HARLINGEN — Imagine twin 20-story towers housing the Rio Grande Valley’s “Little Wall Street” looming over a village of condominiums and townhouses standing along a river walk and an LPGA golf course.
In the blueprints, it’s called Treasure Hills City — a proposed $1 billion project billed as the area’s biggest real estate and commercial development in decades.
Across 30 acres abutting the Treasure Hills Golf Course, developer Miguel Del Valle’s project would help transform the area.
“The project is going to change the way of doing real estate and large development,” Del Valle, with McAllen-based EKO Corporate, told city commissioners last week. “It’s going to be the largest development in the area.”
During a meeting, commissioners took the first step to grant a request from the engineering firm Ferris, Flinn & Medina on behalf of EKO to rezone 31.9 acres southwest of FM 509 from a light industry district into the site of a planned development.
“This is a very exciting project for the city of Harlingen and we look forward to you moving it along and the city supporting you in this and the transformation of the golf course into an LPGA golf course,” Mayor Chris Boswell told Del Valle during the Oct. 20 meeting.
Steps to developing a village
Now, Del Valle’s proposing the project’s first phase, planned as a 149-lot development of three-story townhouses and condominiums along with two two-story office buildings.
During the next eight years, he plans to expand the development into a $1 billion real estate and commercial village.
“We decided to invest in a large-scale development that is going to be the zip code of the RGV area,” Del Valle, a Monterrey developer, told commissioners. “We want to create a little town in Harlingen that is going to look like downtown but from Treasure Hills.”
Within about three years, he said, he’s planning to build 2,100 condominiums.
“It’s going to be the largest development in the area,” he said. “We’re not going to be selling only in Harlingen and in the RGV. We are going to be promoting internationally in all the United States and in all Mexico.”
‘Little Wall Street’
As part of the project, Del Valle said he’s planning to develop the Valley’s financial center.
“This is going to be two towers of 14 floors which are going to be together creating the ‘H’ of Harlingen, so this is going to be the corporate offices,” he told commissioners, adding, “We want to create a branding for Harlingen internationally.”
“This is going to be the little Wall Street or the financial district of the RGV area,” he said. “Our goal (is) to invite different headquarters to approach this area for doing business from Mexico to the United States or from the United States to Mexico.”
Meanwhile, he’s planning to build two 20-story towers housing 600 condominiums along with a 250-room hotel featuring a 100,000-square-foot clubhouse facing the golf course’s 18th hole.
Del Valle said he’s promoting the project around the golf course, working to turn it into the home of the Ladies Professional Golf Association.
“We’re promoting this in Asia, Europe, the United States,” he said. “We want the LPGA relocated to Harlingen within the next two years.”
‘Unique environment’
Across the residential development’s wide avenues lined with restaurants and gyms, Del Valle plans to sell apartments ranging from $150,000 to $400,000.
Along the development, he plans a one-third-mile river walk “which is longer than San Antonio’s River Walk,” he said. “All of this is going to be like New York. This is not only about bricks and construction. This is about making people feel proud to belong to this area. We want to create an environment, a unique environment in the United States.”
Del Valle said he’s planning to launch the project’s first phase next year.
