This program is supported by Texas Mutual Workers Compensation Insurance.

Welcome.

I'm Henry Cisneros, and this is business of business.

San Antonio.

2025 has truly been a year of change and challenges for our city's economy.

And yet we're still seeing strong growth.

Much of that is due to the tremendous impact of the San Antonio to Austin mega region.

And there's every reason to expect this growth will continue as we approach a year's end.

Let's review and look at our own report card.

How did San Antonio perform in the key sectors?

Jobs.

Medical.

Research.

Tourism.

Real estate.

In this hour, we'll take a look with the leaders on the front lines in those areas.

Let's begin with our mayor, Gina Ortiz Jones.

Thank you so much for coming on the program.

You've been on the job now for five months, and the city is just full of activity related to the economy, from construction to the merger at UTSA and the Health Science Center, to the county's building, new hospitals.

Of the things that you've seen in those five months.

What makes you most excited?

About about the future.

Yeah.

Well, lovely.

Yeah.

Well, thank you, Mr.

Secretary.

It's good to be with you.

Look, I'm very excited about what we can do together.

I think, you know, I'm realistic about, the economy that we are heading into.

I mean, we will shortly see the implementation of the one big, beautiful bill.

And so, you know, as a chief elected officer in the city, I'm very focused on making sure our budget reflects our priorities.

I'm already thinking about that FY 27 budget.

Right.

We only have about nine months to really make sure that we have all the data, the priorities, though, that are important for me in that economic agenda one.

Affordable housing.

This is a top priority, affordability in general.

But I think affordable housing in particular is a focus area.

Making sure, as I mentioned, you've heard me say, making sure that we're investing in smart, healthy kids, right?

This is really the foundation, making sure that we are being thoughtful also about the infrastructure investments that are so important.

And then, of course, making sure we're bringing good economic opportunities to our community.

Right.

And really, I think raising the bar in terms of what we think high wages, high wage jobs look like, and those are important, very important priorities.

And they certainly would help us stabilize in a period of uncertainty.

You described, uncertainty as sort of the dominant mode.

And I think that's right.

Between the tariffs and interest rates and deportations and, then, you know, other economic issues.

Certainly uncertainty is a big part of this.

But how would you assess, the economic future of the city?

Yeah, going forward into 26?

Well, I think it can be it can be quite strong.

As we're navigating this uncertainty, I think it is important that we take steps to reduce the uncertainty.

So one of the things that the city council, we'll do here shortly is called the tabletop.

Again, I'm already thinking about the implementation of the one big beautiful Bill, as well as the $150 million budget gap that the city has in FY 27.

Now, the city, staff city manager has a staff that has a plan to close that.

But if we have $153 million budget gap and, excuse me, $150 million budget gap, and we are concerned about 153 million and federal grants that we get each year into the budget.

And then we will see the implementation of the one big beautiful bill cuts to Chip, Medicaid, Snap, etc.

those are the kinds of things that we at the city have to make sure that we're cognizant of how changes in the budget that we may need to make to close that gap may impact, in fact, the most vulnerable.

So, yes, again, affordable housing, investing in smart, healthy kids, thinking about what what's going to go in that infrastructure bond.

Oh by the way, making sure that we continue to negotiate a good strong deal with the Spurs, as it relates to a revitalized downtown.

You mentioned the deal with the Spurs.

Obviously the referendum passed and the and the, county measures are now in place to begin that first step.

What do you see as the next steps in this process?

Yeah.

Well, first of all, I think it's really important we have the right mindset going into this.

Right?

We have to think not just about the deal.

We have to think about the revitalized downtown.

Right.

And when I think of that, that for me includes the baseball stadium.

Right.

That include because that's also a nonbinding term sheet.

So nonbinding term sheet with the baseball arena.

We've also got what we want, around, the, the proposed Spurs arena and then.

Yes.

What does it also mean for the East side?

I think this is the time for us to be bold in terms of what our vision is.

We don't have three separate projects.

We have one downtown.

The job I think, of the mayor, really, of elected officials, is to close the gap between between the dream and the data.

Sure.

Like let's be realistic about what is possible.

We don't want to set ourselves up for for failure.

And with so much uncertainty, how can we make sure that we're being thoughtful and and doing our due diligence?

Right.

I've always said that's not anti progress, that's anti-poverty.

So a data driven motivator.

That's right.

Absolutely.

Is there any other is there a better kind.

Mr.

Secretary, from your work, for example, as undersecretary of the Air Force, having seen the country as a whole, how do you put where do you put San Antonio in in your travels around the country today?

Yeah.

At this point.

Well, San Antonio, always will have a very unique role to play when it comes to national security.

Right.

The number one reason why somebody will serve in the military is if they know somebody who has served.

And so, I mean, I saw it as the undersecretary, 85% of the folks that serve in the military come from like 25 counties.

Right?

That makes Bexar County one of those really special communities.

And that's why I've said if we as a community are not raising healthy kids, academically prepared kids, it is in fact a national security just because of our contributions to the to the pipeline of talent.

That's what really the country demands of military City, USA today and tomorrow.

And those things obviously go together because we're not going to be able to make the kind of dent right on poverty without a robust economy.

So thank you for your conception of how the mayor does this and for your early good work to actually execute.

