Vision firm to add 750 jobs

HVHC Inc., the San Antonio-based holding company for the eyewear firm that includes the Visionworks of America chain, plans to invest $25 million in a manufacturing plant that's expected to employ 600 workers on the far West Side, the company's chief executive confirmed Thursday.

HVHC also is looking to expand its downtown headquarters by 150 positions, up from about 350 now.

The City Council will vote next Thursday on an incentives package that'll encompass the two expansion projects, said Mario Hernandez, San Antonio Economic Development Foundation president. Commissioners Court will vote on Bexar County incentives.

“Seven hundred and fifty jobs, that's not bad,” HVHC president and CEO David Holmberg said. “We're real excited about doing this in San Antonio. We've had success here with the quality of the workforce and our partnership with the community.”

HVHC's national headquarters currently occupies five floors of the IBC Centre at Houston and St. Mary's streets, the former headquarters of telecommunications giant AT&T Inc., which moved its corporate offices to Dallas in 2008.

With the workforce expansion, Holmberg said, HVHC will fill another two floors of the IBC Centre.

HVHC already operates a manufacturing plant in Schertz that makes 2 million pairs of eyeglasses a year. Holmberg said the facility employs a similar number of workers that will be hired for the new plant, to be located near Texas 151.

The new plant will produce custom-made eyeglass products and will occupy about 120,000 square feet.

Holmberg declined to pinpoint the plant's exact location, but it should be identified next week as City Council votes on the city's incentive package.

Manufacturing workers will earn between $11 and $20 an hour, Holmberg said. At least a dozen supervisory positions also will be hired to oversee the operation.

San Antonio won the 18-month site-selection process for the new plant over competing sites in Allen and Richardson, both near Dallas, Holmberg said.

“I'm pleased HVHC is creating hundreds of good-paying jobs in San Antonio,” Mayor Julián Castro said. “Most of these are manufacturing jobs that will have a good multiplier effect in the San Antonio economy. I'm confident City Council will be supportive.”

The city's incentives package includes a grant for the plant and an amended agreement for parking at the IBC Centre for the headquarters expansion, city Economic Development Director Rene Dominguez said.

Dominguez declined to reveal incentive details until the council's next agenda is publicly posted Friday. However, he said the full incentives would be triggered with the hiring of 600 at the plant over the next six years.

At headquarters, the company must bring its workforce to 500 by year-end 2015 and maintain at least that many through 2021.

HVHC moved its headquarters to the IBC Centre in 2011 after outgrowing its previous space at 11103 West Ave., outside Loop 410.

At the time, the city provided an incentives package that included parking subsidies worth $2.9 million over 10 years. The package also awarded HVHC a job creation and retention grant worth $1 million for distribution over two years.

“What is great about this is that manufacturing can occur anywhere in the world, but they chose San Antonio to expand into, and we're thrilled about that,” Dominguez said.

“As the headquarters ramp up, it's a clear sign that the company is expanding and doing well,” he added. “They love downtown. They're great tenants downtown.”

Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff said the county Economic Development Department is proposing an 80 percent property tax abatement for six years for the manufacturing plant if it hires at least 500 workers.

“Holmberg is a great civic leader,” Wolff said. “He's coming downtown, and he's doing manufacturing.”

HVHC has retail-store growth plans, mainly in the western half of the country. That's driving the need for both the new manufacturing plant and the headquarters expansion, Holmberg said.

Privately held HVHC is a subsidiary of Pittsburgh-based Highmark Inc. Its portfolio of companies include Visionworks of America Inc., Davis Vision Inc. and Viva Optique Inc.

With about 600 stores, HVHC is the third-largest provider of managed vision care products and services, and it's the third-largest operator of specialty optical retail stores in the nation.

It also is the second-largest designer and distributor of eyewear in the United States and the seventh-largest global eyewear distributor.

dhendricks@express-news.net