A city without a chamber of commerce isn’t whole. In Raymondville, that essential piece was missing before a long-standing community leader returned to revive a dormant organization. Elma Chavez was running her own business in Raymondville when city leaders approached her early this year. Their suggestion was more of a plea. She had retired five years prior from her post as executive director of the Raymondville Chamber. The community needed…
For decades, the scenario was the same for Rio Grande Valley residents when it came time to make job choices after receiving their technical training and education at area colleges. The better jobs and higher pay were elsewhere. Be it at the Port of Houston or jobs at aviation manufacturing facilities in California, Valley natives searched nationwide for careers that could match their aspirations. That equation is beginning to change…
The fallout from the economic upheavals of 2020 when coupled with the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022 have frayed supply chains from Asia and put global energy markets on edge. Two buzzwords are making the rounds of economic development talk as industries readjust and calculate what lays ahead. One term banding about is reshoring. This is the reestablishment of manufacturing operations in the United States after being previously located…
At 2 a.m., the first trucks are leaving and on their way to Laredo, Alice and Corpus Christi. They are filled with all varieties of fruits and vegetables that have made their way to Nicho Produce in Edinburg from California, Mexico and origins further south. The skies are seeing the first glimmers of light when the remainder of the 30-plus truck fleet is leaving Nicho’s just off north Closner. Those…
The Rio Grande Valley Livestock Show & Rodeo is billed as the region’s single largest event in drawing over 300,000 visitors to the yearly celebration. The 2024 edition is a special one in what RGV Livestock Show leadership is calling the event’s Diamond Anniversary. The 85th annual show will take place from March 7-17 of next year in Mercedes, its historical home and where it got started downtown in 1939.…
Brownsville native Orlando Campos spent over 15 years in North Texas, working for chambers of commerce and in economic development. He was hoping for the right opportunity that could bring him home. In 2023, a job opening and the right candidate for it met when Campos became the new manager and chief executive officer for Harlingen Economic Development Corporation. He was selected in mid-June among 20 candidates by the EDC…
The official word finally came in late June with the announcement that Houston-based NextDecade was building an $18 billion-plus liquefied natural gas plant at the Port of Brownsville. For port executives and community at-large leadership, the announcement was a combination of relief and elation in definitively knowing they overcame all obstacles and last-minute legal challenges. Site work began the same day of the announcement. The dirt started moving on the…
SpaceX has completed a months-long process it says shows compliance with federal requirements that would authorize the second launch of the Starship rocket. The nearly 400-foot rocket currently sits on its launch pad on the shores of Boca Chica Beach. The initial Starship launch occurred on April 20. The rocket, which is described as the largest and most powerful ever built, got off the ground in spectacular fashion. Thousands of…
Jay Garza as a freshly minted Texas A&M University graduate relocated to California to chase his big-city dreams. Living in San Francesco, Perez worked in human resources operations for Gap Inc. at its corporate headquarters. There were aspects of the West Coast life he enjoyed, but long, traffic-filled commutes became tiresome, and his family in Harlingen beckoned. His father, Henry, a small business owner in Harlingen, was perplexed why his…
SpaceX‘s Starship rocket is ready for its second launch, awaiting federal approvals, and eager to improve over an April launch that successfully lifted off but disintegrated over the Gulf of Mexico four minutes into flight. Kathryn Lueders, the new executive general manager at Starbase on Boca Chica Beach, gave that assessment on Thursday at an event hosted by the South Padre Island Chamber of Commerce at the Holiday Inn Resort.…