MCALLEN, Texas - RioPlex’s Memorandum of Understanding with the Hidalgo County is off to a great start, its executive director reports.
The MOU allows RioPlex’s board of directors to review Requests for Information (RFIs) sent to the County from the State of Texas’ economic development division. The RioPlex board can then respond to the RFIs and start to engage with the potential economic development leads.
RioPlex is group set up by the private sector to market the Rio Grande Valley and Northern Tamaulipas around the world.
“We have received RFIs, what we call Requests for Information, from the County. RioPlex and the County have a Memorandum of Understanding that whatever the County gets RioPlex will review for the County,” Mario Reyna, executive director of RioPlex explained. “So, we are responding to their RFIs and the RFIs obviously come from the state level. So far, in the last six to eight weeks, we have responded to six RFIs. That is significant.”
Reyna said RioPlex responds to all RFIs, even if the projects are not a good fit for the region.
“Even if we don’t meet the criteria we always respond with a thank you for the opportunity to participate,” he said.
Since the MOU took effect earlier this year, Hidalgo County’s Economic Development Department has received 26 RFIs from the State of Texas. Reyna said six of these were worth responding to.
"When you have something like 26 total RFIs that have come in, and then we respond to six… it is what I call the Pareto Principle, the 80/20 rule," Reyna said. "Of the six, one was interested, and this particular company is interested in Weslaco and McAllen.”
Reyna described the interest of this one company, that is looking at setting up in Weslaco and McAllen, as “a high point.” He explained: “If we continue to respond to the RFIs in the way that we're doing right now, and we get a hit rate of 20 percent, you can just start to see what's going to happen down the road.”
The potential is enormous, Reyna said.
“Out of the six active ones that we have, this amounts to something like $1.8 billion in investments. That is a significant amount of investment into what could happen. Even if we get a response rate of 20 percent, I think we're going to have significant investments going on.”
In addition to RFIs referred to Hidalgo County by the State of Texas, RioPlex is generating its own leads, Reyna said.
“As you know, we went to Houston a few months ago, and as a result of that we're getting contacted from people. Even through LinkedIn, they're sending us messages. So, that is going extremely, extremely well. Because of the efforts of RioPlex alone, we have had seven serious contacts,” Reyna said.
Asked if RioPlkex is concentrating on the big projects, Reyna said: “Some of these projects are for the most part over $300 million. Those would be significant investments that I think would change how we view the world from here. For being such a young organization, this is fantastic.”
Reyna made his comments in an in-depth video interview with the Rio Grande Guardian International News Service. Asked why RioPlex came into existence, Reyna said:
“Well, the underlying reason RioPlex came into being is because the business leaders had an identity problem, if you will. People did not recognize where this area is. So, this is why RioPlex came about.”
Because RioPlex is led by dynamic, private sector leaders, Reyna said, it can move and pivot quickly.
“As we say, in RioPlex, we do business at the speed of business. We have people like Joaquin Spamer. We have Nick Rhodes, we have Morgan LaMantia. We have Lucille Cavazos. Steve Guerra from Brownsville, Carlos Garcia from Brownsville, Martin Anzaldua. These are all people that are involved in making major investments in the community. "
“So, as far as the dynamics go, they understand which way we need to go and how business has to be conducted," Reyna said. "So, when they say business at the speed of business, to make a decision at the speed of business, I think that is… how they view every situation. There's not a lot of, like, what do you think we should do? They know what needs to be done, and they make those kind of decisions."
“When they look at an RFI, it doesn't take them a long time to say whether or not we can do this or that. They can very quickly say, this can be done.”
Reyna added: “I think what is happening here is fantastic. I think as I look out into the future with RioPlex, the region is going to benefit from what we are doing right now.”
