Tag Archives: Fred Gonzalez

Groundbreaking Highlights Travel Center’s Possibilities

Mohamed Sharaf, center, with Mercedes City Manager Alberto Perez, left, and Mayor Oscar Montoya, right, at the groundbreaking for the Gateway travel center.

Mohamed Sharaf found kindred spirits in Mercedes that he said reminded him of his father’s farming and agricultural homeland in Syria. The vice president for development of the Waxahachie-based Victron Energy Inc. examined various South Texas markets for a site to build a high-end travel center that would be reminiscent of a Buc-ee’s, with a look reflecting a community’s history and heritage. In visiting the Rio Grande Valley, Sharaf was…

Read More

Mercedes Attracts New Sonic & Promises More

Mercedes Mayor Oscar Montoya leads city leaders at the groundbreaking for a new Sonic in the city. (Courtesy)

The intersection of 2nd Street and FM 491 for decades is where Mercedes residents and commuting Rio Grande Valley motorists could find the Ten-Ten Grocery Store. The beloved store that sold comic books, pickles and fishing bait closed in 2013. There’s a new business rising on the very spot where the Ten-Ten stood. It’s a Sonic Crush Drive-In. Community and business leaders gathered for a ground-breaking ceremony to celebrate the…

Read More

Queen City Food Park Coming To Mercedes

Queen City Food Park owners Ashley and Roy Gonzalez.

  The Mid-Valley area will soon be getting a second food truck park when Mercedes opens its version in early 2022. The Queen City Food Park will be located right alongside the south side of Expressway 83 on its access road where it intersects with Virginia Street. Its owners are Ashley and Roy Gonzalez, who began the process of having a food park in mid-2020. The couple has worked closely…

Read More