By Steve Taylor and Daniela Capistran, Reporters
BROWNSVILLE, Texas – For the first time ever, Greater Brownsville Economic Development Corporation is asking its counterparts across the Rio Grande Valley to send them their workers so they can meet demand.
Gilberto Salinas, president of GBEDC, asked for help when speaking to a room full of economic development leaders from across the region. The event was hosted by Hidalgo County and held at UT-Rio Grande Valley’s Center for Innovation & Commercialization in Weslaco.
“I only have one action item. Just to open up those lines of communication,” Salinas said to his fellow economic development leaders.
Salinas said suppliers to big manufacturing companies typically need to be located within a two-hour radius.
‘That’s what a lot of companies are looking for, just-in-time delivery. So, that puts the Upper Valley in a great position, and they’re already doing a lot of business with companies (in the Brownsville area),” Salinas said.
“Yes, we do have companies out of Austin, San Antonio, but I want many of our local companies in the Valley doing business with these large corporations that are coming in to the Valley.”
Salinas said that for the longest time he used to think of local as anything south of Rancho Viejo.
“That was my definition of local. Everything south of Rancho Viejo was Brownsville. Everything we recruited was for Brownsville. But now that I’ve come back (to the Valley from Central Texas), and now we’re working on just a different caliber of projects, both in scope, size and magnitude…
“It is Economic Development 101, listen to your client, right? What does the prospect want? And one of the things that we caught ourselves hearing when we listened to them was: their definition of local was everything from Brownsville to McAllen, and then the shoulders, which are the areas outside of Brownsville and McAllen. And obviously I would cringe. We kept hearing it over and over again… if that doesn’t say that we have to now be regional, I don’t know what does.”
The demand for more workers is growing exponentially due to big projects coming in, in and around Brownsville, Salinas said. After discussing the growth of SpaceX and liquefied natural gas export terminals at the Port of Brownsville, Salinas said there is more on the way.
In his power-point presentation, Salinas showed two slides marked “confidential.” The slides contained details of more than a dozen new projects GBEDC is working on. And, by the way, the fact that the slides were marked “confidential” did not stop other economic development leaders from taking photos of the slides.
The names of the new companies GBEDC is working with were not listed on the slides. But the number of new jobs was. And so was the capital investment. It was easily more than ten thousand new bobs and billions of dollars in investment.
GBEDC asked the RGG Business Journal not to post the two slides because they were marked confidential.
“These are the top projects that we have,” Salinas said, pointing to the first slide. “So, in addition to everything that I have already mentioned (LNG and SpaceX), there’s more to come. It sounds like an infomercial: But There’s More.”
Salinas said the projects marked in red on the slides were highly likely to materialize. “As an economic development organization, as a region, this is what we wanted. But we’re here now. And, we’ve got this other project that’s now really putting us in a position where we have to figure out what are our next steps are. That’s why we’re here today.”
The second slide showed a project that would bring ten thousand-plus jobs to Brownsville.
“We need to have start having those conversations, to start addressing the workforce, the housing, even electricity and water, right?” Salinas said, as he referenced the new project on the second slide. “I think we’re better suited than other parts of the state, but still, we need to address all those things combined. With all these projects, we’re already looking at $20 billion in capital.”
Salinas continued: “So, yes, I’m glad we’re all here because there’s a lot going on. I don’t see a stop in here in the next few years. So here’s the bottom line: $20 million in capital investment; 25,000 direct jobs; 42,000 indirect jobs and the economic impact… these are just real rough numbers… economic impact… we’re looking at $200 billion in economic impact just in those projects that we have now.”
Once he had gone past the two slides, Salinas said: “Obviously, I haven’t shown all my cards. In addition to what I just showed there are two other (big projects). There are two other ones that are right behind. We are not done.”
Salinas added: “ These are transformational projects of a lifetime.”
Editor’s Note: Here, belows, is a video recording of Gilberto Salinas’ presentation at the Hidalgo County-sponsored event. However, it is missing the part marked “confidential” by GBEDC.
Editor’s Note: The above news story was the third in a three-part series based on Gilberto Salinas’ presentation to economic development leaders from across the Rio Grande Valley. Click here to read Part One. Click here to read Part Two.
