With CPS Energy's HQ move, a look back at history of AT&T in San Antonio

CPS to move into new HQ by 2019

SAN ANTONIO – CPS Energy announced on Monday that was moving its headquarters to the old AT&T headquarters in northern downtown San Antonio.

KSAT 12 decided to take a look back at what the announcement means. To help the more than 150,000 new people calling San Antonio home since 2008 understand the importance of filling a building that has been vacant for years, we have to go back to the 1980s.

In 1982, the Supreme Court ruled that AT&T Corp. was a monopoly and ruled it be broken up.

When the company was broken up into “Baby Bells” in 1984, San Antonio landed the headquarters of Southwestern Bell, the smallest of the seven “Baby Bells.”

Over the next 23 years, Southwestern Bell grew and became one of San Antonio’s most prominent corporate companies.

In the early 2000s when the county built a new home for the San Antonio Spurs, the company bought the naming rights.

By 2005, renamed, SBC Communications announced that it was buying AT&T Inc. or the original “Ma Bell.”

In 2008, the city’s highest-profile corporate company shocked city leaders and residents that it was leaving the Alamo City and setting up shop in Dallas. Since then, some of the buildings the company used to occupy have been vacant.

Monday’s announcement is important because it helps fill a building that has had a for-sale sign outside it for years.

Stick with KSAT 12 throughout the day Tuesday as we talk to CPS representatives to learn what will happen to the energy’s company current home downtown and how this announcement could be another catalyst for growth in downtown San Antonio.