Bexar County Commissioners on Tuesday approved a 10-year tax break for the new DeLorean Motors Reimagined headquarters that will result in more than $500,000 in savings for the company.
The incentive is intended to solidify the automaker's plans to move to Port San Antonio and create 450 high-paying jobs. While the headquarters will be here, the low-scale production of DeLoreans will be by a contracted manufacturer in Canada. The first vehicle is expected to be debuted in August at an automotive event in Pebble Beach, California.
Many of the jobs here will have an average annual salary of $145,000. Most will be related to electrical, mechanical and automotive engineering.
About 80% are expected to be filled with local hires. The other 20% will be mostly upper-level managers and come from high tech or automotive industries in California and Detroit.
The city also approved a similar incentive, but the company's Chief Financial Officer Dean Hull said they selected San Antonio for more than the incentives.
"It's really more of the can-do attitude we found in the county and the city as well. You know, we have been amazingly supported," he said.
Hull said the company is looking beyond limited production of its famous gull wing vehicle and possibly develop an electric-powered luxury SUV. DeLorean originally debuted a sports coupe in 1981, but the company failed a year later.
Hull said DeLorean Motors Reimagined also wants to develop fuel cell technology. He called the region from Austin to Monterrey, Mexico, with San Antonio in between, a hot bed of EV development.
The company also pledged to work with local college and university engineering departments to create an employment pipeline into DeLorean.
He also said they are interested in community development around Port San Antonio, which is near historically economically disadvantaged areas of west and Southwest San Antonio.
In other action, commissioners:
- Extended a burn ban from now until the Fourth of July due to fire prone conditions. Thousands of acres have been burned in wildfires in Bexar County this spring due to a lingering drought, low humidity and high winds, where all it takes is a single spark to start a wildfire.
- Heard an update from Bexar County Elections Administrator Jacque Callanen on preparations for the May 7 elections. She told commissioners her office has created a mail insert to explain changes to the mail-in ballots, including to look for a vital part of it concealed under the security flap. Callanen said that's where voters need to put their personal ID, driver's license, or the last four digits of their social security number so election workers can verify their identity.