Thank you.

Bexar County is the economic umbrella for San Antonio and more than a dozen smaller cities.

County leadership works to support medical care, health care, law enforcement, infrastructure, education, economic growth, and workforce development, all critical to the growth of the region.

2025 has been another great year for growth under the leadership of Bexar County Judge Peter Sacchi.

Judge Sacchi, how would you assess the year 2025 for Bexar County?

Well, obviously, this referendum election is part of what we call an astounding, successful 2025 year in regards to what Bexar County and its community are experiencing.

We are experiencing growth, and I truly believe with growth comes prosperity.

But Henry, we got a lot of issues to work with.

And so the county is prepared to step up to deal with the many issues that face are working families.

Among the highlights of the year in which Bexar County has had a part is the opening of a whole new set of hospitals that are fueled by the hospital district, by university health.

Talk about that, because that's taking health care for the first time beyond clinics to full blown hospitals in other parts of the city.

So you've raised the big issue as to where the county is going in regards to building the infrastructure, the foundational pieces, and working with the county entity, the university Health System, which is a premier health care provider.

We are building hospitals in the South Side over by Texas A&M, San Antonio, the Palo Alto Hospital.

We're also building a hospital on the northeast east side over the bar in Tomah.

We just opened a new full clinic over on the east side, the Wheatley Clinic.

And so, Henry, those are the foundational pieces that I believe the county best serves.

The county also has committed to a public health behavioral health department.

We also did nearly $20 million of federal moneys to commit to our public schools for mental health.

Another breakthrough that merges health issues with education was the merger of, what was UTSA and the Health Science Center.

Now into, University of Texas San Antonio?

And that has implications for the region economically and educationally, but also university health.

I truly believe with the leadership of Doctor Taylor, Amy, and the leadership at UT Health Science Center, we're going to see a Premier educational academic center that will continue to attract the best and brightest to our community, which again leads to growth, which then again leads to prosperity.

Right.

And of course, you were the author, it's fair to say, of the concept of propositions A and B, and you were the, person who first articulated the idea of having the election so that people could have their say as soon as possible and the project could get underway.

I made the revitalization of the East Side a key component.

Why can't we reimagine that area in the revitalization of the East Side, that it becomes an economic generating center so that children and families come there?

Can we make it a pearl like.

And that's the visionary, strategies we have for the East Side.

And that's the reason why I believe proposition eight was a resounding.

And I see that there's already in the days since the election, companies and restaurant tears and others who are proposing sites there in the area that will be large.

But I also, you know, respect the, the nod to our agricultural regional leadership because I just know they're out there in Lavernia and in, Poteet and Pleasanton and Pearsall and as far as Alice and felt furious.

They look to San Antonio.

That's right.

Now you're going to you're going to welcome them.

And don't forget Mexico and South America on agriculture and agriculture and the rodeo and the industry.

The rodeo industry is as big, if not bigger than any sport.

Somebody told me that Las Vegas has pretty much year around rodeo activity.

It's a place called South Point Casino Resort Rodeo Arena.

They can got off the strip and have now made a successful.

And that's one of the models.

The other model was the Fort Worth Stockyards.

Right.

And then there's proposition A, that was a courageous call.

We saw that in order for the rodeo to have a year round plan, a business plan to be sustainable, the Spurs had to leave this February once a month.

Spurs road trip really does not work for the Spurs, and it doesn't work for the rodeo.

The rodeo was bringing in over $375 million a year for one month.

So look at what the project, the projection is doubling that and I get back to that.

You think there will be activity year around?

Yes.

Of an agricultural ranching.

Yes.

Nature with the Western culture, rodeo industry.

And then you have to create events.

Right.

And the reality is, and that was something I had to explain to the community and try to explain referendums and be the spurs.

And the rodeo had outgrown each other.

Yeah.

So this was an opportunity again for growth and prosperity, a revitalization of the East Side, but a revitalization to downtown for the new Spurs arena with the stipulation that the Spurs were putting in and committed $500 million, $1.5 billion for private investment around the arena.

Yeah, and so for the 311 maximum cap with the Spurs carrying all the cost overruns, I thought that was a hell of a deal.

You know, it's like racked my mind to remember the county's involvement in the downtown.

This may be the most significant commitment to the prosperity of the downtown that the county government has ever made.

So it's been a good year.

Those are highlights.

But overall an economically good year.

Judge, thank you very much for your service.

And thank you for joining Kayla and for this program.

Thank you, Henry.

And Antonio's Jewel is our downtown, the Riverwalk, the museums, the entertainment venues, the Alamo, the parks, and now the home of the future new Spurs Arena.

Trish DeBary has been at the helm of Central San Antonio as its president and CEO.

Trish, you've served this community long and well.

Tell us what Central San Antonio is and how your preparation for this, serves you well, I'm sure.

Well, I want people to be left with great cities, have great downtowns.

We visited different places across the United States, the world.

I mean, the downtown area is the soul of our city.

And so my responsibility really at Centro, along with my team, is to revive the heartbeat associated with our downtown and the clean and safe operation is critical power washing, planting, keeping our downtown really pristine.

When you wake up in the morning, sidewalks are sparkling like.

It looks really amazing.

How would you, rate the downtown today?

