Ready for Take Off: City landing on plan for economic growth

HARLINGEN — From attracting industry to creating better malls to building more housing, the Harlingen Economic Development Corp. is taking a big view of its role.

The board last week met to try to narrow its broad buffet of goals to create a manageable strategic plan for the agency.

“Now’s the time to pick and choose what you want to talk about and add some more input to it,” said HEDC chief executive officer Raudel Garza. “Remember, we can’t be all things to all people, we can’t do all things. We have limited resources.”

The primary direction of the meeting was, as might be expected, focused on traditional economic development issues such as industrial recruitment, retail improvement, capitalizing on the contributions of our colleges and universities, expanding the city’s role as a medical destination and building a better and more nimble workforce.

Yet the board also discussed how to enhance Valle Vista Mall, creating entertainment destination spots and improving housing opportunities.

As always, the overarching question was how the HEDC would contribute to these goals, whether through marketing efforts, seeking grants or direct subsidies or tax breaks.

“Each one of these items here is important, without a doubt,” said Lupita Gutierrez-Garza, the board chair.

Raudel Garza also told the board that whatever shape the HEDC’s strategic plan takes, it must fit under the umbrella of the strategic plan the city recently adopted.

Health care was a major topic of the board’s interest, and Garza noted that previously the board had discussed Valley Baptist Memorial Hospital, the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley’s medical school, a medical zone or district, and the Rio Grande State Center’s relevance to the medical neighborhood.

But some board members were ready to expand on that list.

“I don’t know how many people know this or not, but TSTC has at least one-third of the programs in allied health, so I think TSTC should be added to this,” said board member Dr. J. Gilbert Leal, referring to Texas State Technical College.

“In all fairness, there’s another hospital in town and they just made a $4 million investment in an emergency room,” said board member Robert B. Dunkin, referring to Harlingen Medical Center.

“I don’t think we’re specifically trying to exclude anybody, we can just say hospitals,” said Raudel Garza. “This is all going to be part of a draft plan, if you will, that has some action items.

“So the action item will probably be to continue to support health care education and health care development at all hospitals in the Harlingen area,” he added.

The board did not vote on any of the issues which arose during the meeting and board members said they would continue studying which proposals to include in the eventual strategic plan.