Leadership Visit: 185 From Lexington Explore the Success of San Antonio

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San Antonio, TX – City leaders in San Antonio have declared this the “Decade of Downtown,” not only to enhance the experience for those attending the city’s 550 annual conferences, but for the citizens who’ve seen the city’s downtown and Riverwalk only as a bastion for people wearing convention nametags.

“Great cities have great downtowns,” Sheryl Sculley, San Antonio City Manager told the first day of Commerce Lexington Leadership Visit to the Texas city.

“We have attracted $250 million in private investment in our downtown,” Currently San Antonio has 1,500 residential units under construction in the downtown area with an aim of adding a total of 7,500 by the end of 2019.

“For every $12 of private investment, the city has invested $1 toward infrastructure,” she said about the city that 1.3 million people call home, making it the seventh largest city in the US, and 25th largest metro-area according to the 2010 Census.

The San Antonio River existed for years as nothing more than a drainage ditch and trash receptacle running through the city. While a portion, part of the Riverwalk development coursing through the center of downtown, was an attraction, a public investment of $72 million cleaned much of the remainder and expanded its width to accommodate open-air tour boats running in both directions in the water averaging 4 feet deep. The goal is to complete a 15-mile system winding through downtown San Antonio in the next three years.

The city has also invested in a wide assortment of projects to make San Antonio’s downtown the destination it is for tourist and conventioneers. The city floated bonds including $64 million earmarked for downtown projects to fund $30 million for streets in HemisFair Park, site of the 1968 World’s Fair. The remaining $34 million is budgeted for a “Complete Streets” project in the downtown area that will add bike lanes and enhance pedestrian access.

San Antonio also has embarked on a $300 million expansion of its convention center. The pricetag is covered entirely by the city's hotel occupancy tax, with no increase in that tax. Scully said the growth of San Antonio has allowed the city to lower its property tax three times in the past six budget cycles.

One of the major contributing factors to the city’s continued growth is its strength in the military and health care industries, according to Richard Perez, a former city councilman and current president and CEO of the Greater San Antonio Chamber of Commerce.

The city has had a relationship with the US Air Force since before it was its own branch of the military, donating hundreds of acres of land to the federal government in 1917 to create Kelly Air Force Base. Though Kelly was shuttered early in the Clinton Administration, San Antonio still is home to two installations, Randolph AFB and Lackland AFB, home of the Air Force’s basic training. Kelly has been converted into Port San Antonio, an aerospace, industrial complex and international logistics center employing almost as many people as the base did in the early ‘90s.

And in a city that every member of the Air Force has lived in for at least a time, “one out of every six people are in the health care, bio science industry,” Perez said.

On the second day of the trip that wraps up Wednesday, Lexingtonians are learning about San Antonio’s transformational initiatives that helped the city’s arts community thrive as well as expand the Riverwalk. Panelist include officials from San Antonio and their Lexington counterparts.

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