RAYMONDVILLE — City officials have agreed to give an incoming business a tax break.
Tuesday night, city commissioners gave Tractor Supply Co. a $33,852 property tax abatement.
As part of an agreement, the city will reduce the business’ property taxes over a five-year period, City Manager Eleazar Garcia said yesterday.
“It’s to get more people working,” Mayor Gilbert Gonzales said. “We need more businesses to open here and we keep working at it — plugging at it.”
The national retailer will hire seven full-time employees and seven part-time employees, said Catalina Ozuna, executive director of the Raymondville Economic Development Corporation.
Ozuna said the company wants to enter its Raymondville Plaza suite next month to launch a remodeling project at the storefront that was home to the city’s first Walmart store years ago.
Tractor Supply is expected to open by the end of the year, Gonzales said.
Tractor Supply becomes the latest business to breathe new life into the shopping center.
Ozuna said the shopping center’s new owner is bringing new development there.
In June, Wing Champs opened in the shopping center, creating 25 jobs.
Gonzales said the sports-themed restaurant is helping to drive customers to the area.
Next month, Holiday Inn Express is expected to open next to the shopping center.
The 75-room hotel, which has been under construction since January 2014, is expected to create about 10 jobs.
Toward the start of construction, hotel owner V.J. Jhaveri, who owns a Super 8 motel in Harlingen, planned to complete construction on the hotel in about 10 months.
At that time, Jhaveri said he planned to offer more “upscale” lodging for corporate clients, business travelers and vacationers.
The hotel will be the first to open here since 2008, when La Quinta Inns & Suites opened across Interstate 69.
