S.A. outer areas' job numbers up 56% in decade

The Toyota plant on the South Side lies very close to the 10-mile ring. As the city's outer areas gained jobs, downtown lost jobs. The Toyota plant on the South Side lies very close to the 10-mile ring. As the city's outer areas gained jobs, downtown lost jobs. Photo: William Luther, San Antonio Express-News Photo: William Luther, San Antonio Express-News Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close S.A. outer areas' job numbers up 56% in decade 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

While employment in downtown San Antonio fell between 2000 and 2010, it exploded on the city's outer reaches, according to a new Brookings Institution study on “job sprawl” — the shift of jobs from the inner city to the suburbs.

Employment within 3 miles of the center city dove 18.8 percent in the 10-year period. At the same time, the number of jobs 10 to 35 miles outside the inner city increased 56.3 percent.

The Washington, D.C., think tank released the study Thursday.

Because of bustling hiring rates in its suburbs, the San Antonio metropolitan area ranked second among the 100 largest U.S. metro areas for the increase in the share of jobs between 10 and 35 miles from its central business district.

Most cities saw job sprawl slow down during the Great Recession because of job losses, especially in the construction and manufacturing industries. But San Antonio's outer-ring employment growth continued during the hard times. Between 2007 and 2010, the region ranked third among metro areas with the largest increases in the share of jobs 10 or more miles from downtown.

For San Antonio, the 10-mile ring falls just inside the economically vibrant Loop 1604. Major employers are clustered along the edge, including Valero Energy Corp., JPMorgan Chase, Microsoft and Coventry Healthcare. The Stone Oak development is outside the 10-mile mark, as is Medtronic.

The study drew from the Census Bureau's private-sector employment data from 2000, 2007 and 2010, the most recent data available. Researchers mapped ZIP code employment data to bands of 3, 10 and 35 miles from central business districts.

The San Antonio area's employment climbed 12.7 percent from 2000 to 2010 to 702,726 jobs. But as it grew, the share of jobs located more than 10 miles from downtown increased by 9.4 percentage points.

Of the 100 metro areas included in the study, only the Phoenix metro area saw a larger increase in the share of jobs located between 10 to 35 miles from its center for the decade, with a 10.8 percent gain. The Austin-Round Rock area was third, with a 7.9 percent increase. Houston ranked fourth, with a 7.8 percent gain.

But data indicate that as the outer areas gained jobs, downtown lost. For the decade, job loss 3 miles or less from San Antonio's core hit 18.8 percent. During the recession years, it was 3.1 percent.

The most dramatic loss came in 2008 when AT&T announced plans to move its headquarters from downtown to Dallas. But since then, eyewear firm HVHC Inc. and specialty insurer Argo Group have moved their headquarters to the IBC Centre on Houston Street, the telecommunication giant's former corporate digs.

More Information Database: San Antonio's Top Workplaces in 2012

Decentralization was the national trend before the recession, occurring even in traditionally “downtown” industries such as finance, insurance and professional services, said Elizabeth Kneebone, author of the study, which updates a 2009 job-sprawl report. Hiring in industries such as construction, manufacturing and retail took place mostly in the suburbs.

The recession hit those industries hardest, making up nearly half the overall losses. But they were 60 percent of the losses in the outer rings.

Not so in San Antonio.

“San Antonio was slightly different from what we saw for the 100 metros overall,” Kneebone said. “In San Antonio, we continued to see a pattern of decentralization in the job shares. And the outer ring job growth was particularly steep.

“All of the big growth basically was happening more than 10 miles away from downtown.”

Sprawl can strain mass transit and infrastructure, such as streets and drainage, and create more traffic congestion.

“It also has implications for things like equity and inclusion in a metro area,” she said. “Low-income residents, if jobs are moving farther out and low-income residents can't use transit to get to employment opportunities and don't have a reliable car, that may mean that those opportunities aren't accessible.”

But as the economy continues to recover, Kneebone expects decentralization to resume.

“Unless there were particular policy changes put in place, there's no reason to think that this would not pick up again as the economy starts growing,” she said.

Washington, D.C, was the only one of the 100 largest metro areas to see an increase in both number and share of jobs within 3 miles of its downtown during the 2000s.

In San Antonio, Charles Martin “Marty” Wender said suburban areas are able to offer companies what they want: space.

He's the developer of Westover Hills on the far West Side, which has lured operations from the likes of Wells Fargo, J.P. Morgan Chase, Hartford Insurance, Lowe's, Kohl's and Microsoft. Residential development followed, as did places to dine and shop.

“The reason why these companies locate away from business centers is, (first) and foremost, parking,” Wender said. “No. 2, the buildings operate better with one, two and three stories” as opposed to high-rises. “It's easier for the operations to move horizontal than in elevators moving up and down. They like it when their employees can go up and down from floor to floor on steps.”

Proximity to where people live comes next, he said.

“It's easier for employees to get to a center like in Westover Hills or like the (South Texas) Medical Center or like in USAA. There's, like, 18,000 working at USAA. Can you imagine all of them going downtown?”

“They employ a lot of people, so parking is easier,” he said.

David Marquez, Bexar County's economic development director, said he considered any news about job growth to be good news, and that growth was expanding with the city.

“Context is always critical,” he said. “I think you need to balance that against another known fact, which is that we didn't have a recession. In our community, we didn't lose anything of size.”

“You're going to go to the outlying areas because that's where the space is,” he added. “They're not backfilling a vacated central area. I'm not saying downtown is booming by any means, but existing employment centers, like the Medical Center, the (U.S.) 281 corridor, those are still full, and they've been full.”

lbrezosky@express-news.net

Staff Writer Valentino Lucio contributed to this report.