SAN ANTONIO – Port San Antonio is running out of room in its current space, but more companies are seeking to plant their flags on the Southwest Side campus.
That’s driving the need for new or expanded infrastructure to accommodate the demand.
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“We’re going to be adding over 2,000 jobs this year alone,” Port San Antonio President and CEO Jim Perschbach told me.
That job growth is tied in part to one of the port’s newest wins, Leidos. The Virginia-based company, who Perschbach describes as one of the largest information IT cybersecurity firms in the world, will have “a significant presence” at the port, he said.
Leidos is expected to begin its move onto the port over the next few months, converting some existing port space for its San Antonio operations. Its presence, Perschbach said, will likely draw the interest of other contractors that will want to establish themselves at Port San Antonio.
Port officials launched a Tech Port strategy in 2017 that has helped drive interest among companies such as Leidos. Since then, the campus has gained roughly 8,000 new jobs.
“For space that is available to be leased, we are virtually sold out. We really don’t have any room to put anybody else in,” Perschbach said.
That space crunch has driven plans for a new Tech Port office tower, which could span some 300,000 square feet once constructed, into the predevelopment stage.
“We’re starting to go out to market to talk to who we expect will be the customers for that building at a much more detailed level,” Perschbach said. “We absolutely need that level of space here.”
Yet, there is also a need, Perschbach said, for critical thinking in how the port expands.
“There’s going to be an evolution in how people work. We don’t want to build three office buildings just to find out that they’re all obsolete,” he said.
Read the full story on the San Antonio Business Journal.
Editor’s note: This story was published through a partnership between KSAT and the San Antonio Business Journal.