Mid-Valley cities for years touted their heart-of-the-region location as a selling point for economic development and an ideal place to live for commuters with jobs in every part of the Rio Grande Valley. For years there were no real numbers or data to back up the middle-of-the-Valley rationale as a winning strategy. New numbers from the U.S. Census Bureau are changing that narrative. Cities like Mercedes and Weslaco show some…
One of Steve Valdez’s primary goals in leading the Weslaco Economic Development Corporation was to make it “a data-driven organization.” Valdez took the EDC’s helm in 2021. In the years since, Weslaco has continued its steady and sure growth in reaching higher levels of growth. The data Valdez speaks of shows the recording of some new high-water marks in 2024. Weslaco generated over $1 billion in taxable sales for the…
The chief executive officer of a major San Antonio development company referred to Weslaco in late 2021 as a “community that has been underserved.” Craig Garansuay offered that description during a Weslaco City Hall meeting as local leaders were making their pitch to business interests gathered to learn more about the community. Weslaco at the time was seeing its first signs of new retail and housing construction growth coming out…
The development of open spaces along Expressway 83 between Pharr and Harlingen is accelerating as developers look to fill gaps and bring brand names in retailing and restaurants to smaller communities. Cities like Donna and Mercedes were formerly excluded from the Rio Grande Valley’s rapid growth of the last two decades. The same was once the case for San Juan. In the early 2000s, San Juan was a community that…
Corporate Asset Partners has developed retail and business plazas across South Texas and one of its chief executives has come to a conclusion about Weslaco. “The community has been underserved,” said Craig Garansuay of the San Antonio-based asset partners. Garansuay has crunched the numbers and determined that Weslaco is above area market averages in some key consumer categories. In Weslaco, restaurants featuring hamburgers are 35 percent above area averages in…
Cantina La Campana can be a bit hard to find – and it’s by design. The bar is tucked in the back of Mercado Weslaco. A customer has to walk a hallway of mini-stores featuring Mexican merchandise to reach the downtown cantina. Get a feel for the Mercado before getting to the bar in the back. “It adds a mystique about our place,” said Steve Valdez, who owns La Campana…
In a 1950s-era two-story white building “smack in the middle of downtown Weslaco,” as Mario Mendiola describes it, the realtor is trying to make a go of a major renovation project he hopes will give the city’s core a boost. “There’s so much potential in this area,” Mendiola said of his two-year effort to renovate a six-decades-old building on the corner of Texas and Sixth streets. “I want to help…