions TIRZ, land banking and public-private development as economic development tools along with partnerships, such as with Greater:SATX, that support the three goal categories.
Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones has called for a review of how TIRZ dollars are used as City Hall weighs a tax increase to solve a looming budget crisis.
Councilman Ric Galvan (D6) noted that most of the redevelopment and place-based investing in the framework plan presented Monday didn’t seem to have changed any, and he asked for examples of how that strategy would be enhanced under the new plan.
Karras said one example is how the department is looking at regional centers and corridors as places to incentivize development and attract private investment.
“Kind of like the Nelson Wolff Stadium reimagining, looking at that as an economic anchor, and of course getting feedback from the community, but also looking at the marketplace and what kind of additional business growth could happen as a result of that,” he said.
This story first appeared in the San Antonio Report