Mohamed Sharaf’s initial business visit to the Rio Grande Valley was one of getting a feel for a region where he wanted to build and open a travel center.

The concept is one of a modern-day truck stop with lots of floor space for food, snacks and beverages with extra-large bathrooms. Think Buc-ee’s with a different variation of a similar template as designed by Sharaf’s Victron Energy Corporation. One of his stops on that first RGV visit was to Mercedes. It’s where that city’s economic development executive director touted her community’s heart-of-the-Valley location.

It was 2020 and Mercedes up to that point had seen little growth in recent years. Sharaf was nonetheless impressed by the presentation of Melissa Ramirez, the economic development corporation director. She took him to the intersection of Expressway 83 and Mile 2 East Road, just east of the Rio Grande Valley Premium Outlets. Sharaf imagined how that mid-Valley location could be an ideal spot to attract commuters crisscrossing the Valley.

“Melissa was the first person I met and she sold the vision of the city and what this corridor could become,” said Sharaf, a Dallas-area businessman who is Victron’s vice president of development. 

Three years later, on that same intersection during a sweltering summer day, Sharaf cut a ribbon to formally open the Gateway Travel Center. It includes a Wendy’s and a next-door Chick-fil-A. The local high school band got things going with some marching music as a large crowd stepped out of shaded areas to watch Sharaf snip a blue ribbon with outsized scissors to a hearty round of applause. 

“We feel really blessed,” he said. “Sales have exceeded our expectations and they keep growing every month.”

Honoring Father’s Legacy

Sharaf could have gone anywhere in the Valley to develop his 13,000-square-foot travel center and connected restaurants. 

That’s how Mercedes City Commissioner Ruben Saldana summarized it in his remarks at the Aug. 7 ribbon cutting. Why Sharaf chose Mercedes is a combination of business acumen and a son honoring his late father’s legacy. Ali Sharaf was Victron’s founder and Mohamad’s father. The elder Sharaf was a Syrian immigrant who came to the United States in the 1980s as a civil engineer by training and education. His business start in the United States was the acquisition of a convenience store in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

It marked the start of a business enterprise that would grow to become Victron. The Waxahachie-based energy company is today a leading fuel distributor and a major retail and property developer in Texas. Mohamad Sharaf has taken up a key leadership role in the company after his father’s passing in 2014. He is instilling the values learned from his father, including Ali Sharaf’s affinity for small towns.

The elder Sharaf grew up on a farm in a small Syrian town near Damascus. He brought those sensibilities with him to the United States. Mohamad Sharaf said his father had a reputation for making investments in smaller communities with a rural feel. Mercedes is one of those small towns – and following in his father’s footsteps – Sharaf takes delight in seeing the city attracting new business after Victron made its investment in the community.

“Our goal, and the city’s goal, was for this project to kick start growth for the community and turn it into something bigger,” Sharaf said of his collaboration with Mercedes city leaders. “We want to make this intersection one of the more dynamic ones in the Rio Grande Valley.”

Positive Impact

The travel center’s grand opening came at a time when Mercedes community leaders are poised to announce a major retail development with anchor stores and new restaurants on a large tract of land immediately east of the outlet mall. 

An announcement on that development is expected by year’s end. City leaders said the developer has promised the new restaurants it’s locating in Mercedes will be ones not found in neighboring Weslaco. Meanwhile, there are plans for the property directly across the expressway from the travel center. A large convenience store and two well-known national brand fast-food restaurants are coming to that part of the expressway corridor, city leaders said. 

City Commissioner Saldana said Sharaf’s investment in Mercedes with the travel center project is the catalyst for the business development his city is experiencing. 

“It inspires confidence and it’s having an effect,” he said.

All of which Sharaf said fits into how Victron does business.

“For us, it’s more than building a business,” he said. “It’s about investing in a community like this one and making a positive impact.”