Jesse Flores looked down the block on north Commerce Street in Harlingen and saw an empty 6,500-square-foot building whose origins go back to the 1920s.

Flores had renovated a next-door building and repurposed it to a multi-use structure that houses a variety of businesses. Might he do the same with the available building just a stone toss away?

“I don’t want it,” Flores recalled telling the owner of the large vacant building located on the corner of Commerce and Madison streets. “No one wanted to touch it with a 10-foot pole.”

The initial rejection would be followed a few years later with a curious interest as Flores had contemplated the possible uses for the building. In its past, the structure had housed a bottling company, a sheet metal shop, and a dry cleaner. Flores purchased the building in 2024 and then went about figuring out the question of “what I can do with it?” 

Flores settled on creating an events center and making it a grand venue with its 30-foot ceiling. He’s now months into a big fixer upper and with the assistance of the Harlingen Economic Development Corporation has a black-and-gold sign facing Commerce that says it all. 

“Majestic Event Cener,” the sign reads, and that it will be.

‘One Of A Kind’

Flores walked around his emerging venue on a recent afternoon and surveyed the wooden framework of pillars and intricate woodwork that when completed will have a white-and-gold look and design.

It will feature a domed interior entrance with chandeliers and 11 windows wrap around the building. The Majestic will feature elegance, Flores say, a ballroom and venue that will host weddings, receptions, quinceaneras, family celebrations, and corporate events. It will be a facility that can have up to 250 people per event. 

Flores is partnering with an events planner – Frank Limon – who books and organizes events throughout the Rio Grande Valley. In the Majestic, Limon sees an events center that will be among the best in the region.

“It’s going to be one of a kind,” said Limon, whose Diamond Moon Events will have the exclusivity to book events at the Majestic. “You’re not going to find anything like this here in Harlingen or even in Brownsville.”

To assist in the building’s renovation, Flores turned to a Revitalized Harlingen Matching Grant program that is offered by the city’s economic development corporation. It offers up to $10,000 in matching funds for each pre-approved project. Flores utilized a $10,000 matching grant to help pay for the signage of his emerging business.

The Harlingen EDC program is in its fourth year and has helped over 30 small businesses in the city with facade and exterior improvements in attracting new customers. In all, the EDC says nearly $3 million in new investments have been made by small businesses in Harlingen due in part to the matching grant program. 

`More Modern Look’

On Tyler Avenue, Maria Martinez’s P&R Income Tax Services utilized the grant program to help revitalize the exterior of a building that faces one of Harlingen’s busiest thoroughfares.

Martinez used a $10,000 grant from the EDC to improve the look of her building in converting to a stucco facade with improved landscaping, a new front door and utilized the funds to also replace old light fixtures. The building improvement’s total cost was $20,000, but with the EDC grant “it’s like we spent only $10,000,” Martinez said.

“We have a more modern look,” Martinez said. “It’s helping to bring in new customers because our building is more noticeable from the road.”

Programs like the grant program are a good way for the EDC to reach out to small businesses in the community to make them aware that the city has resources to assist them, said Maria Escobar, the small business and startup manager for the Harlingen EDC. Flores, the Majestic’s owner, serves on the EDC’s small business advisory committee. He says the grant program is among the tools that can be used to revitalize corridors like the one on north Commerce.

“Cities like Harlingen have a lot of unused and underutilized buildings,” Flores said. “It’s helpful when a city can help small businesses bear the cost to bring back these old buildings back to life in a positive way. The satisfying part is that now a building like this one is being repurposed and we’re planting the seed that more businesses can do what we’ve done.”