Salinas: With our Top Ten projects, we are looking at a $3 billion capital investment

BROWNSVILLE, Texas – The Rio Grande Valley is looking increasingly like some of the bigger metro regions of Texas, says Greater Brownsville Incentives Corporation CEO Gilberto Salinas.

“Austin-San Antonio is really one big area, Houston is just a huge monster when it comes to people, numbers and cities around it, DFW? DFW is kind of like McAllen-Brownsville. It’s becoming that one huge region, one super region. And it takes a SpaceX coming in and then telling us, a region is 100 miles,” Salinas said.

Salinas made his remarks in an exclusive interview with Ron Whitlock of Ron Whitlock Reports. The interview took place before Salinas made last week’s highly successful presentation at the Cross Border Industrial Opportunities summit in Monterrey.

“Sometimes in Brownsville, we think regional is 20 miles. McAllen, I think it’s 30 miles. But it takes a SpaceX, one of the most forward-thinking companies, really in the history the planet, to come and tell us, that no, regional for us is 100 miles,” Salinas told Whitlock.

“And that’s just from a supplier network to a labor and talent pool, because they (SpaceX) pull from well outside of 100 miles. And again, it goes to show that the Brownsville-McAllen super metro area is becoming a huge draw.”

Salinas added: “You know, outside of Texas, all eyes are on this place that we call the Rio Grande Valley.”

Asked what the state of industry and the jobs market is currently like Brownsville and Cameron County, Salinas said:

“The state of jobs and industry is like never before. That’s the one thing that I have seen since I’ve come back, the number of projects that we have in the pipeline, the number of leads, the companies that are opening up here. It’s different from ten years ago, even from five years ago,” Salinas said.

“And a big fish draws all the big fish… SpaceX, the two LNG plants. There’s a refinery plant looking at the Port (of Brownsville), and some other major operations looking at the Port. We have, like, $3 billion in the pipeline just from the GBIC side. All these companies are coming in as a result of the success of a SpaceX and the LNGs. So those big fish are drawing in other big fish, and that’s what’s setting us apart from everybody else right now. That level of activity is raising eyebrows across the entire state of Texas.”

Asked if there are any big projects in the works that he can talk about, Salinas said:

“Well, no different than most other EDOs, we are on the cusp of announcing some major projects. We just cannot disclose those yet. But, between our Top Ten projects, we’re looking at about $3 billion in capital investment. Hopefully we can announce at least one of those here in the next coming weeks.”

Salinas said he likes to call these big projects game changers.

“Those projects that we have are, again, what I like to call game changers, very similar to a SpaceX and the LNGs in the energy sector. To everybody’s somewhat surprise, it is just going to put Brownsville… Brownsville is already on the map because of everything that has happened. But those projects are just going to make that dot on the map bigger.

Editor’s Note: Here is an audio recording of the Gilberto Salinas interview with Ron Whitlock:

Cross Border Industrial Opportunities

GBIC made this announcement about the Cross Border Industrial Opportunities summit:

“GBIC was proud to be in Monterrey, Mexico as part of the Cameron County Investment Mission alongside our partners at Cameron County EDC and Harlingen EDC. Mayor John Cowen and GBIC CEO Gilberto Salinas participated in key panels, highlighting the strength and potential of cross-border investment opportunities in Brownsville and the broader Cameron County region. We’re excited about the collaborations and growth ahead as we continue building bridges for binational economic success.”

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