Today it's a little bit sleepy.

It is an eight hour downtown.

Is that, our our peers cities have 12 to 18 to 24 hour downtowns.

The passage of crops A and B is a game changer for downtown.

In addition to being the arena, it's intricately the arena and that project are intricately involved in the rest of the downtown.

There's going to be improvements to the dome.

Eventually.

There's going to be expansion of the convention center.

Eventually there's going to be eventually a land bridge to bridge 37 and some new entertainment venues.

How does how, in practical terms, does that spread to the rest of the downtown?

Well, I'm really most excited about what was happening even before Marvel was introduced.

We've got the Alamo.

Yes, that opens in 2027.

We're bookending downtown with not just the arena and HemisFair.

Right.

But really baseball on the Near West Side and the Mercado.

Yeah.

And the Mercado.

On a cultural right.

It's a big part of it.

But between the Alamo, baseball zona, the market, the investment by UTSA in a very big way in downtown.

And now the cherry on top is the arena and what's happening in HemisFair.

My vision is this people come into downtown maybe for a game, but they're like, we're going to spend an entire weekend here and enjoy what we have to offer.

Trish, share with our viewers something of the metrics of the downtown, its role in the community at large, the number of jobs dollars generated.

Right.

What do you what can you say?

Yeah.

Well, the biggest metric that I can give you is that downtown is the economic engine for the rest of the city.

When we look at regional business zones and we look at, you know, $1 billion or more impact regarding what we bring in and property taxes, what we bring in and sales taxes because of the amazing hospitality and tourist industry that we have here.

I don't think what people understand is that wealth doesn't just stay in downtown, it goes into the general fund, and it's spread across all ten districts for streets, drainage parks, all of it.

So don't underestimate the power, really of downtown substantial economic engine.

How would you give a grade to the state of the downtown today?

Well, I would give my board, my team and myself.

Great effort for passion, energy, innovation, ideation regarding what we're trying to accomplish.

But that's futuristic.

Today, we're probably at about a grade B minus or C, right.

But what we're going to see in the next 5 to 10 years is definitely going to take us to an A-plus.

There's no doubt in my mind, Trish, thank you so much for for being here.

Thank you for the job that you're doing.

Thank you.

And you've got your hands full.

I mean, I cannot wait.

This has been about economic development and a big, bold vision and how really a rising tide floats our boats.

And we're going to get there, and we're going to work on it every single day.

And I believe you.

Thank you.

Nobody more passionate than I am, that's for sure.

Jobs drive the economy of any city, but it's a much more complex issue than just who's working and who's not.

We constantly have to be thinking about educating and training future workers, and there must be a consistent effort to draw new businesses here that will pay good wages and be good community partners.

San Antonio's economic Development group is greater as ATX and its CEO is Sarah cut.

Obvious.

Fresh.

Sara, thank you for joining us today.

Of course, and congratulations on your new role as the head of Greater Seattle, which in my opinion, is simply one of the most important entities in our community because of its critical job in presenting us to the country and bringing businesses here.

How has the first three months on the job been?

Well, as you can imagine, it's been a wild ride, but an exciting one.

We are in such an amazing time here in San Antonio with tremendous opportunity, and I feel this sense of responsibility to deliver for our residents here in this region.

So we are moving fast and furious, but in a good way.

So here we are, approaching the end of 2025.

You've had some time now, but you were on the staff before for several years.

So you really kind of know the big picture.

How would you assess the state of San Antonio's economy today?

Well, what we are seeing in the numbers is that we are at this point of takeoff here in the San Antonio regional economy.

We have momentum behind us that we have never had before.

We are seeing wage growth leading the country.

We are seeing job growth leading the country and leading the state of Texas.

And so when you pair all of this together, we're very positive.

The Dallas Federal Reserve puts out, a number every year where they're assessing more or less how is a region's economy doing, and are they in growth mode or are they in contraction mode.

And when you look at where we sit today, we're somewhere between 5.5 and 6% growth rate, which is significantly higher than the rest of the country.

To what do you attribute that?

Well, I attribute it to a couple of factors.

One, I think we are in Texas, which is the fastest growing economy in the country, and we are able to leverage that.

Two, we have been investing in our people and our place in ways that are unprecedented here in the San Antonio region, with workforce development training, leaning in hard on educational attainment issues, thinking about how we advance the population base here in San Antonio to get into good quality jobs.

But we're also in this mega region of Austin, San Antonio.

Do you see that is mostly a positive magnetic pull for us?

Absolutely.

Even though Austin is is by all accounts just otherworldly in terms of their rate of growth.

Sure.

Well, I think that's right.

And I think we benefit from that proximity.

Right.

We are going to be we have strengths in areas that Austin does not.

Austin has strengths in areas that we do not, and it complements each other.

We're really not competing as frequently as people think.

And when we talk to businesses outside of this region, they see Austin and San Antonio as a singular market.

And increasingly, our data points are bringing us closer and closer together.

You'll see us become a singular region, I believe, much like a Dallas Fort Worth or similar market in the country in the coming year.

That's a moment ago you mentioned the great breakthroughs and again, better than I've ever seen before in human resources development efforts.

Tell me about that side of the equation.

Sure.

Critical.

Without it, we don't advance as a community.

