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San Antonio
Economic Outlook
Marci Rossell, PhD
Chief Economist
Leading Real Estate Companies of the World®
SAN ANTONIO TURNS 300 IN 2018.
Our city’s Tricentennial year is a celebration of San Anto- our collective eyes on the future. San Pedro Creek, the
nio’s incredible history and culture that have shaped this
community into what it is today. It’s an opportune time
to reflect on how far San Antonio has come, but it is with
even greater excitement that I look to the city’s next 300
years.
2017 was a year of building, changing and growing, for
the San Antonio Economic Development Foundation
(SAEDF) and for our community. Construction on the
skyline-changing Frost Tower began; we received the UN-
ESCO Creative Cities of Gastronomy designation; and ex-
pansion deals with the likes of Hulu, EY and hometown
giant USAA sent a strong message to other organizations
around the world that San Antonio, Texas is open for
business.
San Antonio’s economic growth was the third fastest
among major U.S. cities with a gross regional product
growth of 31% from 2011 – 2016. There is more interest
in our community than ever before and at SAEDF we’ve
felt that interest directly through the size and volume of
economic development projects in our pipeline. San An-
tonio’s economic competitiveness and rising profile are a
direct result of smart strategy, exceptional collaboration
between the public and private sectors and today’s eco-
nomic landscape.
CONTENT PROVIDED BY - Marci Rossell, PhD, Chief Economist*, LEADING RE
But now the time for reflection has passed and we have
East Side Innovation Center, Velocity TX and continued
improvements to San Antonio International Airport are
just a few of the landmark initiatives on the immediate
horizon. Promoting growth that will benefit the economy
as well as elevate the quality of life in San Antonio is a
priority. Our economic development strategy has evolved
and we are focused on targeted industry growth to at-
tract new businesses and retain our existing employers
in cybersecurity, bioscience, information technology, ad-
vanced manufacturing, aerospace, new energy and finan-
cial services. Local colleges and universities are aligned
and offer leading degree and certificate programs to sup-
port job growth in these industries. These jobs represent
the biggest growth opportunities for our community to
develop a dynamic and diverse economy that can weather
any storm.
2018 will be a game-changing year in San Antonio and
the start of the next chapter in the history of our great
city, the ideal time to start to realize our full potential. San
Antonio residents have a front row seat to the transforma-
tional growth we are experiencing and with that, an even
better quality of life. There is still work to be done to make
San Antonio as competitive as possible, but if our first 300
years are any indication of the progress that is to come,
then the future looks very bright.
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