WESLACO — The city of Weslaco unveiled the newest addition to the Mid-Valley Airport during a ribbon cutting ceremony Wednesday.
The airport now features six new hangars and a longer runway, which was extended by 1,000 feet in 2018 to allow larger aircrafts to arrive and depart from the airport — all part of its ongoing expansion.
“It’s really a relationship between the city, the EDC (Economic Development Corporation), the board of directors for the airport, and the EDA (Economic Development Administration),” Steven M. Valdez, executive director of the Economic Development Corporation of Weslaco, said. “It’s a combination of all four elements to come together and to fund the project of six hangars.”
The new hangars mark the first hangar expansion for the airport in nearly 20 years, bringing the total number of hangars to 60. The process took three years to complete from grant writing to engineering to construction.
Valdez said the new hangars will promote more commerce for the city as it continues to grow.
“It means that more air traffic, more corporate air traffic,” Valdez said. “It means more business coming to Weslaco and increasing and boosting our economy. The idea that these companies can land their planes here also means that these companies could potentially set up shop here and set up their businesses here. Some of the people that you see here are already doing that.”
According to Valdez, the EDC Board was behind the decision to expand the number of hangars at the airport, and the expansion was funded through matching funds. The EDA provided a grant of $800,000 and the EDC matched it with $566,000.
Andrew Muñoz, assistant city manager and aviation director, said that the city also partnered with the Lower Rio Grande Valley Development Council to help get a grant through the EDA.
“Basically when your airport does well, that means that your local economy does well,” Muñoz said. “It means that you’re stable politically, you’re stable with your economy and your growth. What that does is it creates a reflection of what your economy is currently doing and the growth your economy reflects.”
With the completion of the new hangars, the airport will begin Phase 2 of its expansion with even more corporate hangars to be added in the future and another extension to the runway. The assistant city manager estimates that Phase 2 will take approximately three years to complete.
“What we’re also looking to do is relocate a lot of our old infrastructure and upgrade our lower infrastructure here in the next six months or so,” Munoz said. “That’s what we’re working on.”
Mayor David Suarez said that the upgraded infrastructure will help the city attract more vendors to the community.
“If you build it, they will come,” Suarez said. “We’re continuing to expand our airport, and we’re in the process of expanding our runway again. It’s a big process, but we’re going at it. These hangars are anchoring the need for us to expand the runway, so it goes hand in hand. I think Phase two will be starting soon.”