We still sit as one of the lowest educational attainment rate communities in the country.

And so we have got to stay focused on helping the folks within our community that are not accessing the economic mobility we're experiencing today to do so.

And we do that directly through workforce, workforce development and education and educational attainment.

But companies won't come here.

That's if they don't see the workforce available to them.

That's correct.

And some people think we've nearly tapped out the educational workforce with Toyota and JCB and Navistar and the biosciences and all of that growth.

How do you see that conundrum, that problem of generating enough educated talent to continue to be attractive, attractive to companies?

Well, the good news is our population continues to grow, right?

And that sets us up for a baseline of success with companies that are looking at markets.

Not every market in the United States is still growing.

Assuming that continues, if we continue to invest in moving people through this education ecosystem from pre-K for, say, all the way through, to, you know, certifications for manufacturing, for example, these types of programs are what companies are looking for because they know even everywhere in the country is tight.

For example, in advanced manufacturing, every single community is trying to figure out a way to get more people into advanced manufacturing.

We have a population that is ready to dive in and we're educating them appropriately.

So we are moving people into these jobs more quickly.

And we're we're winning.

We're sitting at first or second in the country for new manufacturing jobs.

Right now, the recent victory that involved the whole community of the Spurs arena, do you see that as a, integral element of your messaging?

Crucial.

Believe me, companies are watching what we're doing as communities, and they see how we have leaned in as a community to support the Spurs and establishing themselves here with this, for their next 30 years with this victory.

And we know that when we think about and speak to, companies, they want to be places where their people want to be.

And we know when you look across the country, people want to be where there are strong dynamics of sports, entertainment, things that they can do, for, for any type of interest.

And so it's crucial for us for talent attraction.

I'm glad you're there.

And let me just say again, this is one of the most critical jobs before our community.

We've come such an immense distance.

And yet we're at as you said, a moment of inflection, a transformation moment when the best may yet be ahead.

Thank you so much.

San Antonio sleepy Southside has come to life over the last few years with the growth of Texas A&M, San Antonio, Palo Alto College, the Toyota plant, new housing, new businesses, and the major successes of the technology hub known as Port San Antonio.

It's a driver of development in cybersecurity, robotics, advanced manufacturing and aerospace.

And we have with us the port's CEO, Jim Pearse Bok.

Jim, welcome to business, a business tell us about the last year at the port.

It seems like just reading the press, it's been a breakthrough year with the designs.

Having gone public of your major new buildings and and new businesses coming to the port, we've been tremendously excited this past year.

We've, added over a thousand new jobs to the campus.

As you mentioned, we're finalizing design and the new office tower that's expected to go up.

And the comptroller just issued their updated report showing that we're $20 billion of economic output to this community and importantly, 5.6 $5.7 billion of disposable income.

I don't think anybody could have anticipated the rapidity and the intensity of the kind of growth, the play out of your mission.

Talk about how you approached the job when you took it.

Well, all we do at Port San Antonio is we coach and we bring together what San Antonio owns, do so well.

Aerospace has been our heritage for over 100 years now, and the people of San Antonio do this better than anybody else in the world.

The electronic capabilities, the innovation capabilities.

And you bring those together and you have the ability to drive not just innovation, but cost savings and truly create opportunities for San Antonio and for the country.

And that's all we're doing is we're connecting those pieces.

And many people regard the transformation of the old Kelly Air Force Base, which is Port San Antonio, as the most successful transformation of a closed military base in the country.

If you were describing what's happened at Port San Antonio to an outsider, how would you define the mix of industries?

There are two drivers that we have at Port San Antonio.

There is the aeronautical side, which is largely defense based, and that's companies like Boeing, it's Boeing, Northrop Grumman, Standard Aero Paratus and the like.

And then we have the Non-Kinetic side, which people call cyber.

But it's so much bigger than cyber.

It's the command and control of objects and space.

It's communications latency, it's automation.

It's whether it literally is happening out of Port San Antonio.

It's at Port San Antonio.

When you hear people say that San Antonio is the second largest concentration of cyber professionals anywhere in the country, they're really talking about the activities going on at Port San Antonio.

Well, let's break those those two down.

First of all, the avionics side, aeronautical side.

Give us just a color, a little bit of feel for the kinds of jobs that that that that entails.

So it is everything from the technicians that work on the metal tin bending, we call it in the industry to the people who are designing the electronic command and control capabilities.

For example, we've talked about air taxis an awful lot.

Yeah, bringing air taxis to life, unmanned aerial systems requires next level weather detection, which is an application of new radar systems, new sensor systems and high power computing.

That kind of work is going on.

All that were Air Force One was in for a while.

The the interior work.

I know it's a top secret thing, but, the entire finish out of the VC 25 B project is right here in San Antonio.

Yeah, that's that's Air Force one.

That's Air Force One, right.

About how many people have work on that side of the house.

On the aeronautical side of the house, it's probably about 70 508,000 people, about 8000 people.

And then there's the cyber side, which is largely the the Air Force.

Well, it's the Air Force is the big driver, right.

What we have is all of the engineering capability, the innovation capability, the support functions to that.

Or we call it cyber, but it's so much more is probably about 10 or 11,000 people.

