The City of Brownsville and the Greater Brownsville Incentives Corporation are teaming up to host what it is the largest in-person career expo in the Rio Grande Valley. Careers And Coffee takes place on June 28 from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. at the Brownsville Events Center. There will be no entry fee. At a June 10 press conference, GBIC and city officials, along with employers present, said more than…
Becoming an entrepreneur and starting a business during a pandemic has taught Karina Saldivar some valuable lessons while deepening her appreciation for local support of small businesses. The latter has been vital for the success of her business, Amor y Pan. The bakery and store promotes healthy living with products that appeal to fans of keto, vegan and paleo lifestyles. A look inside her stylish shop just off Expressway 77/83…
Up in his son’s second floor office, Francisco Pulido pulls out a book of family photos. He then smiles at the sight of a skinny 19-year-old youth. “That’s me,” he said, pointing to himself in the late 1970s, standing in front of a record store in Nuevo Progreso. He was a young entrepreneur then. He was the son of Tamaulipas farmers, opening up a record shop in a town already…
Living in Harlingen these days means having access to as much parkland and hike-and-bike trails as can be found in the Rio Grande Valley. It’s a point that Harlingen Mayor Chris Boswell likes to make, as he did recently when the city marked the official opening of the Lon C. Hill Destination Park. The $3.3-million project transformed what was an ordinary green space. It is now over 50 acres of…
The headline atop the easel paper pad was in all caps and featured “SIGNIFICANT SIGHTINGS.” Underneath the big letters there were 23 bird species listed that had been seen across the Rio Grande Valley over the first three weeks of April. Next to that column were another 13 bird species spotted at South Padre Island. “It has been an exceptional year,” said Keith Hackland, who owns and operates the Alamo…
San Juan for years was on the periphery of the growth that came to define the McAllen-Pharr-Edinburg metro area. It was a stop of little notice when it came to business, heading east on Expressway 77/83. The feel began to change in the late aughts, around 2008, when H-E-B left Pharr to build and open one of its superstores in San Juan right along the expressway. It added a buzz…
The Weslaco Economic Development Corporation has a new executive director and its new leader comes from within the organization. Steven M. Valdez was selected as the executive director by the EDC’s board on May 19. Valdez formerly served as the EDC’s director for nearly five years. He comes into his new job with an understanding of the organization’s key functions. He also knows how it interacts with city government. Those…
The Rio Grande Valley’s real estate market currently has a scarcity of existing homes for sale. Residents holding on to properties as the region and country exits out of an economy influenced by the pandemic. This analysis was among the views offered recently during a 2021 Rio Grande Valley Economic Forecast & Market Incentives virtual summit co-hosted by the Harlingen Economic Development Corporation. The event, which spanned over three hours,…
There are stories of rock bands and software engineers getting modest starts working out of their garages on their first steps to success. It worked for Van Halen and Steve Jobs. In Brownsville, there’s a hometown brewery that got its start among friends in a westside neighborhood off the Military Highway. Pluton Brewery Company was named after a street by that name in the Galaxia neighborhood. This is where some…
Jason Cano as a young homebuilder learned the business from his father. He could have taken a traditional path in being employed by a construction company and working his way up. The Harlingen native, as a fresh college graduate in 2004, went through several job interviews with national home building companies. He was offered various positions. It wasn’t for him, Cano decided. He wanted the freedom and latitude to take…