About 250 people attended the Port of Brownsville’s annual State of the Port event to celebrate continued growth and look forward to opportunities that may be just around the corner. “2017 was indeed a banner year,” said Brownsville Navigation District Vice Chairman John Reed. “And 2018 could become a turning point for the port and for South Texas.” Reed was the lead speaker at the Thursday luncheon in Brownsville. He…
UT Health Rio Grande Valley, the clinical component of The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley School of Medicine, has acquired a general surgery practice in Harlingen as part of the School of Medicine’s mission to increase access to primary and specialty care for residents throughout the region. The UT Health Rio Grande Valley Surgery and Women’s Specialty Center, located at 614 Maco Drive in Harlingen, will offer services such…
McAllen Heart Hospital is one of America’s 100 Best Hospitals for both cardiac care and coronary intervention. The 2018 honors come from Healthgrades. The organization identifies the 100 best-performing hospitals across all conditions or procedures evaluated within both cardiac care and coronary intervention. Healthgrades evaluated nearly 4,500 hospitals nationwide for 34 of the most common inpatient procedures and conditions. This is the second year in a row the South Texas Health System hospital has…
Harlingen Economic Development Corporation‘s podcast, The Big Opportunity, is now live and explores how interest in industrial property in the Harlingen area is on the rise. Topics range from construction of CARDONE Industries’ new $50 million, 920,000-square-foot Harlingen distribution center to the Harlingen Aerotropolis. Also part of the discussion are the Park at Roosevelt and industrial property availability in the Harlingen Industrial Park. Raudel Garza, CEO of the HEDC, as well as…
The numbers are impressive. The North American Free Trade Agreement has had a profound impact on the economies of the United States, Mexico and Canada, the three nations party to the agreement implemented in 1994. NAFTA has been a driving force behind increases in Texas exports, which reached $247 billion by 2015, the best in the country and followed by California with $163 billion, according to statistics compiled by Jesus…
On March 2, the City of Edinburg Library and Cultural Arts Division and the Edinburg Arts Foundation unveiled a new sign marking the spot of the future South Texas Arts and Cultural Center. Plans are in the works to renovate the old Sam Houston Elementary School. The vision is to feature local artists, host family-friendly cultural events, and attract more visitors to the city. The city acquired the property at the corner…
While working for the city of McAllen as a landscape architect, Andrew Heffner realized the region could support a full-time business that catered to commercial, residential and public clients who needed a landscape architect. Five years ago, he opened Heffner Design Team as a one-man operation. Today he heads a full-time staff of four designing landscapes with the aim they be “beautiful, functional and meet the client’s budget.” Licensed by…
Some elements of the new tax reform package that was signed into law late last year and took effect in 2018 are straightforward and simple to understand. Others are detailed and complex. And some areas are cloudy since the regulations haven’t been written yet. The simplest part of the package to understand is the lowering of tax rates in the seven tax brackets for individuals. “Whatever bracket you are in,…
With potentially millions of dollars in transportation funding on the line for the Rio Grande Valley, the idea of consolidating the region’s three Metropolitan Planning Organizations has been percolating for several years. But, so far, only the Hidalgo County MPO is on record as being firmly behind the merger. Hidalgo County MPO Director Andrew Cannon said such a consolidation could bring an additional $11 million a year to the Valley…
Several hundred dentists provide needed services throughout the Rio Grande Valley, and one of them owns and manages the largest network of clinics in the South Texas, and perhaps in the Lone Star State. Dr. Juan D. Villarreal, a Harlingen native who holds a doctor in dentistry from the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, has turned the business that he first opened in 1983 on Ed…