Brooks City-Base gets new tenant
It once served as the base exchange for Brooks AFB, selling everything from socks to soda, but Tuesday the 27,000-square-foot building became the new local headquarters of Earth Tech.
A Long Beach, Calif.-based consulting, engineering and construction services firm with 50 employees in San Antonio, Earth Tech became the largest tenant — second only to the Air Force — at Brooks. "We think this is a perfect fit for not only San Antonio but specifically for Brooks City-Base," said Mayor Ed Garza, who attended a ceremony Tuesday welcoming Earth Tech. The company is part of a plan by Brooks Development Authority, which runs the 1,300-acre technology park, to lease former military space to private companies, particularly those that contract with the Air Force. The service still occupies 90 percent of the buildings at Brooks, but as buildings become available, the development authority rehabilitates them and markets them to private companies. "This is a high-tech environmental engineering firm," said Tom Rumora, executive director of the development authority. "It's exactly what the Brooks Development Authority wants to have as a tenant." Earth Tech moved its offices from downtown San Antonio to Brooks so it could be close to the Air Force. Brooks is the home of the Air Force's 311th Human Systems Wing, which researches ways to improve the soldiers' lives in combat situations, such as improving ejection seats in fighter jets. Brooks also serves as the base of operations for the Air Force Center for Environmental Excellence and the Air Force Radiation Assessment Team. "We are the birthplace, home and future of aerospace medicine," said Air Force Col. Tom Travis at Brooks. "And we are, in fact, the best in the business." Having the Air Force as the basis for the Brooks City-Base research park will help to spawn many more company relocations in the future, Rumora said. And it's important to demonstrate the economic value of Brooks in advance of the 2005 Base Realignment and Closure process, he said. "It is so gratifying to see the vision for Brooks City-Base become a reality for the community," said City Councilman Ron Segovia. A lot of room exists to grow the base to attract more private employers to it, Segovia said. Brooks, in combination with KellyUSA and the coming Toyota plant, creates great momentum on the South Side, he said.
