Powering Up: Utility breaks ground on $23M center

SAN BENITO — AEP Texas broke ground yesterday on a new, $23.7 million service center here which will consolidate five other facilities within the Lower Rio Grande Valley.

While no new jobs will be created, 110 workers soon will be transferred to San Benito to work in the 87,900-square-foot facility located on 40 acres at the site of the city’s old airport.

“The San Benito service center, as well as the new service center that we’ll be building in Los Fresnos, is going to allow us to work more efficiently, more collaboratively together,” said Judith E. Talavera, AEP Texas president and chief operating officer.

The new service center has a target completion date of next May. In addition to the new employees bound for San Benito, the negotiations between city officials and AEP Texas have resulted in a significant new economic jumpstart for the city, and hopes are the AEP Texas commitment will lead to development of the remaining 140 available acres at the airport site.

As earth-moving equipment churned dirt and raised a hazy dust in the background, officials with AEP Texas, San Benito and the region all praised AEP Texas and its commitment to the Lower Rio Grande Valley.

“The groundbreaking represents the commencement of construction of the largest commercial venture in the city for quite some time,” San Benito Mayor Ben Gomez told the crowd. “The first of what we hope will be more to come in the future.

“As the mayor of San Benito, I see this as a starting point of a new era of growth and development for this region,” Gomez added.

Talavera said the Rio Grande Valley continues to be one of the highest-growth areas not just for AEP Texas but for the utility’s parent company, American Electric Power, which operates in 11 states.

“This airport lay dormant for many decades, and when I was on the economic development council and a city commissioner, for many years we talked about ‘the big fish,’” said former mayor Celeste Sanchez.

“We’re looking for the big fish to come to be the catalyst that will begin and spur economic growth to this airport,” she added. “Well, we found the big fish.”

Tom Coad, AEP Texas’ vice president of distribution region operations, told the crowd the groundbreaking for the new service center yesterday was the culmination of more than 10 years of planning by utility officials.

“Every year, employees would come up to us in leadership and say, ‘When are we getting the new service center?’” he said. “We’d go ‘Well, it’s on the list. It’s on the list.’ For maybe 13 or 14 years, ‘it’s on the list.’

“But for employees, the stars have lined up,” Coad added. “We’re going to make this a reality. You can see, this is a reality.”

Coad said the new facility will be state-of-the-art, and that AEP Texas is sparing no expense to ensure the building will endure, including engineering which will enable it to withstand a Category 5 hurricane, if necessary.

For San Benito officials, it was a day to remember — and one to celebrate.

“This is a great opportunity for both AEP Texas and the City of San Benito,” said City Manager Manuel De La Rosa. “I’m excited beyond words.”

City Commissioner Esteban Rodriguez, who also serves as president of the city’s economic development agency, said, “I’m just excited. Look at this. It looks nice and it’s finally here.

“It’s going to be a great boost for our city,” he added.

Fellow Commissioner Antonio Gonzales said San Benito has been waiting for something like this for years.

“Its big news, I’m very excited about this — for the whole Lower Rio Grande Valley,” Gonzales said.

“It’s about time we had something like this and hopefully it will help us in the economy, build it up some more, with other stores coming in,” he added. “We still have another 140 acres here” to develop at the airport site.

Under an agreement negotiated between the city and AEP Texas, the city sold the land to the utility company for $1.6 million. AEP Texas will give the city a 12,000-square-foot building worth $867,000 on two acres at Bowie Street and Business 77 and $233,000 in cash.

To finish the deal, the San Benito Economic Development Corp., on behalf of AEP Texas, will give the city $500,000 to be used in part to help build the new service center and to create additional jobs in the city.