Spamer: UTRGV’s predecessor, UTPA, was a big help when I started out

PHARR, Texas – A leading businessman in the RioPlex region has encouraged the next generation of entrepreneurs seek help from UT-Rio Grande Valley and local economic development organizations.

Joaquin Spamer said UTRGV’s predecessor, UT-Pan American, played a major role in helping him develop his burgeoning import-export business, Commodities Integrated Logistics, back in the 1990s.

In an interview with the Rio Grande Guardian, Spamer explained that he went back to the university for financial help having earlier studied marketing there.

“Back in the 1990s, I started visiting Adriana Rincon and Javier Martinez who were at the Center for Economic Development of the UTRGV, and they helped me put together a package in order to gain an SBA loan,” Spamer said.

“We got a loan for $5 million, and we went ahead and bought a 270,000 square foot facility in Mission. We got a lot of help from the Mission Economic Development Corporation back then, from the mayor, Daniel Silva was there at the EDC, along with Pat Townsend. And it was great.”

The Guardian secured the interview with Spamer at the official opening of the Pharr Global Business Hub, a project undertaken by Pharr Economic Development Corporation and UTRGV. Spamer had a speaking role at the event.

In his interview, Spamer said that without the help of UTPA and Mission EDC he would not have been able to purchase a warehouse in Mission.

“Without them I wouldn’t have been able to buy that building and that building transformed my business. And so now, moving ahead three decades, we have 1.2 million square feet of warehouse space,” Spamer said.

Spamer said all the economic development organizations he has worked with in the Valley have been helpful.

“We wouldn’t have been able to do it without the support of all the EDCs, McAllen, Edinburg, Weslaco, all of them, and the UTRGV economic development organization,” Spamer said.

“I’m really grateful and I like to express it everywhere I go because I want to encourage small businessmen to get closer to their EDO, to their chamber of commerce, to the universities. Seek help. With the right help you don’t know what you can achieve. That’s something that we all need to promote with the new generation.”

Prior to purchasing the warehouse in Mission, Spamer had a 20,000 square foot facility in the city of Hidalgo, which he built when he was 27, just a few years after leaving UTPA as a student. Businessman and former McAllen Mayor Othal Brand, Sr., had helped him secure the Hidalgo facility.

In the Hidalgo facility, Spamer housed mostly produce and general merchandize. With the larger Mission facility, he was able to secure contracts with some of the major U.S. cotton merchants.

“In order to grow I needed the help of an organization like UTRGV. I am really, really grateful,” Spamer added.

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