SAN ANTONIO — An east side cold storage plant that has been an abandoned eyesore for decades is being transformed. The new campus, at the site of the old Merchant Ice and Cold Storage plant, is a project of the non-profit Velocity Texas, where they hope to grow tech and life science businesses.
Acknowledging the history of the complex at a celebration Tuesday, leaders of the project took up ice picks to break apart a large ice sculpture, instead of completing a traditional groundbreaking to mark the official start of the venture.
Velocity Texas President and CEO Randy Harig said "Today's a big day! It's exciting!"
In a crowded, cavernous hall, local leaders praised the non-profit that hopes to bring more than 600 jobs and $227 million in development to the four-acre campus in the 1300 block of East Houston Street.
County Commissioner Tommy Calvert told company officials “I'm not sure most San Antonians recognize the historic nature of what you are doing for our economy. It is growing us up in a way that is going to catalyze not only the best ideas from businesses across the western hemisphere and across the world, but also of San Antonians.”
Calvert said the impact of the project will be far-reaching.
“It puts us in an incredible economic space of unity, to be a bridge-building city, that all people, no matter where you come from, come to know as a great place to do business and that is going to be a treasure that carries forward for generations and generations to come,” Calvert said.
Harig said the anchor tenant of the project is a perfect fit.
“BioBridge Global, a local company here in San Antonio, is expanding with a manufacturing facility called GenCare and they will be proliferating stem cells in laboratories in this facility, where they come in with 200,000 stem cells, put them in a bioreactor and they come out a week and a half later with billions, and they sell them to researchers,” Harig said.
There will be plenty of space for new ventures to get started as well, according to Harig.
"We think there will be a district along here, this stretch, which will be an innovation district," Harig said, adding “We're going to be probably 80% focused on science and technology."
Harig said demolition work is already underway on the portions of the old building that are being removed to make way for growth. After that, he said, new construction will be on a fast track.
“The first one will house our innovation center and incubator, where we'll have 60 to 80 companies at any given time in there, incubating and growing to become a real company," Harig said. He said the purpose of the incubator process is to help people with innovative ideas discern whether or not their dreams make business sense.
“You can start, we call it the ideation phase, where I have an idea, I've drawn it out on a napkin and then we have a program where we take them through fleshing out that idea. Is it a good idea? Is it disruptive? Is the market you want to go after identified and is that market large enough to make a good profit?” Harig said.
Harig said at every step of the development process, his team has been involved in making sure that residents who live nearby will be able to take advantage of the new prosperity the growth will bring.
“We've hired a person and we're developing a plan right now to go to middle schools and high schools on the east side, talk to them about take math, science and technology and I'll have a job for you out of high school at a good wage. And so we hope that we don't displace people. We hope we bring incomes up over here so that they can stay where they grew up. If I can give somebody a $35,000 a year job here, and they don't need a car to get here, that's a pretty significant income for somebody coming out of high school," Harig said.
Becky Cap, the Chief Operating Officer of BioBridge Global subsidiary GenCure, said she is anxious to see local students succeed with the company. "These are different kinds of jobs than have been typically available in San Antonio and we want to partner with the schools to make that happen," she said.
Cap’s advice for students interested in the newly created jobs is to be a well-rounded learner.
“Study hard. Math. Biology. Chemistry. Those are the key things that are important for our jobs, but learning to write, to communicate well, that is critical to these jobs. You have to have that scientific and technical foundation, but don't forget those fundamentals. There are so many people who have made their way and made themselves successful because they are effective communicators, even in this technical space,” Cap said.
Cap said her group expects to hire 20 to 25 people in the near-term and about 50 over the next couple of years.
“If you study, you can be part of the progress and the stuff that you are studying in school is incredibly relevant to finding an interesting job in your community, in your neighborhood. Absolutely,” Cap said.
Here are some additional details provided by VelocityTX
• VelocityTX is a nonprofit organization and the innovation arm of Texas Research and Technology Foundation (TRTF) dedicated to attracting companies in the tech, bio, and life sciences industries, stimulating company formation and research, leveraging local industry assets, and creating high-wage, high-skill jobs.
• The building is on the Merchant Ice and Storage complex site that has been vacant and underutilized for nearly 20 years. The four-acre site will be redeveloped into a modern bio and life sciences business incubator and innovation center to serve multiple target industries and provide a broad array of resources to entrepreneurs.
• When completed, TRTF intends to recruit on the East Side for all available positions. VelocityTX estimates that when completed, the Innovation District will support approximately 665 jobs with combined wages and benefits of over $78 million annually.
• The four-phase redevelopment effort is anticipated to span ten years for a total investment of approximately $227 million.