Economic development gets measured by what gets announced. Jobs. Investment. Square footage. Groundbreakings.
But the announcement is the last chapter. The story that rarely grabs the headlines is written years earlier.
Toyota's $3.6 billion expansion is a defining investment for San Antonio. Two thousand new jobs. Two and a half million square feet. Double the company's local footprint and local output by 2030. One of the largest private-sector investments in our region's history.
That decision took two years of site selection and over twenty years of building trust. It reflects what Toyota has experienced here since 2003. A workforce that performs. Partners who deliver. A region that says what it will do and then does it.
Hold onto that, because the next major U.S. investment is being decided right now. And San Antonio is not the only region making the case.
Halfway through 2026, the jobs represented by new project inquiries had already reached 85% of our full-year total for 2024 and 67% of our full-year total for 2025. Both of those were strong years. The deals we are actively competing for right now represent roughly 33,000 jobs and $17 billion in capital investment.
Turning that interest into investment takes five critical factors. Companies choose the region that can prove that the workforce will be there, the infrastructure can carry the growth, the site is ready, the partners are aligned so decisions don’t stall, and the community continues to improve itself.
In today’s economic development landscape, readiness is what we’re selling as a region and speed is the differentiator. What decides advanced manufacturing projects now is power and water, and how fast we can deliver both. Air service is on that list too. A headquarters or a global manufacturer asks about nonstop access before it asks about incentives, which is exactly why continued investment at our airport is competitiveness work, not amenity work.
Our job is to market this region hard, and we are good at it. But marketing gets you into the room. Readiness is what gets you the deal.
That is what MOMENTUM:2030 is built to deliver.
This summer, our 11th annual SA WORX Summer Internship Program placed 156 students in paid roles with regional employers. We had 1,000 applicants and, unfortunately, not enough employers willing to take on this young talent. Those students are the hiring pool for the projects we have not announced yet — the talent for your future growth.
Access to talent is why quality of place is more than a side conversation. People evaluate where to live as a whole regional proposition. Career, cost of living, mobility, culture, and whether a life here is worth building. Employers know it. Site selectors ask about it in the first meeting.
That is why the Downtown Sports & Entertainment District is an investment in economic competitiveness. A project at that scale deserves hard questions, and the people asking them are doing their job. Look at where we lose projects. Those regions are investing in themselves right now, and the people who fill the jobs we recruit are following.
San Antonio already knows this pays off. Twenty years ago, the old Pearl Brewery sat empty and contaminated, in a part of town most people avoided. Today, it draws more than 30,000 visitors a week and anchors one of the region’s most sought-after places to live and work. It didn’t just add restaurants. It changed who chooses San Antonio.
Toyota shows what preparation produces. The next generation of investment will demand the same discipline. Build talent. Fund infrastructure. Ready our sites. Improve our city. Stay aligned.
Here is the harder part. All of it costs money, and our public partners are facing the bill at once, coupled with budget deficits and tax rate pressure. A 2027 bond package still to be decided, with downtown investment, critical infrastructure at Port San Antonio, and roadway projects like the South Texas Parkway all in the conversation.
The debate at City Hall is not only what goes into that bond. It is how big the bond should be and is, ultimately, a question about relevance. Which regions do we intend to be measured against, and what kind of investment do we believe we need to realistically win?
I am not going to pretend that this is an easy decision. Our City Council, our Commissioners Court, and our regional partners are being asked to make twenty-year commitments in a tight budget year.
We name Austin, Nashville, Denver, Phoenix, and Dallas among our competitive set. A bond sized by a region that believes it belongs in that group looks different from one sized by a region hoping to get invited.
Our competitors bet big. Nashville approved its $600 million convention center in January 2010, on a 29 to 9 council vote, in a year its own government revenues fell for the first time. Austin passed a property tax increase for a $7.1 billion transit plan in November 2020, in the middle of a pandemic, with 58% of the vote. Denver raised its sales tax for rail in 2004 on a $4.7 billion plan and is still arguing about corridors that were never built.
None of those investments were tidy. Two ran well over budget. All three are still standing, and all three are on the list of regions we lose projects to.
That is the pattern. The bet is rarely clean. The regret is almost always about the bet not taken. There is a cost to standing still.
So let's be bold. Not reckless. Bold. Ask the hard questions, demand a real return, then decide. The failure I worry about is not a bad decision. It is no decision, made slowly, until the window closes on its own.
And here is what I am asking of you.
Show up for the unglamorous decisions. Bond scope, roads, utilities, permitting timelines, site readiness. Projects are won and lost in those rooms, and there are far fewer people in them than at a ribbon cutting.
Hire a student. Commit now to a paid SA WORX placement for summer 2027. One seat in your company is one more San Antonian who never has to leave to build a career here.
Call us before you grow. If you are planning an expansion or a new line of business, start that conversation with us early. Most of what we win, we win because someone picked up the phone eighteen months before the decision.
The projects we celebrate in 2030 are being decided in 2026. Our competitors are already deciding.
Together, we can keep building momentum.
Sarah Carabias Rush is the President & CEO of greater:SATX Regional Economic Partnership.
greater:SATX is investor-funded. If you want to talk about what your company’s investment makes possible, my door is open.