Photo: JERRY LARA /San Antonio Express-News
Virginia food packaging company Cuisine Solutions will open a plant at the Brooks master planned community on the city’s Southeast Side next year, creating more than 500 jobs within four years.
The $120 million, 290,000-square-foot plant — which will sit on 23.7 acres — constitutes the largest single investment in Brooks’ history, officials said Friday. Construction on the facility is expected to begin in March. The plant will likely open in mid-2020.
“The addition of Cuisine Solutions contributes to our strategic goal of supporting the employment needs of our surrounding community,” Brooks CEO Leo Gomez said in a statement.
Cuisine Solutions packages and sells fully-cooked entrees and gourmet sauces to retailers, restaurants, hotels and airlines. The company has four plants in Virginia, France and Thailand and plans to open another in Pennsylvania.
“Brooks is the ideal location for us to establish our presence west of the Mississippi River,” Cuisine Solutions CEO Stanislas Vilgrain said in a statement. “San Antonio has an industrious and enthusiastic workforce that we’ll tap into to help support our growth and meet the increasing demand for our restaurant-quality products.”
The Brooks development has seen a succession of activity in the past several months. Last year, Czech company Okin Business Process Services picked Brooks to house its U.S. headquarters, promising to create more than 1,400 jobs and invest about $23 million at the site.
In exchange, officials with the city, county and state have promised Okin at least $8.4 million in incentives.
Brooks recently landed the state’s first project under a program established by President Donald Trump’s $1.5 trillion tax overhaul in 2017 that’s designed to spur investment in low-income areas: a $16-million climate-controlled self-storage facility with flex office space.
Last week, Brooks officials announced City Base Commons, a 50,000-square-foot retail complex at Brooks developed by local company GFR Development Services. The retail development will house at least 11 retail, restaurant and medical tenants including Raising Cane’s, Tia’s Taco Hut, and Mr. C’s Fried Chicken and Waffles when it opens in July.
Article originally published here: Food packaging plant to bring 500 jobs to San Antonio’s South Side
