Ramiro Aleman picked up on a key element missing in San Benito when he was recently named executive director of the city’s economic development corporation.
“There was no presence of UTRGV in San Benito,” Aleman recalled thinking when starting his new job last fall. “How can we change that?”
On March 30, Aleman and his board welcomed UTRGV’s Office of Workforce and Economic Development to San Benito. The start of San Benito’s connection to the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley is a modest one, but it is sure to grow. For now, the university’s workforce and development office is making a staff member available on an appointment basis to assist local small businesses. The services provided include developing business and marketing plans, with insights on pursuing government contracts.
The UTRGV presence in San Benito will grow in late June. The university’s Entrepreneurship and Commercialization Center will begin a series of weekly classes with aspiring entrepreneurs on developing sound business plans and taking the best steps toward a successful business launch.
“We’re a smaller community and it’s a tremendous asset to have UTRGV in San Benito,” Aleman said. “It’s the flagship university of our region. It’s important to have their presence here with all of the potential San Benito has for economic growth.”
Taking Expertise On The Road
San Benito is among the area communities the university is reaching out to establish a connection to the portfolio of centers and programs UTRGV offers.
It has done so extensively in the medical and health care field and has several partnerships with public school districts. It’s now replicating those sorts of efforts in sharing economic development and business expertise with EDCs in the Valley.
“We have experts in all kinds of fields,” said Veronica Gonzalez, the senior vice president for governmental and community relations at UTRGV. “We have some great programs available and we have to take these services on the road. The expertise is there. It’s making sure we spread it out all over the Valley.”
Gonzalez and her office are making good on that pledge. In May alone, the UTRGV workforce and development office announced additional partnerships with EDCs in Harlingen and Mission. The UTRGV workforce office touts itself as being “the region’s economic portal.” Some of its core programs and services, like production of data and research, are beyond the capacity of smaller EDCs. Those added capabilities can give EDCs real time reports and analysis in recruiting new industries while assisting existing businesses.
“We help connect the dots,” said Ron Garza, the associate vice president for the workforce and development office. “We want to serve as an extension of an EDC, we can help build capacity across cities and most of our services are offered at no cost.”
Building An ‘Ecosystem’
Bringing UTRGV’s economic development expertise to the local level can boost the momentum a community is feeling and seeing.
In Harlingen, Mayor Norma Sepulveda lauded UTRGV for bringing its business and economic expertise to her city at a May 5 event on the campus of Texas State Technical College. She believes the eventual plan to have a full-time UTRGV economic development specialist in Harlingen’s EDC office will augment growth in her city.
“This isn’t the Harlingen from 10 years ago,” said Sepulveda, who was sworn in as the city’s first female mayor in May 2022. “There was a perception that Harlingen didn’t want to grow. Now, that’s changing. We’re seeing this shift where our demographics are trending younger and they’re looking for more.”
One can see the trend the mayor speaks of especially in southwest Harlingen going toward La Feria. A surge of new home construction is rapidly filling up lots that laid vacant for years. Academy Sports & Outdoors recently began construction at the busy Harlingen Corners retail and restaurant area near Dixieland Road. The added information and analysis from UTRGV’s workforce and economic development office is sure to boost that growth.
In San Benito, which has seen some retail and hospitality industry growth along its Expressway 77 corridor, having UTRGV in its community means having valued expertise nearby with an appreciated accessibility.
“It’s about bringing those services here and our local business people not having to go out and travel to Edinburg or Brownsville,” said Aleman, the EDC executive director in San Benito.
It is, as the UTRGV’s Garza said, “helping to build an ecosystem” across the region.