Now, one of the things we're most proud of is the current economic report shows that the average compensation on our campus is over $111,000 a year, and you compare that to a Bear County living wage, about 42,000.

And it is significant growth.

We're outpacing inflation.

If you had to give a grade, if you were asked to give a grade to both the year at Port San Antonio and also kind of the the year in the advanced manufacturing sector in San Antonio, what grade would you give?

So I will give San Antonio.

We're leading the division once again.

There's no dangers there.

Give us an A, give us 100.

Give us whatever you need to give us.

But I would also tell people we have that heritage.

Kelly Air force base.

Yeah.

You remember when Kelly closed in 1994?

Absolutely.

Right now we're in 1981.

In 15 years or 16 years from now, if we in San Antonio don't continue to innovate and do what we do so well, we're going to be on the cusp of another change in the economy.

Yeah, and I'm optimistic because I think we've got a level of leadership within our community.

I think we've got a level of people within our community who can rise to that, but we would be foolish just to sit on our laurels and not look at the world.

Well, we need your leadership, not just in the geography of Port San Antonio, but your voice in the community at large.

And, it's just a wonderful opening for San Antonio.

Thank you very much for that work.

And thank you for being here today.

Thank you for having me.

Tourism is a cornerstone for San Antonio's economy, and while the numbers have been fluctuating, especially since Covid, we are still a solid tourist destination.

One way we gauge this is by looking at hotel occupancy rates, which show us how many people are visiting San Antonio.

Michelle Madsen watches those numbers constantly in her role as president and CEO of the San Antonio Hotel and Lodging Association.

Michelle, thank you for joining us today.

And we know that the hospitality industry employs about 150,000 people in San Antonio.

It's very large sector of our economy, and I assume we are still still the most visited destination by outsiders from across Texas and the country within Texas.

Tell us a little bit about about the metrics.

Give us a sense of the scale of this industry to San Antonio.

Last year, in 2024, we generated about $23.4 billion in economic impact.

That's wages, purchases, contracts, retail, transportation, lodging, restaurants, all of those things.

$23.4 billion.

And we saw about 36 million visitors to our city and 26 million visitors.

Yes, in 24 and 24.

Yes.

We just got the 24 numbers.

How are we doing this year?

So, you know things.

Occupancy rates have been a little bit flat.

They've been a little stagnant for the past, year or two.

But we are still, a top destination in the state.

We have the top destinations in the Riverwalk and and the Alamo.

And so we're seeing a plateau in occupancy, but where we're seeing the growth is in those numbers.

The, the 23.4 billion is about 34% higher than our pre-pandemic peak in 2019.

And so people are coming and they're spending more money, which is great.

So we are ahead of where we were before Covid in terms of economic impact.

We definitely are.

We're still lagging behind a little bit on that visitor ship number just because it's uncertain times.

There's there's a lot of, things happening.

Just give me a sense of who are the visitors.

Some of them are conventions and the conventions are strong.

But others are just families making visits within Texas.

And they drive to San Antonio.

We are a drive market.

We have about 85% people drive to San Antonio to visit.

Yes.

It's a huge, huge number.

People from the Rio Grande Valley, our biggest, influx of drive market is from within Texas and the surrounding states of Louisiana.

Oklahoma.

But also, we have a really robust convention schedule.

We have seen, a lot of growth in our city wide bookings.

Visit San Antonio has done a phenomenal job in this latter part of the year, exceeding their goals for room night bookings and convention bookings in 2023.

We hosted it, which was the international Meeting Planner Association, and that was a huge win for us because that will for seven years, I believe is the ROI on, those travelers coming back year in and year out.

I mean, week in and week out, we have, medical conventions, librarians, teachers, coaches, coaches, all of those things.

All of those people love choosing San Antonio as a destination because we are a family friendly destination, because we have such vibrant culture.

And so we see those people come back time and time again.

And then, of course, the Spurs arena with the attendant HemisFair, improvements.

That's another new thing that people will be attracted to.

I think that that's what people, everyone's excited about the Spurs, right?

We're so excited that prop be pass and that we're going to keep the Spurs downtown.

But like 30 year commitment it's amazing.

But what's more exciting for me and for my members is the other pieces that go along with the sports and entertainment district.

It's the expansion of our convention center.

It's the improvements to the Alamodome, because these things are critical to our ability to compete with Texas cities moving forward.

What grade would you give our touristic efforts?

We've had some changes.

We changed from a city managed convention and visitors bureau to a to run by the industry.

And other changes.

What grade would you give the efforts?

I mean right now I'd give us an A+.

I just came from the Visit San Antonio annual meeting and the things that they've got in the works for the next fiscal year are going to be, really huge drivers for tourism here.

Their number one mantra this year is heads and beds, which for my members is perfect because that's what we want.

We want to increase occupancy.

But what they've really managed to capture is the spirit of San Antonio.

We're leaning into our culture.

We're leaning into who we are as a city and trying to show people that, across the globe and to get them to come and visit.

And so I think that, you know, in addition to I mentioned, that Austin, Dallas and Houston are all having their convention centers pull down or partly to be to expand or modernize.

We've managed to poach a lot of that business for the next fiscal year.

So our convention bookings for next year are going to be really, really great.

Thank you for, doing that job.

