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City Council Approves Multi-Million Dollar Incentive Plan To Move 2k USAA Jobs Downtown

Downtown San Antonio

The San Antonio City Council approved a multi-million dollar incentive package for the United Services Automobile Association to bring nearly 2,000 employees downtown within the next five years.

 

 

It’s a move that city officials hope will encourage more people to live and work in the area.

USAA has about 250 employees already working downtown. That number will increase to 500, with an additional 1,500 new jobs as part of the five-year plan. The majority of those jobs will be in the urban core.

Mayor Ron Nirenberg says it’s the largest economic development deal the city has accomplished since Toyota came to San Antonio.

“And it’s happening in the urban core where we have really strategically focused our policy and incentives to revitalize the heart of San Antonio,” he said.

Chief Operating Officer Carl Liebert said part of the decision to move some of its operations downtown was driven by employees wanting to live closer to the city’s core.

“They want to live more urban; they want to be downtown; they want to walk to work; they want to live there; they want to go out to restaurants,” he said.

It’s a package that’s worth $6 million in loans and tax incentives. About $2 million in tax abatements will be used for improvements to USAA’s current downtown offices and the Bank of America Financial Services Center, which USAA recently purchased. There’s also a $4 million loan to add 1,000 spaces to an existing parking garage. While that may not be enough for all new employees, Liebert says the hope is that many will live near their workplaces.

“The spaces are really for the folks that live outside the city and commute in,” he said. “As we bring these net new jobs into the city down into the core, we believe most of them will live down here and walk to work. So we feel very committed the spaces will cover that commitment.”

The spaces will also double for public parking in the evening. USAA has about 18,000 employees in San Antonio, based at the Fredericksburg Road campus.

 
Joey Palacios can be reached at Joey@TPR.org or on Twitter at @Joeycules

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Joey Palacios can be reached atJoey@TPR.org and on Twitter at @Joeycules