The state of the city is stronger than it’s ever been, according to Brownsville Mayor Trey Mendez, who delivered his “State of the City: Crossroads Edition” to a full house Thursday at the Brownsville Events Center, an event hosted by the Brownsville Chamber of Commerce and city of Brownsville.
It was the first time since 2019 that the mayor delivered State of the City live due to pandemic restrictions.
Among the highlights from Mendez’s presentation was a brief tally of SpaceX’s economic impact on the city. He noted that the company has become “our largest private employer” with 1,600 employees, 71 percent of them from the Rio Grande Valley, and has established a substantial footprint within the city limits for various operations.
Brownsville Mayor Trey Mendez delivers his State of The City Crossroads Edition address to a full room of guest at the Brownsville Events Center Thursday. (Miguel Roberts/The Brownsville Herald)
SpaceX last year signed a lease agreement on a 46,000-square-foot building at the Brownsville Aerospace Industrial Park at the Brownsville South Padre Island International Airport and spent around $500,000 renovating and upgrading the structure.
“A recent economic impact study showed that SpaceX invested $430 million in operations, including payroll, construction and capital improvements, in Cameron County alone last year,” Mendez said. “This year they’re projecting to add $885 million in gross economic output for Cameron County as well as continued job growth. Those are definitely some out-of-this-world numbers.”
The mayor also announced that the former Majestic Theater at 1002 E. Elizabeth St. downtown is now under contract with the Mitte Foundation, which intends to renovate the building, constructed in 1949, put it back into service and “make it another crown jewel for our downtown.”
“It’s going to be great, so hopefully we’ll hear about that next year,” Mendez said.
The Mitte Foundation’s Buena Vida Cultural Park project on East 7th Street is also nearing completion, representing multi-million-dollar investment by the foundation, he said, thanking the foundation and the Mitte family for their investment and commitment to making Brownsville a better place.
Mendez said the city attracted new businesses last year, including a Tesla service and delivery center, and that overall Brownsville saw more than $45 million in new development for 2021. City staff has done a good job filling vacant buildings, including the 100,000-square-foot former Sears at Sunrise Mall, which already contains a Tru Fit Athletic Club and soon also will be home to a Main Event family entertainment center, he said.
Mendez also noted that the 80,000-square-foot former Kmart in Sunrise Mall is occupied by Hobby Lobby. The 25,000-square-foot former Luby’s cafeteria on Boca Chica Boulevard now houses Spec’s, the 60,000-square-foot former Target is now home to a Maximus call center, and the 36,000-square-foot former La Casa del Nylon building downtown is being transformed into the eBridge Center for Business and Commercialization.
He added that “120,000 square feet of multi-family (housing) units are coming to vacant buildings in downtown Brownsville” and that SpaceX now occupies more than 100,000 square feet of space within the city. Mendez said the city has experienced “tremendous growth” in residential and commercial construction.
“In 2022 we’ve already approved 1,406 new residential lots and 65 new commercial lots,” he said. “This is going to increase our net land value by over $58 million and we’re only four months into the year.”
The Madeira master-planned, mixed-use community that recently broke ground on 1,300 acres in north Brownsville is expected to add nearly $1 billion to the city’s property tax rolls, Mendez said. The mayor applauded Come Dream, Come Build (formerly the Community Development Corporation of Brownsville) and the Housing Authority of the City of Brownsville for projects to renovate and reactivate downtown’s Samano Building and El Jardin Hotel, respectively, for mixed-use, multi-family housing.
Mendez said the city grew its sales-tax revenue by 17 percent from 2020 to 2021, and 20.5 percent overall since 2019.
“So far over the first few months (of 2022) we’ve already shown a 29 percent increase from last year,” he said. “We also currently have the largest fund balance that we’ve ever seen as a city. I’m proud to say that this fiscal year contains the largest allocation toward capital improvement projects in the city’s history.”
Brownsville will have “one of the premier health systems in South Texas” when the city gets its third major hospital in the form of DHR Health, which will open in the former Brownsville Doctors Hospital, Mendez said.
The mayor praised retired U.S. Rep. Filemon Vela Jr. and state Sen. Eddie Lucio Jr. and state Rep. Eddie Lucio III, neither of whom ran for reelection this year, for their legislative accomplishments and commitment to Brownsville. Mendez singled out Vela for praise for his role in securing funding for big-ticket projects.
Federal funding that would not have come through without Vela’s help include $40 million in Federal Aviation Administration money for the city’s new 90,000-square-foot airport terminal building, a recently announced allocation of $68 million through the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to deepen the Brownsville Ship Channel, and $120 million American Rescue Plan funding to replace Gateway International Bridge facilities that were built during the Eisenhower administration, Mendez said.
“Our community owes a huge debt of gratitude to Congressman Filemon Vela for taking the lead on some of the most challenging projects in our region and bringing home major funding,” he said.
The entire State of the City address can be seen at youtube.com/watch?v=Ng8aYTphgsA.
For more information on city projects underway go to btxfuture.com.