And thank you for being with us here.

Of course.

Thank you.

When we say there have been challenges in San Antonio this year, one of those is the future of our military status.

The headquarters of Army North and Army South, both housed for decades at Fort Sam Houston, will be moved to North Carolina.

Joining us is the city's director of military and veteran affairs, Major General one Ayala.

Let's begin, if we can, by just a word about your background, you are a marine general originally from El Paso.

Tell us some of the things you did in your marine career.

Yeah, well, I spent 36 years in the Marine Corps, and, I commanded on five different occasions, which were, but, you know, it was very rewarding, but some of the highlights of my career, were I was the, I was a senior advisor, to an Iraqi division during the height of the, up over the war, and during Operation Enduring Freedom.

I was also the chief of the Humanitarian Assistance Branch, United States European Command, which is kind of an oxymoron, a marine humanitarian.

But it was a great mission.

My portfolio was, Africa and, Eastern Europe.

And, it was tremendous opportunity to highlight the importance of our presence around the world.

Thank you for your service.

And thank you for your service to San Antonio, where you translated the military service to advising the city on its military affairs.

Yes.

And you've done that for the last ten years.

I have the military is the number one employer in the city of San Antonio.

So it's very important that, we maintain the missions that we have here and that we continue to, let the Pentagon know that we are ready to take more missions on because we have the capability here, we have the infrastructure, and, of course, we have the workforce.

And, of course, this is a great, city for the military.

We want the Department of Defense to know that when they think of rebasing a mission, a military mission, they think of San Antonio first.

And the other thing I think is very important is that during the Texas legislative, sessions, we protect our missions.

We have these, protected protections around and military bases that we need to have, and we need to make sure that urban encroachment does not interfere with those missions, because if they do, they would have to go somewhere else.

Sure.

Now, this recent, change of mission where we're, Army North and Army south, going to Fort Bragg.

What's your sense of how we'll make that up?

We continue to grow in the biomedical aspects of the military here, and we continue to grow in cybersecurity.

So maybe we won't miss the positions the numbers as an economic impact that much because we still are.

There are areas where we are strong.

And the only game in town in, in in biomedicine where one of the major places.

Yeah, that's a great question.

And, you know, the point is every uniform is a job.

And so that's important for our economy.

But I think where we make it up is, you know, we're also, we're enticing to the Health Defense Health Agency, correct.

To bring more folks, here.

And I think we're going to be able to do that.

And I think that's once they're here, that's going to grow our medical, a military medical footprint, and also our medical research footprint is very strong.

And we try very hard to bring additional many innovations in, artificial legs and burn techniques, quick clot.

What's born here?

So there's a lot of things that, are translated well in the battlefield.

General, thank you very much for, your service to our country.

We're blessed that we have that experience brought now to our municipal function, what you've been doing in recent years and keeping our military part of our economy and workforce strong.

Thank you for that.

And, now we get your skills, at least for a while.

Doing public works.

Yes, sir.

Thank you.

So much.

Thank you.

The health care and bioscience industry is one of our city's largest industries, with an annual economic impact nearing $43 billion.

The workforce in this industry alone is around 200,000 people.

Doctor Larry Schlesinger is the president and CEO of the highly respected Texas Biomedical Research Institute.

And Larry, we're just so honored to have Texas BioMed thriving the way it is in our city of San Antonio.

Tell us a little bit about the year that just passed.

What were your major accomplishments of the year?

You know, our our work continue at the institute, continues to grow, and we continue to invest heavily in our strategic plan.

We're in the back half of that.

So a lot of things happening in modernizing the campus.

Our new Biocontainment maximum Biocontainment lab on campus is the only new project in the world.

And it's here on our campus, and it's going to just increase our current capacity to do this kind of work safely.

I think most San Antonians really have no idea about the significance of what is occurring there.

And much of this has grown and expanded, have been fleshed out on your watch as the CEO.

And you've brought the idea of creating a world class, unique infectious disease center.

I realized this the success of Texas by, in part from an economic standpoint, needed to be to diversify our revenue base.

And perhaps the most important thing we did, which is now very important regarding the new administration, is that we now have a growing, business arm to the institute called Applied Science and Innovation, where we do more or less contract science with the government commercial partners worldwide.

One of the things that jumps off the page when you compare in the research arena is Texas BioMed.

Yeah, it's our claim to fame in the bio sciences has been for a lot of years.

We're now interested in developing universal vaccines that will be more effective against a broader range of viruses that we surely will have going forward.

And of course, the primates, the monkeys, colonies, various kinds are unique.

They are within the United States.

They are even globally.

We have people come here from other countries.

Yes.

To utilize that resource.

We have 150 dedicated employees to health and well-being of these animals, including a new building to serve as a hospital.

We have a brand new hospital opening in March of 2026.

We have new facilities with heated floors, and they are a precious resource to enable us to have new cures, new shots in your arm.

For example, our newest, discovery and work that we've done is another deadly virus called the Marburg virus.

The work we did in our primates now has resulted in a vaccine in Rwanda saving lives.

How would you assess San Antonio's emergence as a biomedical center?

We are, as an ecosystem, nicely prepared for that growth.

Okay.

We have incredible relationships.

