Among the highlights from Brownsville Mayor Trey Mendez’s “State of the City: Crossroads Edition” address Thursday at the Brownsville Events Center was a brief tally of SpaceX’s economic impact on the city.
The mayor reported that the company’s Starbase complex at Boca Chica 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.
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.
Also downtown, the former H-E-B at 924 E. Elizabeth St. is under contract to a private individual, Mendez said, but offered no specifics.
Editor’s note: The headline was corrected to reflect the statement from the mayor.
