In a recent DC visit, the group has asked for a $2-million grant to cover planning and engineering phases for the Luke Boulevard relocation, a move that would open up 20 to 25 acres for air cargo-related projects along the 11,500-foot runway. "It's the most valuable property we have," Paul Roberson, executive director of the Greater Kelly Development Authority, tells GlobeSt.com. An additional $2.9 million is being sought from the federal government for the actual road relocation.

Under the closure plan, KellyUSA gets part of the closed base and will share the runway with the US Air Force. Lackland AFB is absorbing the balance of the acreage. Under the pact, Lackland gets daytime runway use and KellyUSA's clients, the night hours.

Roberson says the strategy is to move the road 1,500 feet and demolish about four million sf of obsolete warehouses that stand in the path for developing the acreage. "We don't want it to look like a closed Air Force base," he says. "We want it to look like a top-tier industrial park."

In conjunction with Luke Boulevard's relocation, the Texas Department of Transportation and the Metro Planning Agency, San Antonio's transportation overseer, are reviewing its plans for the Kelly Parkway corridor. Roberson estimates that development phase is at 10 years out from actual construction. But, he says, planning must start now for the project to come to fruition.

Meanwhile, KellyUSA is in active discussions with Union Pacific Railroad to expand an existing rail yard with major intermodal capabilities, Roberson confides. Also in the works is a formal memorandum that will be put to the Houston and Galveston port authorities, once that merger is complete, to jumpstart a goal to transform the base into a major inland port for multi-modal logistics. Roberson says he hopes to have a signed memorandum with the Texas ports by year's end. A Corpus Christi port pact already is in place.

At the crux of KellyUSA's plan is to develop good-paying jobs, even if it means under-cutting its commercial real estate competitors. "We're willing to give very good rates to a company if it's the right fit," stresses Roberson. To date, KellyUSA provides 5,000 jobs and hopes to double that number before the end of the year.

KellyUSA's leasing activity has more than 30 companies in place at the closed base as a result of nearly four years of active recruiting. At least a dozen more prospects are in the pipeline, according to Roberson. He anticipates at least two more large companies and a handful of smaller ones will join the tenant roster before the year closes. The existing tenant roster includes Boeing Co., Lockheed Martin Corp. Standard Aero, Pratt & Whitney and Chromalloy.

In addition to the air cargo operations, the authority is building an office building at the main entrance that is geared to small and medium-size users. The office building delivers in August, just one month after a new hangar that is being built to accommodate Boeing's operations.