The integration of UT San Antonio, now a strong partner of Texas BioMed, the private sector, whether it be velocity or others in town.

Here's what I want to say.

The $43 million or billion dollars that you've talked about is health care and bio sciences.

If you look at the investment in bio sciences, we could do better.

And I think that because the infrastructure is there, we can succeed.

Let me say that I think the future of the economy in San Antonio, in my opinion, needs to move more towards a knowledge based economy.

If you think about high paying jobs, if you think about talent recruitment, if you think about the spill over into education, I think more and more investment in the bio sciences, which is really a cure to you.

The pill, the shot, I think San Antonio can do extraordinary things in the next 10 to 20 years.

One of the things you'll be hearing about in the next year or two is our markedly growing portfolio in the Department of Defense and Department of War, Department of Defense, to, increase our arsenal of countermeasures.

That'll be a big growth area.

What's good for the bio sciences is good for San Antonio.

What's good for Texas BioMed is good for San Antonio.

And so thank you for your leadership and thank you for joining us.

My pleasure.

Thank you Henry.

Real estate is one of the many sectors of the economy we use to understand how we're doing.

It's a good measure of the overall economy.

San Antonio overall has been blessed with a strong and stable real estate market in 2025.

Joining us with more details on local real estate is Ed about the chair of the San Antonio Board of Realtors.

Ed, thank you for being here today and congratulations on your role being elected by your peers as chair of all of the Realtors in San Antonio is admirable.

Tell us about the overall real estate market.

First of all, is real estate indeed a good measure of the larger economy and the fact that people continue to come here?

The fact that they gain incomes and can afford a a better house.

The fact that commercially new businesses are being formed.

Tell us about that dynamic.

Yes.

And thank you for having me.

It is a mirror of the economy.

I think when, jobs are strong and wages are up, more are buying homes and business is are expanding.

So I think it's a barometer of where the economy is.

If we have a tightening of certain things like interest rates or inflation, then buying slows down and we, lose the ability to, to stay steady.

So where are we right this minute in San Antonio?

What would that those metrics tell us today, let's say in comparison to last year, 2025 is showing steady, especially in the retail.

We've had sales pretty flat year over year.

But strong, growth or about 2 to 3%, which averages around five.

So you know, in in the new homes sector though, we've seen a little bit of a drop of sales year over year.

But I think it's going to stay steady, to finish out.

So let's break that down.

New homes slow.

Even though they're being built, there's no shortage of supply.

Correct.

The where the builders are building.

I do think there is still a show, shortage of supply.

Texas Real Estate Center says that, Texas wide is about 150,000 units short.

So we are in a shortage.

And that does seem a little strange because we have a lot of standing inventory.

We have about 6 to 7 months of inventory, right now on the market.

But, we do need more units.

And for homebuilders to build and resale.

What does that tell us?

That that people are moving up the ladder and buying a new home, an existing new home.

We do see strong sales, stable year over year.

So it's a slight up, especially in the third quarter.

We do see, that homes sell more in the third quarter.

So we did see a slight uptick.

I expect to finish the year probably around 2 to 3%.

And commercial real estate is both the sale of existing business sites, but also, new construction.

Tell us about the commercial side.

You know, I see, commercial being steady, industrial and retail holding steady.

But I do see some softening, maybe in the, office sector where reimagined, work from home strategies are being considered.

So we'll have to see that how that plays out through the rest of the year.

How does this compare to, say, last year?

Are we about the same steady holding where we were last year or a little ahead, or how would you describe it?

I think we're just slightly ahead.

You know, over time, 20, 24, showed, some strength in the market.

But we did have some pulling back of, buying just because of the interest rates.

But that fluctuates over time.

We did see a dip in in the third quarter here.

So so we we came back a little bit.

What are prices for houses doing.

Prices are staying steady.

We see a small uptake.

In prices overall.

And I think that will improve if interest rates do decline.

I would say it's a balanced market here in San Antonio.

And probably one of the most, balanced markets in the state of Texas.

Now, if we look around the city, obviously the north side is growing very fast.

Where would you say precisely by almost by neighborhood is the fastest growth?

If I had to pick one, I would say up.

The I-10 corridor is seeing a lot of activity.

There's a lot of industry going into Bernie.

Yes, up into the I-10 corridor between, 1604 and the Bernie corridor, too.

Yeah.

I think that's going to be exponential growth in that, in that corridor.

And and how about resale?

Same, same dynamic resales in that general area.

How about the south side.

How do you see that.

We do see a lot of builders building in that area.

And they see growth in that area.

So that is positive.

We do need to see some more infrastructure though some some things that buyers would want in that area.

Roadways.

Restaurants.

You know.

But but the more development we can see in that area, the more a buyer would choose to, to want to go down and live in that area.

Well, congratulations on being, chair of the Board of realtors.

Very important in our community.

And, on being in the business, which even though we kind of take the real estate transaction for granted, it really is an important relationship.

The relationship between real estate geography, growth and people's quality of life.

Thank you.

Thank you for having me.

The economic impact of the merger of UTSA and UT Health San Antonio this fall is massively important to the future of our city.

This integration will reach deep into our city, affecting job growth, medical and scientific research, higher level education, job training and health accessibility for our residents.

It is truly historic and the man heading up the new UT San Antonio system is its president.

