BROWNSVILLE — Greyhound Lines Inc. is planning to bring a bus refurbishing and final assembly operation to Brownsville that will create 73 direct jobs and entail $2.2 million in capital investment.
That’s according to the Greater Brownsville Incentives Corp., which said Tuesday the operation will be located in a city-owned, 68,000-square-foot building at the Brownsville South Padre Island International Airport and have an estimated economic impact of $7.7 million on Brownsville annually.
Gil Salinas, GBIC interim executive director, said he had been working with Greyhound since October 2016, when he fielded the initial call from the company as executive vice president of the Brownsville Economic Development Corp. The Brownsville facility will refurbish Greyhound’s entire U.S. bus fleet plus a portion of its Mexican fleet, he said.
“They will be another great corporate citizen for Brownsville,” Salinas said.
He characterized it as more good news in Brownsville’s bid to develop its industrial sector, alongside Cardone Industries’ establishment of a car-part remanufacturing operation at the former Titan Tire facility; a major expansion project underway at CK Technologies; Keppel AmFELS landing two ship-building contracts for this year, and the continued growth of the SATA USA machining operation.
Greyhound, headquartered in Dallas, has been a subsidiary of the British transportation company FirstGroup since 2007. The carrier serves more than 3,800 destinations in North America.
“Brownsville’s proximity to major ports of entry, our regional base of suppliers, our international logistics, a source of a manufacturing workforce and a pro-business climate were all factors in Greyhound’s decision to locate in our region,” Salinas said.
Cesar de Leon, Brownsville city commissioner and GBIC chairman, said he welcomes the company and appreciates “their confidence in choosing Brownsville for their refurbishing facility.”
“It was the partnership between GBIC, Greyhound and other local entities which was vital in making this project a reality in our city,” he said. “As city commissioner and chair of the GBIC, my objective is to help create job opportunities for our community, and expand our industrial and commercial base.”
De Leon described Brownsville as the top city for manufacturing and investment in the Rio Grande Valley and said he’ll work hard to maintain that status.
“That’s one of the goals the commission has set,” he said at the March 20 commission meeting. “If we can get better paying jobs in the city of Brownsville, we know the quality of life will improve for everybody.”
De Leon said Greyhound will begin hiring locally soon and that the Brownsville operation is part of the company’s “long-term strategy” for the city. Salinas said GBIC has been talking to the company’s executives about partnering on initiatives to develop local human capital — job training, in other words.
“We have a great potential to build on this new opportunity,” he said.
Salinas said Greyhound will spend about two months retrofitting the building on airport land, and that the facility should be fully operational within six months. Financial incentives played a role in attracting the company, though the details are still being negotiated, he said.
“We’re still finalizing the incentives agreement, which is one of the tools that we use to recruit these companies,” Salinas said.
Airport Director Bryant Walker said having the Greyhound facility at the airport is quite beneficial.
“The airport benefits because we do add a tenant, and this tenant will not only improve the building and add capital investment into the airport property, which we get to keep, but they also are going to be generating revenue by paying rent,” he said.
The airport negotiated a lease deal with Greyhound that recognizes the company’s investment in the building, Walker said.
“We hammered it out and got it to the point that it needed to be,” he said.
Another plus to the company’s presence at the airport is that, rather than visitors being greeted by a nondescript warehouse, they’ll see a facility emblazoned with a universally recognized brand, Walker said. The company also came along at a good time, since the building’s previous tenant had recently vacated, he said.
“It was perfect timing for us,” Walker said.
