San Antonio’s Next Chapter: From Military Powerhouse to Manufacturing Hub
September 14, 2026
San Antonio has always been known as Military City USA, dating back to the presidio that protected the missions and peaking with our five active military bases. But no more. We just lost Army North and Army South this summer to a Defense Department consolidation move to Western Hemisphere Command at Ft Bragg, North Carolina. Combined the two commands meant a loss of 1,100 employees from San Antonio while approximately 220 will remain here.
That’s the biggest hit to our fair city since the Base Realignment Commission closed Brooks AFB and Kelly AFB 20 and 30 years ago, respectively. We still have Randolph AFB, Joint Base San Antonio, the largest joint base in the country and Camp Bullis. Yet we have a resilient community, and we should look at what positive events have transpired over the past 20 years as we have transitioned to a more diverse and robust economy. Manufacturing has become our key.
Kelly Field to Port San Antonio
First, let’s look at what happened to Kelly Field, as it was long known; established in 1917 and comprising 1,887 acres, including an 11,500-foot runway, suitable for the largest aircraft. I once saw the 747 with the Space Shuttle on its back, land there. Wow! It was closed in 2001, but what a transformation it has undergone to become Port San Antonio, a vibrant business and industrial park. The employment is currently 19,000 jobs, surpassing the 15,000 peak number at the old Kelly Field. The average salary is over $100,000 and the companies there cover a wide variety of services. While the Air Force still controls 200 acres, Port San Antonio complex integrates many aerospace, logistics and industrial operations.
Boeing is the most consequential Port San Antonio tenant with billions of dollars in contracts to rehab and update the largest jets, including the C-17 Globemaster transport, B-52’s F-18’s and even AirForce One. Their enormous hangar is 600,000 square feet, the largest in the world, and can house 15 wide body jets at once. A number of other aerospace companies call the Port home, some serving Boeing. Others are like Knight Aerospace which designs pods that can be slid into transport aircraft, serving as mobile surgical centers and conference rooms. The Port also has a significant cyber security presence, both on the civilian side and the Air Force. This is a big success story for San Antonio, transitioning into the future.
Brooks AFB
Then, there is Brooks AFB, closed as an active military installation in 2011, having been originally opened 1918, as one of the first airfields in the U.S. This 1,300-acre site has been turned over to Brooks Development Authority to become Brooks City Base, a heavily landscaped multi-use development with $100 million in infrastructure and patterned after the Woodlands. Brooks has boomed as a massive business / industrial / retail park, now with 5,500 jobs in a one-mile radius, more than worked at Brooks AFB at its peak.
The development has more than 300,000 square feet of retail, shops and restaurants, four apartments with over 1500 units and Brooks is home to over 150 businesses. These include Mission Trail Baptist Hospital, UIW’s Nursing School, Nissei America, an injection molding company, Misson Solar, a Korean company opening its manufacturing facility 2018, Okin Business Process Services, headquartered in Prague, performing cloud and security tech, and Bakerly, added in 2024 as the 6th international manufacturer at Brooks.
The most recent announcement was by IEM, out of Palo Alto, who will build a $200 million manufacturing plant for data center equipment. They will open by 2030 and create over 3,000 advanced skill jobs. The City passed a bond issue that includes $95 million for Alamo Community College District to build a Center of Applied Technology at Brooks City Base. This supports their workforce training in high demand areas like information technology, engineering, cybersecurity and healthcare. So, Brooks is another big success story for San Antonio, as we move away from dependence on the military.
Toyota Plant
We all know that San Antonio’s biggest win for manufacturing is Toyota’s 2,678-acre plant on Applewhite Road which opened in 2006, to manufacture the Tundra truck. They began with 2,000 employees, primarily recruited from other states since San Antonio did not have the labor force with the necessary skill set. Now, 20 years later, the original local hires have moved up to management positions and more positions are available for highly skilled technicians as we grow our own.
Toyota now employs more than 3,700 highly skilled workers in 2.2 million square feet of factory space, and another 5,600 additional employees at on-site suppliers. In July Toyota announced a $3.6 billion expansion to add 2.5 million more square feet of plant and 2,000 new, high-quality jobs, thus doubling its size. They will now build the popular Tacoma truck in San Antonio, too.
Navistar
Then, Navistar, originally known as International Harvester, opened a 1 million square foot truck factory in 2022. It employs 620 skilled workers, to build heavy-duty trucks, turning out up to 50 per day. The trucks are both diesel and electric from a plant designed to use the most advanced machinery and technology in engineering and production. The company was bought out by the enormous Volkswagen Company last year.
JCB
In 2023, JCB announced they would build their $500 million, 500,000 square foot plant on a 400-acre site, on HWY 16 South, not far from Toyota. JCB is a manufacturer of heavy construction equipment, and they will employ 1,500 people. Recently JCB announced they will expand this plant to 1,000,000 square feet, making it their largest in the U.S.
Sanko
Then Sanko, a Japanese company, just broke ground on a new facility on a 43.7-acre tract at Applewhite and Watson Lane, directly across from Toyota. The proposed $40 million factory could employ as many as 300 people, according to company officials, they are in the design stage currently and plan to open in 2027.
AISIN
Let’s also mention Japanese transmission manufacturer, Aisin, who in 2021 built an automatic transmission plant in Cibolo after a nationwide search. They opened their 500,000 square foot $400 million facility and employ 900. AISIN officially opened its new AW Texas manufacturing plant in 2021.
San Antonio – Up and Coming Manufacturing Hub of the U.S.
Yes, San Antonio lost two army headquarters as the Defense Department consolidates and seek to control its costs. But the conversion of Kelly and Brooks into multi-faceted centers for engineering, technology and manufacturing has been nothing short of phenomenal. We are becoming a leading manufacturing hub, now employing 61,000, nearly a 20% increase in the past five years and representing 6% of our total workforce. This is about the percentage of the workforce in manufacturing jobs as Houston and Los Angeles, the biggest manufacturing centers in the U.S.
San Antonio has 1,600 companies generating more than $10 billion in GDP. These are high-skill high-wage jobs, providing great opportunities for advancement for our youth, especially on the southside of San Antonio. Look at the line up of Boeing, Toyota, Navistar, JCB, Sanko, IEM and many others mentioned above. And the best is yet to come, because we are developing a deep and talented core of machinists and engineers, driving our economic growth, innovation and strategic positioning. The U.S. is on the leading edge of a $1Trillion manufacturing expansion, as we push to bring more jobs and leading-edge manufacturing back to our shores. San Antonio is prepared to get a big share of this construction and employment expansion as we develop a solid core of well-trained and high skilled engineers and machinists.
God Bless Military City USA and Manufacturing City USA!