Investing in Innovation

Port San Antonio is reimagining the former Kelly Air Force Base as a technology innovation destination through the organization’s Tech Port vision. Leveraging its unique foundation as a former military installation, Port San Antonio industrial platform connects people, industry, educators, and buyers and sellers to accelerate the development and delivery of innovative technology solutions to some of the world’s largest industries.

Key global sectors that are connecting with the Port’s technology campus include aerospace, energy, defense, cybersecurity, financial services, medicine, manufacturing, and supply-chain logistics. Today, more than 14,000 work on Port San Antonio’s 1,900-acre site, which is home to more than 80 employers, including industry leaders like Boeing, Booz Allen Hamilton, StandardAero, Lockheed Martin, and Northrop Grumman, as well as major DoD headquarters and other national security operations.

The Port’s strategic vision, which has helped create nearly 4,000 new jobs since 2018, is getting a boost through its upcoming state-of-the-art Innovation Center. Scheduled for completion in early 2022, the unique facility will allow the San Antonio community, educators, and technology employers to come together to strengthen the region’s technology ecosystem, collaboratively develop new solutions and market them to industries around the world. The center will include an industry showroom, technology museum, maker/R&D space, and a technology arena and convention space—all under one roof.

“This development will be first of its kind, for San Antonio and the nation. By building an ecosystem in San Antonio that is exciting and easily accessible to millions of individuals and empowers them so they can be part of that tidal change — through education, through employment and as innovators and entrepreneurs — we keep raising our profile as a leading innovation destination. This will accelerate job and economic growth in our region, and it will increasingly allow us to compete globally based on the value of our technology and the talent of our people,” said Port San Antonio chief executive officer Jim Perschbach.

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