MCALLEN, Texas - Ralph Garcia, COO of McAllen Economic Development Corporation, gave an update on his group’s current activities when he spoke at a monthly meeting of the South Texas Manufacturers Association.
The big announcement, which STMA Executive Director Mike Willis wanted him to talk about, was Valeo’s decision to build a state-of-the-art facility within the McAllen Nearshoring Industrial Park on Ware Road in south McAllen.
The French manufacturing firm is investing $225 million over the next five years for a 337,000 square-foot facility that will create up to 500 new jobs in the region. Production is expected to begin in 2027.
“You guys obviously heard of the news,” Garcia said. This week we announced the Vallejo project. I wanted to touch a little bit on the key highlights of that project. It’s a French company. They operate in about 30 different countries. The capital investment that they're looking at here is $225 million with up to 500 jobs.”
Garcia said people are already coming up to him and asking, how do we apply for a job with Valeo.
“We probably won't start seeing recruitment efforts until probably the end of 2026 going into 2027. So you won't see any placement opportunities just yet.”
Garcia continued: “The building started construction in February of this year, and so we expect that it will be completed around the end of November. Then they can start putting equipment into the plant. The industry focus, of course, is advanced automotive technology, supporting the electrification, safety and generation of next-generation mobility.”
Garcia said he wanted to thank McAllen EDC’s partners in helping secure Valeo to the region.
“The City of McAllen supported us quite a bit. The County of Hidalgo, the county judge and the county commissioners also supported the investment. Our friends with Workforce Solutions, South Texas College, UTRGV, all were key in making sure that the investment came to the community. So I want to make sure I thank them. They contributed.”
Garcia said it was a year-long effort to secure Valeo.
“It’s exciting news, and I think it's the first of many projects to come along. We've seen projects in the last few months, and even last year in Mission, we've seen projects made in Pharr and so we're going to continue to see those type of opportunities come our way. I think it's a big win for us.”
Garcia said there is more good news on the horizon.
“We do have projects in the pipeline as well, and projects on both sides of the border. A lot of people think we stopped working Mexico. There's still activity there. Right now, we have a project under an NDA for that project. But it's upward of 500,000 square feet for manufacturing. It's an exciting project. We hope to make that announcement soon.”
NDA stands for non-disclosure agreement.
“We also have another project that we're working here in McAllen. It's roughly about 300,000 square feet. I will tell you in our pipeline as well we have project that should be coming online here fairly soon. They're probably about 75% complete with their building. That's an exciting project. We've had to keep that under wraps as well because of NDAs”
Garcia added that there is approximately 140,000 square feet of spec space coming onto the market soon.
“We're probably about 65 to 70% complete on that project. So if anyone is looking for a space, feel free to hit us up. We're definitely looking for the opportunity, and so we look forward to working with You. Thank you.”
