Center Spans Border To Boost Opportunities 

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Center Spans Border To Boost Opportunities 

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The eBridge Center in downtown Brownsville will provide an array of services to assist small business owners and entrepreneurs.
The eBridge Center in downtown Brownsville will provide an array of services to assist small business owners and entrepreneurs.

The Casa de Nylon-turned-entrepreneurial resource center is nearing completion in downtown Brownsville.

Cori Pena is at the helm of the BCIC as president and chief executive officer as it sets to open the eBridge Center.
Cori Pena is at the helm of the BCIC as president and chief executive officer as it sets to open the eBridge Center.

The 36,000-square-foot, two-story facility on east Adams Street should be open for business – and innovation – by the end of this month. It will be the largest facility of its kind south of San Antonio. The eBridge Center for Business & Commercialization is located just a few blocks from the Gateway International Bridge. The Brownsville Community Improvement Corporation intends to make it a crossroads for entrepreneurship.

The $4-million center is expected to be completed late this month pending any additional delays due to supply side issues. When completed, it will be a one-stop shop where a business prospect can walk in and receive help in developing business plans, get a cost analysis on operations, learn how to get access to capital and test their products in a “blueprint lab.”

There are many incubation centers that offer business development advice and expertise. The eBridge Center will offer those services but will go beyond the conventional business incubator. It will offer an array of services. Scaling up local small businesses and assisting them to grow will be a key component. It will continue its close partnership with the Entrepreneurship and Commercialization Center of UTRGV, which will have offices in the center. The Brownsville Chamber of Commerce will have an extension office at the facility. City government will as well to offer insights on the permitting process.

he eBridge Center will look out into downtown Brownsville from its east Adams Street location.
he eBridge Center will look out into downtown Brownsville from its east Adams Street location.

The building’s second floor will feature large laboratory space. Here, an emerging business can temporarily house its equipment and test its capabilities before going to market. Flexibility overall will be important. The BCIC wants its new center to adapt to opportunities and trends as they emerge.

“We’re agnostic when it comes to business sectors,” said Nathan Burkhart, the director of marketing and small business development for the BCIC. “We don’t pick out a sector or two … we can do technology and space, supply chain and logistics, food manufacturing. We can always pivot and develop programs and resources to meet a demand and interest.”

Changing With Times

Cori Pena has seen economic development evolve in Brownsville.

She is the new president and chief executive officer of the BCIC. Pena’s appointment came in early July after working her way up in the organization over the last 12 years. Her early years with the BCIC, which is a type B economic development organization by state designation, was focused on quality-of-life issues. Those included hike-and-bike trails, funding for museums and improvements for the Gladys Porter Zoo.

Nathan Burkhart, the BCIC's small business development director, points out some of the features the eBridge Center will house.
Nathan Burkhart, the BCIC’s small business development director, points out some of the features the eBridge Center will house.

Over time, as those goals were met, quality of life turned to focusing on growing jobs through the development of small businesses.

“As we’ve progressed, we have put more eggs in our basket,” Pena said as she began a tour of the still-under-construction e-Bridge center. “We know entrepreneurs are the heart of economic development.”

Pena and Burkhart ascended to the second floor of the new center. The BCIC offices will be on that floor as will be the lab and a data center to be certified by the U.S. Department of Defense in giving eBridge users added capabilities. The Musk Foundation donated $355,000 for the construction of the eBridge. It’s a reminder of the influence that Elon Musk’s SpaceX has had on the Brownsville economy.

Differing Role

The BCIC’s partnering EDC – the Greater Brownsville Incentives Corporation – is a type B organization and has pursued some of the bigger opportunities relating to SpaceX at Boca Chica and other potential large employers. The BCIC’s role is different in that it seeks to help small business owners, the ones “who grew up here,” Burkhart said. It is also working with Mexican business interests looking to enter the U.S. market in making Brownsville a crossroads place to go for economic and business development.

Pena continued to detail all of the services the eBridge will offer, including a patent office, as its opening nears. 

“We will have a lot to offer,” she said. “And it’ll all be under one roof.”

The 36,000-square-foot eBridge Center is anticipating a late-September opening. It will house services and facilities to assist small business operators and entrepreneurs.
The 36,000-square-foot eBridge Center is anticipating a late-September opening. It will house services and facilities to assist small business operators and entrepreneurs.

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