A view of Hilton Garden Inn in Harlingen. The city of Harlingen’s revenue streams are coming back from the pandemic, including at the convention center hotel. (Miguel Roberts/The Brownsville Herald)
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HARLINGEN — The city’s revenues are rebounding after losing about $3 million during the coronavirus pandemic’s shutdown.
After the COVID-19 outbreak in March 202o, funding sources including the Harlingen Municipal Auditorium, the sanitation department and the hotel occupancy tax fund lost hundreds of thousands of dollars amid the shutdown and the safety restrictions ordered to curb the spread of the virus.
“Considering we’re coming out of a complete shutdown, it’s looking good,” Assistant City Manager Josh Ramirez said, noting the area’s high vaccination rates amid plunging COVID-19 cases. “People are more comfortable now going out. People are going back to the normal life they had before.”
During fiscal 2019-2020, the pandemic’s shutdown and safety restrictions cost the city’s general fund about $1 million, with the city losing $204,000 in hotel occupancy tax revenue, $205,863 from its sanitation fund and $191,063 at the municipal auditorium, Robert Rodriguez, the city’s finance director, said.
Last year, officials here pulled $2.1 million out of the city’s $21.9 million share of the American Rescue Plan Act to offset revenue losses.
Then last month, city commissioners tapped the big stimulus check for $963,687 to cover last year’s losses.
Hotel tax revenue climbing
In fiscal 2019-2020, the city’s hotel occupancy tax fund dropped to $865,000, down from $1.39 million the year before, as the pandemic slashed business and leisure travel.
But in Harlingen, hotels were apparently doing better business than in many parts of the country.
Across town, hotel occupancy reached about 60 percent during 2020 — about 15 percent higher than the national average.
Nationwide, hotel occupancy plunged to a record low of 44 percent during 2020, down 33.3 percent from the year before, amid federal guidelines and state orders aimed at curbing the spread of the coronavirus, according to Hotel News Now.
Last year, the city’s hotel tax revenues climbed to $1.046 million.
Sanitation fund’s sluggish recovery
After March 2020’s COVID-19 outbreak, wide-spread business shutdowns led the city’s sanitation fund’s revenue to drop to $9.65 million in 2019-2020, down from $11.03 million the year before.
Then in 2020-2021, the fund slipped to $9.59 million.
“A lot of businesses were not operating, so there was no (garbage) collection,” Ramirez said.
This year, officials projected revenues to rebound to $10.05 million.
“Some businesses are not recovering as quickly,” Ramirez said.
Auditorium revs up bookings
The pandemic’s outbreak led officials to shut down buildings including the municipal auditorium.
“We were following the president’s and the governor’s orders,” Irma Garza, the city’s spokeswoman, said, referring to restrictions on capacity aimed at curbing the virus’ spread. “We were under complete lockdown.”
Safety restrictions limiting gathering sizes took a toll on the auditorium and Casa de Amistad, whose revenues derived from bookings plunged to $24,000 in 2020, Rodriguez said, down from $199,168 the year before.
By last year, he said, revenues had rebounded to $201,000.
“It is recovering,” Rodriguez said. “It looks bright.”
From last October to this week, revenues had climbed to $135,156, he said.
“Now we’re seeing the auditorium coming back,” Ramirez said. “We have a lot of bookings. We have schools doing recitals and schools doing gymnastics.”
Convention center coming alive
For the Harlingen Convention Center — which opened 10 months before the pandemic’s outbreak — restrictions wiped out bookings for nearly two years.
Now, the convention center is coming to life, officials said.
In March, the convention center generated $120,630 in revenue, going over budget by $73,005, or 153 percent, Garza said.
“This increase over budget is, in part, due to the continued increase of multiple business meetings, luncheons and district meetings in the Harlingen market,” she stated.
In September 2021, the convention center’s operator projected a $1 million budget, showing a $5,400 shortfall for the current fiscal year.
BC Lynd Hospitality, which operates the city-owned convention center as part of a public-private partnership, presented commissioners with a budget showing total revenues of $1,067,043 and $1,072,483 in total expenditures, leaving the $5,400 deficit.
Ten months after the convention center opened in May 2019, the COVID-19 broke out, wiping out bookings amid federal guidelines and state orders limiting capacity to help curb the spread of the coronavirus.
Now, business is picking up, Ramirez said.
“It’s been booked non-stop,” he said.
City officials said they could not provide BC Lynd’s updated budget information.
