Tag Archives: Brownsville Community Improvement Corporation

BCIC Accepting Pitch Summit Applications

Community e-Brief Features Featured News Comments

The Brownsville Community Improvement Corporation’s third annual StartUp Texas Pitch Summit is now open and accepting applications. The event will be the first ever in-person version since the program began in March of 2020.  The Startup Texas Pitch Summit is a live event where early-stage companies pitch their product/service to industry experts, venture capitalists, and high profile journalists. This spring, the winning pitch will not only receive $25,000 in startup…

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Brownsville Sees Rapid Business Growth

Community News Comments
The 1929 Whiskey Tavern, with Market Square in the window reflection, is one of many Brownsville businesses to receive local grants to help open and develop downtown properties.

Brownsville needed to send out a different kind of message that fit with the times of a city that sees itself as the state’s new space city. City leaders wanted to accelerate the process of getting business prospects through the grind of meeting building codes and ordinances. Every city has those measures in place, but it doesn’t mean they have to be overly cumbersome in the process of getting a…

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Chocolatier Brings New Flavor To Brownsville

Food & Entertainment News Comments
Cacao beans from all over the world are used in the products of Raw Xocolat.

Jesus Bojorquez had a decision to make in moving toward a degree in biomedical science.  Should he continue on a career path toward pharmacy school as he planned after concluding a stint in the U.S. Army? There was a new pursuit that had caught the Brownsville native’s fancy. It was becoming more than a hobby. Bojorquez was intrigued with the notion of being a chocolatier.  He had more than dabbled…

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Bringing Expertise & Services To Higher Level

Community News Comments
Nathan Burkhart of the BCIC is helping to oversee the building of the new "eBridge." (VBR)

These are heady days for the Brownsville Community Improvement Corporation as it incorporates emerging technology and the excitement of SpaceX at Boca Chica into a growing economy. The BCIC funds economic development and boosts quality of life projects. There’s plenty of that in Brownsville right now. Downtown improvements and a flurry of small businesses are seeing early successes and working to scale up operations. The BCIC is in the middle…

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Analysts See RGV Economy Making Gains

Community Comments
Major hospitals are expanding and growing across the Valley.

The Rio Grande Valley’s real estate market currently has a scarcity of existing homes for sale. Residents holding on to properties as the region and country exits out of an economy influenced by the pandemic.  This analysis was among the views offered recently during a 2021 Rio Grande Valley Economic Forecast & Market Incentives virtual summit co-hosted by the Harlingen Economic Development Corporation. The event, which spanned over three hours,…

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Pluton Brewing Growth With BCIC

Food & Entertainment News Comments
Good times and hard work are had at Pluton Brewery. (Courtesy)

There are stories of rock bands and software engineers getting modest starts working out of their garages on their first steps to success.  It worked for Van Halen and Steve Jobs. In Brownsville, there’s a hometown brewery that got its start among friends in a westside neighborhood off the Military Highway. Pluton Brewery Company was named after a street by that name in the Galaxia neighborhood. This is where some…

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Market Square Renovation Sparks Rebirth

News Recreation & Tourism Retail Comments

Brownsville’s public market and town hall went up as the city got its start in 1850. Butchers and other vendors moved in a year later. The city’s central square would go through various rebuilds. It would survive hurricanes as well as other calamities through the ages with a city that grew up around it. The last half of the 20th century saw what came to be known as Market Square…

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BCIC Offers Funding for Downtown Development

Featured News Comments
BCIC grants

The Brownsville Community Improvement Corporation is seeking for start-ups and existing businesses for its “Business Improvement & Growth (BIG)” Program. These entities should be looking to relocate or expand in Brownsville’s Historic Downtown. Through the BIG Program, businesses and property owners can receive financial assistance for exterior and interior capital improvements. This includes signage improvements. They can also receive rent subsidy assistance for projects intended to create jobs and increase…

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Brownsville Grant Aims at 501(c)3 Organizations

Featured News Non-Profit Comments
BCIC

The Brownsville Community Improvement Corporation is accepting applications for its Partnership Grant.  The grant is awarded to 501(c)3 organizations with projects that will significantly impact the city’s sales tax revenues. This includes events, activities and campaigns taking place from Jan. 1 to Dec. 31, 2019. The Partnership Grants is the replacement for the Promotion & Community Events Grant. This grant provided supplemental funding for marketing expenditures towards community events, campaigns or…

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Comeback in Brownsville

Food & Entertainment News Recreation & Tourism Comments
Mariachis perform at Noche de Garibaldi in downtown Brownsville. The musical event was patterned after the music scene in Mexico City’s Garibaldi Plaza. (VBR)

Downtown Brownsville is a happening place again. The once thriving central business district is undergoing a major transformation, and much of the credit is going to the city’s leadership and to the progressive vision of some of its residents. Brownsville’s downtown used to be a place bustling with people shopping for a variety of merchandise, ranging from fashionable clothes to ropa usada to household goods to furniture to gadgets of…

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