(Cibolo) — The door destined to trigger growth and development on Guadalupe County’s west end along Interstate 10 has been blown wide open and elected officials can’t help but prepare for what is next.
Representatives from AW Texas, alongside Texas Governor Greg Abbott, city of Cibolo elected officials and partners officially broke ground Monday morning on the AW Texas 159 acre automatic transmission plant in Cibolo. AW Texas is a subsidiary of Japan’s Aisin AW Co. and a leading manufacturer of transmissions around the world.
The plant, announced earlier this fall, will be the third United States’ transmission plant for the Aisin Group. The plant will bring approximately 900 new jobs to the area over the next five years.
Judy Cope, Guadalupe County Commissioner Pct. 4, says the county couldn’t be happier about being home to this new $400 million high-tech manufacturing plant. The plant, which lies in Cope’s precinct, will be built immediately off of Interstate 10, right next door to the San Antonio Raceway located on Santa Clara Road in Marion.
“I think that the west end, of course, has always been one of the fastest growing parts of the county. However, they are pretty much grown to their limits so it’s going to have to come our way and this is the beginning right here of I think a big industrial break through that we’ll be seeing all throughout the county — new jobs, better wages — something that is not going to come and go — that we will have here for years and years to come so our kids and grandkids can stay right here if they want to and be close to family and that’s always been one of my goals when I ran for office was to make sure that our kids and grandkids could stay close to their families and have the means to do it. So, I think this is wonderful. Of course, I always would rather not lose the farmland but it’s being put to good use so we really are encouraged by this,” said Cope.
Commissioner Jim Wolverton, Pct. 3, has always been a strong voice for growth and development on the county’s west end. Wolverton says he believes the new plant will help springboard even more activity increasing the benefits for all corners of Guadalupe County.
“For years, I’ve been telling people as soon as we get somebody on I-10, we are going to just look like New Braunfels, San Marcos and San Antonio because that is virtually the new frontier for Guadalupe County and now that we have an anchor of AW Texas, I see nothing but blue skies from now on for Guadalupe County and the state of Texas. We couldn’t have asked for anything better,” said Wolverton.
Even though Cibolo is getting the tax base for the AW Texas plant, Marion Mayor Victor Contreras says he can’t help but be ready for the residual tax base that will hopefully pour into his community. He says with Marion nestled right next door to surrounding properties, the whole area stands to benefit.
“I think it’s going to help the cities around us but also our city with maybe more commercial growth. I’m hoping on that because people are going to have to have a place to go eat, go shop and things like that and its going to spur some residential growth because the 900 jobs are not just going to go Cibolo and Seguin — New Berlin is putting in a new subdivision maybe Marion in our growth plan, we can get some of those houses sold,” said Contreras.
Governor Abbott also spoke about the plant’s estimated $40 billion economic impact on the region. He says when the city of Cibolo and Guadalupe County win, then the whole state of Texas wins.
“This is a team effort. Nothing likes this just happens by chance. It happens because everybody coming together, working together, collaborating together. This is something that puts Guadalupe County and Cibolo on the map and what you will see in the coming years and coming decades is this was a beginning of a chapter that will lead to chapter after chapter of the next great book about this entire region. You will be able to look back and know that you were part of a process from the very beginning. Where you got to see the beginning of the build out of Guadalupe County and Cibolo . You’ll look back and tell your kids and tell your grandkids, I was there the day the ground was broken on the project that led to all this massive development around the entire region. This is a day in the record books for Cibolo, Texas,” said Abbott.
Production of automatic transmission at the plant is scheduled to begin September 2021. The project is a result of collaborative efforts among the city of Cibolo, Guadalupe County, Guadalupe Valley Electric Cooperative (GVEC), the San Antonio Economic Development Foundation and the state of Texas.