PHARR, Texas - Ricardo ‘Ric’ Rubiano, president of Rubiano Capital Investment, has given the RGG Business Journal an overview of the current state of the construction industry in the Rio Grande Valley.
He said President Trump’s tariff policy has led some medium-sized manufacturing companies in Mexico to consider relocating to the Valley.
He also spoke about a new industrial park his company is building in south Pharr.
And he discusses another business he is involved in, OpenEB5, which helps foreign investors move to the United States.
Asked what is happening on the industrial scene, both this side of the river and on the Mexican side, right now, Rubiano said:
“It's exciting. The tariffs have, in a way, pushed a lot of manufacturing out of northern Mexico, in the medium range. We're seeing a lot of movement in that crowd. The big boys are not as easily leveraged out of their existing markets, but the medium-sized guys all along the US-Mexican border and central Mexico are demonstrating significant interest in relocating to the United States.
“So, in keeping with that, our new park, under development now for the past 18 months… I believe we're going to be the first park to connect to the infrastructure that TxDOT, Hidalgo County, the RMA, has been putting together along that - I think almost a $2 billion - highway that stretches from one side of a Hidalgo County to the other. And then in the future connects to Interstate 2 and I-69 Central, and then probably eventually interconnects to the Port of Brownsville.
“So I believe we will be the first park - in about 45 days - that connects to that infrastructure. We're almost ready. They're almost ready. We’ve got the TxDOT permit. That park will be the first 150 acres of development to get added to the to the highway. So we're excited about that.”
Asked for the name of the park and the exact location, Rubiano said:
“It is the Pharr Industrial Park. We were surprised the name was available, but that's how we're recording it. And the location is on this I-365, which is an extension outflow of the Pharr International Bridge and their new facilities. Both bridge expansions, on the Mexican side and on the US side, are just about complete. The Mexican side is 100% complete. The American side, I believe, is 85 to 90% complete. And so the location is about a mile north of Military Highway along this new road. The San Juan Road is the road that's being replaced by this interstate. So we're just west of Stewart and Dicker. There's a lot happening down there.”
Asked how big the park will be and what sort of tenants he hopes to attract, Rubiano said:
“Phase One for us is about 150 acres. It's a multitude of tenants. We've got some cold storage possibility. As I mentioned to you, with the relocation from northern Mexico, the Monterrey area, of manufacturers, we’ve been surprised. We initially thought it would be some logistics. Could be some light manufacturing, but now we're very grateful to AEP. Big shout out to those guys, because they're doing everything they can to get us the secondary infrastructure, the power and electricity. And because of that, we've got some heavy users, some four megawatt, five megawatt users, which, three years ago, we would not have thought possible. Today, it's a little surprising, but now we're there. We're ready for them. AEP is ready for them. So we're excited about that. So that type of user, heavy manufacturing.”
Here is a video recording of the interview:
