‘South Beach Project’ lays plans to bring 1,000 Defense Health Agency employees to Fort Sam

A yearslong plan to bring Defense Health Agency (DHA) missions to San Antonio’s Fort Sam Houston, known as “South Beach Project,” is slowly coming into focus.

DHA is the federal agency that oversees medical services for the military, currently headquartered in Falls Church, Virginia.

Established in 2013, the agency manages all military hospitals and clinics and the TRICARE network, employs tens of thousands of civilians and military service members worldwide. 

South Beach Project would consolidate some assets and thousands of workers currently scattered in facilities throughout the greater San Antonio area, a DHA spokesman said in 2023, and also allow the agency to manage selected skill sets and functions in one central location. 

But San Antonio and Bexar County have long been engaged in an effort to turn the region into a military medical mecca — one that could potentially involve state economic development grants as well.

“We are Military City USA but we are also quickly becoming, if not already, Military Medicine City USA,” Commissioner Grant Moody (Pct. 3) said at a Commissioners Court meeting in December 2023. “With additional DHA employees coming to San Antonio, we’re going to continue to expand and bring additional resources and additional missions here to San Antonio, and I think there’s a lot of synergies that come with that.”

In perhaps the clearest signal yet of their plans, an agenda document from Tuesday’s Bexar County Commissioners Court meeting says the county is engaging an architect to put together plans for a building renovation for DHA at Fort Sam Houston.

“Once completed, the DHA / South Beach renovation project will house over 1,000 DHA employees who will be dedicated to the mission of improving health and business readiness here at [Joint Base San Antonio] and the nation’s Joint Military Force.”

Original plans date back to 2005, the document says, and a cost update for renovating a four-story building known as South Beach Pavilion is needed. The original $30 million plan was based on $10 million contributions from both the city and county, as well as $10,000 in state grants that haven’t yet been applied for. 

Also known as Fort Sam Houston Building 2371, the buildings were built in 1931 and converted into a hospital during World War II.

“This project, with funding from three different entities, is intended to be both an economic impact project, as well as help the overall mission of JBSA.”

Reporter Shari Biediger contributed to this report.