Doctor Taylor, Amy, welcome to Kaler and Doctor Annie Henry.

It's always a pleasure to be here with you.

I'm looking forward to our conversation.

Congratulations on the accomplishments of the last year of.

You've been here, long enough now to have many accomplishments.

But that has to be the capstone.

Tell us a little bit about how it came to pass, what it represents and what we should anticipate going forward.

Sure.

Our Board of Regents is very forward looking about the alignment of the assets within the University of Texas system to benefit the state of Texas.

There's been a lot of interest historically about the merger of our two institutions, and the board felt it was the right time to bring two institutions together, with both having these really marvelous positive trajectories.

And we decided to approach it this way instead of just additively bringing two institutions together where one plus one equals two.

We're like, no, we're going to create a brand new university in this process where one plus one equals ten.

And so we're hard at work at this.

And the board is delighted with our focus.

UT system is delighted with our focus.

We have legions of folks working to bring our two institutions together to find the very best of what we do in both legacy institutions, and really amplify them to create this new world class university for our community, our state, our nation.

I like to work at this.

The phrase one plus one equals ten, but it's plain to the to the to the audience today.

What's the mechanics by which one plus one is that multiplicative?

Not just additive, but multiplicative.

What if you look at both institutions.

They're elements that each do really well.

And if we can apply the excellence from each institution broadly across the new institution, we are taking the very best of our components and making them broadly available, accessible and in place across the entire institution.

Combinations of degree programs and practices, procedures, research institutes, research institutes, medical practice focus.

We are just really taking all of these components and designing a new university from them.

So a concrete example, for example, is you have people headed toward medical degrees at the Health Science Center who could take AI courses in the business school to enhance their knowledge of AI applied to medicine, for the business school, to, enhance their ability to run a practice?

One of our very prominent new programs is, you can get an MD and a master's in AI jointly, and it's a wildly successful program, and it's reflective of the synergies that are available at each institution and bringing them together and creating new things for a lay person in San Antonio.

What does this mean?

It means obviously, better access to education for people within our own city.

But the jobs that will grow from this, the research that will come.

What does it mean to the average person?

Sure.

You have to understand that the new UT San Antonio, from the two legacy institutions really is an anchor institution for our community.

And what do I mean by that?

We educate presently 43,000 students.

We employ the new and the new institution combination.

It's 43,000 43,000.

The new institution employs 17,000 employees faculty, staff, technicians, doctors, nurses, dentists.

Our new institution conducts $600 million a year in research, which is a very big engine driving innovation and prosperity.

Our new institution has a $7 billion a year economic impact.

We're deeply involved in supporting economic development in our community and helping attract companies here, and that is a very important aspect of my job.

And all of these things make us a really important driver of the economy.

For San Antonio.

The higher ed community in San Antonio is also robust.

There are more kids that are getting educated here in San Antonio than kids that are getting educated in Boston, Massachusetts.

We have a hurdle that we have to get over and improve in its educational attainment in our community.

And what I want to share is if you compare us to our, our, our competitors out there Charlotte, Dallas, Austin, Jacksonville, Denver, we we are we are dramatically tackling this challenge of educational attainment, about two year degree and four year degree, percentages in our community and we are amongst our peer, you know, sort of communities that were competing against higher ed in San Antonio is delivering because we're now the second fastest rate of change about attainment amongst our nine, nine competitors.

I think we're at the point where companies we've got this really soon army of companies interested in San Antonio, but they're also soaking up the workforce.

We want the workforce.

Yes we do.

Yeah, but we want more of the workforce to get into the game.

It's a chicken and egg thing because we need to attract, retain, grow and attract companies.

But we also need to provide the talented workforce.

And we're doing those in pre-K.

Yeah.

And through K through 12.

It does that.

That's foundational to all.

I'm glad you're thinking in this way, because if indeed you are one of the most important people, the most important person in San Antonio's economic future, we're lucky.

Well, we're all in on this.

We believe deeply in it.

And I, we're we're ready, we're going.

We're we're we're full speed ahead on this, doctor.

Amy.

Thank you very much.

Henry.

It's always a pleasure to join you in these conversations.

Thank you very much.

From the conversations on this program, we can see that San Antonio had an eventful economic year.

Trying to assign a grade for the year is difficult because of the many headwinds in the economy.

Generally, the uncertainty of interest rates, tariffs, immigration policies, federal employment reductions nationally and locally, factors like fewer real estate transactions and the transfer of some military functions.

I'm inclined to give our local economy a grade of B, principally because of the effects of all the uncertainty.

But it is also true that 2025, in San Antonio has been a year of setting up for the future accomplishments like the UT San Antonio merger, the construction of new hospitals by university health system, the passage of the rodeo and the Spurs referenda and massive construction all around us like Port San Antonio freeway interchanges, double decking to address congestion.

If we're grading 2025 as a year of preparing for the future, I think it deserves a solid A. The challenge is to keep the momentum going in 2026, based on the experience of recent years and based on my confidence in the leaders.

You've listened to on this program, I'm betting on San Antonio in 2026.

I'm Henry Cisneros, and I thank you for joining us for the Business of Business.

San Antonio.

This program is supported by Texas Mutual Workers Compensation Insurance.