San Antonio has scored a significant economic victory by attracting a major new employer to the city.
Minneapolis-based Medtronic Inc. (NYSE: MDT) is expected to confirm on Monday that it has selected the Alamo City as the site for new back-office operations — which will include sales and marketing functions to support the company’s expanded diabetes division.
San Antonio public officials say Texas Gov. Rick Perry will be in San Antonio on Monday afternoon to make an economic development announcement. One public official says that announcement is about Medtronic, which has selected a site for its new San Antonio operations at The Rim, a mixed-use development near Loop 1604 and Interstate 10.
Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff says Medtronic plans to bring in excess of 1,300 jobs to San Antonio.
“I’ve been working on this for well over a year,” Wolff says. “Everyone pitched in to work on this.”
Medtronic officials declined to comment.
Sources familiar with the deal say the incentive package offered Medtronic includes $6 million in state money from the Texas Enterprise Fund.
The company was founded in 1949 as a medical equipment repair shop. According to the Medtronic Web Site, the medical technology company now operates from more than 250 manufacturing facilities, sales offices, research centers, education centers, and administration facilities serving customers and patients in 120 countries.
San Antonio had to compete with multiple cities to land Medtronic, including at least one other Texas city.
“We had to beat Austin and then we had to beat Kansas City,” Wolff explains. “And we’ve built up a good relation with the company.”
Public officials involved in the efforts to woo Medtronic say the company will pay good wages to the people it employees in San Antonio.
Medtronic will move into the three-story Overlook at The Rim office building, which spans nearly 145,000 square feet and cost some $20 million to develop. The Class A office building on the city’s far Northwest Side was developed and is owned by Houston-based Transwestern.
“This is extremely important for San Antonio, Wolff says. “It’s a perfect fit for the city.”
(This article is attributed to: W. Scott Bailey, The San Antonio Business Journal)