Category Archives: Industry

Harlingen Takes Big Economic Leap

e-Brief Features Featured Manufacturing/Industrial News Comments

When CARDONE Industries announced plans in December to build a 920,000-square-foot distribution center in Harlingen, it was touted as the largest economic development project in the city’s history. The $50-million facility represents a major strategic move for CARDONE, complementing existing operations in Matamoros, Brownsville and Harlingen. For Harlingen, the deal represents a giant step forward for economic growth in a city that over the last five years has experienced new…

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The Business of Teaching Creativity

Arts Education News Retail Comments
Hands In Art owner Margie Ramirez has built a business out of teaching art techniques to young people.

Anaid Madrigal stands before a group of young girls enjoying a birthday party with an added twist. Madrigal is teaching the girls how to improve their artistic skills as each one draws little mermaids on their individual canvas boards. “Everyone paints differently, so you can paint your own version,” said Madrigal, an instructor at the Hands In Art Studio in downtown Mission. Combining a birthday party with a tutorial on…

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Valley Organic Produce Feeds Texans

Agriculture Featured News Comments
Organic farmer Mark Miller holds gold beets grown at Tenaza Farms

Location, location, location is a familiar adage used to describe a major selling point in the real estate industry. In today’s health-conscious consumer marketplace, it’s organic, organic, organic. Just ask Mike Ortiz and Mark Miller, two of three partners (the other one is Jade Murray) who are involved in growing, packing and shipping more than a dozen winter vegetables for some of the biggest, and smallest, supermarkets and specialty shops…

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Coffee and Bicycles: An Odd Couple?

Featured News Retail Comments
7th and Park owner Graham Sevier-Schultz with a selection of new and used bicycles.

Bicycle enthusiasts gather on weekend mornings at a coffee shop before taking off on a group ride. While sipping one of many coffee drinks on the menu, they can pick up parts for their bikes or get a little maintenance done. That’s what sets 7th and Park apart from most coffee or bicycle shops. “I always wanted to own my own business but the ideas kept changing,” said Graham Sevier-Schultz,…

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Small Banking Has Big Rewards

Featured Finance/Banking Comments
Greater State Bank President and CEO David Salinas in front of the vault.

David Salinas’ first job in banking was to make sure the candy bowls for customers were kept full at First State Bank on the downtown square in his hometown of Edinburg. Building on that modest start, Salinas has lived a full career in banking that includes working for the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency before working for large regional banks like Texas Commerce Bank, International Bank of Commerce…

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Valley Cheese Finds New Markets

Agriculture Featured Food & Entertainment News Comments
Adam Thompson socializes with some of his goats and one of the family dogs.

After placing in the top 25 out of 400 entries in the H-E-B grocery store chain’s Quest for Texas Best competition, the pace of business at Thompson Dairy Farms has picked up dramatically. And, with a little luck, the farm’s goat cheese may next find a global market. Owner and head cheese maker Adam Thompson began marketing hand-crafted aged cheeses from goat’s milk at Rio Grande Valley farmers markets, where…

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Pharr Celebrates New Avocado Distribution Facility

Agriculture e-Brief Features Food & Entertainment News Comments
Index Fresh Board Chairman John Grether and President and CEO Dana Thomas (holding scissors) prepare to cut the ribbon on the company’s 60,000-square-foot avocado packing and ripening facility in Pharr.

Officials break ground for Index Fresh Latin American avocados headed for tables in the United States have a new place along the border to stay cool and ripen. Index Fresh cut the ribbon on a new 60,000-square-foot packing and ripening facility in Pharr on Jan. 9. “I am just overjoyed to be here today,” Index Fresh President and CEO Dana Thomas said. “I love the new plant. If you are…

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BBQ Joints Listed Among Best in Texas

Featured Food & Entertainment News Comments
January 2018 cover

Texans love their barbecue. Whether grilling or smoking meat in the back yard, or visiting a favorite eatery, barbecue aficionados’ varied tastes and favorite cooking methods can spark lively debates as to what makes the best of the best. They may even argue about the correct spelling: barbecue, bar-b-que or simply BBQ. In the Rio Grande Valley, where dozens of restaurants large and small specialize in classic Texas barbecue, only…

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Latina Hope Encourages Women Entrepreneurs

Featured News Non-Profit Retail Comments
Businesswoman Elizabeth Aguilera Davis, left, and Laura Robles of the McAllen Chamber of Commerce at a recent meeting of Latina Hope. (Courtesy)

The spark of an idea to start a business can come from anywhere. It can be an example someone has demonstrated in inspiring budding entrepreneurs to set off on their own, or turning a passion and love of a hobby into a business. The seed of a business may even come from a dream. Rosie Castillo dreamt of bright angels fluttering all around her, with one brighter than the others.…

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Texas Regional Breaks Ground on Corporate HQ

e-Brief Features Events Finance/Banking News Comments
Texas Regional Bank President and CEO Paul Moxley gestures during his remarks at the groundbreaking ceremony for the bank’s new corporate headquarters.

As Rio Grande Valley temperatures plunged with a blast of winter weather, members of the Harlingen business community huddled together under a tent for a groundbreaking ceremony to mark the start of construction of Texas Regional Bank’s corporate headquarters. Just a few days earlier the bank opened its newest Harlingen branch in a temporary building at Stuart Place Road and Expressway 83, right next door to where the new banking…

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