BROWNSVILLE, Texas - Gilberto Salinas, CEO of the Greater Brownsville Incentives Corporation, says a game-changing project on a par with SpaceX and the LNG plants at the Port of Brownsville will be announced soon.
Salinas announced his big tease when he appeared on KURV’s The Valley’s Morning News show.
“I think by next week we should be able to announce what I like to call like one of our next game changing projects. So, obviously, SpaceX was one of our game changers. The LNGs were another one of our game changers,” Salinas said.
“This company is actually following those two companies. They're a supplier to those two sectors. It's a major European firm, global presence. From here, they're going to be supplying both South Texas from here all the way to San Antonio, as well as northern Mexico. And they'll be looking to export to Latin America as well. In addition to what they're going to be doing here.”
Salinas continued: “It’s about a 100-plus person operation, about 200-plus million dollars in CapEx (capital expenditure). We're super excited because this would be like the trifecta of industrial giants. This will be the third one, following the SpaceX and the LNGs.”
The anchor of The Valley’s Morning News show, Sergio Sanchez, responded: “Nice. Very nice. We look forward to hearing about that in a few days.”
Regarding SpaceX, Salinas said the project has grown so fast in such a short amount of time that expanding roads and other construction is imminent. He said the 15-or-so-mile stretch to Boca Chica has seen a huge increase in traffic since SpaceX was constructed.
“It’s a two-way farm road leading up to Boca Chica Beach, which is getting ready to be expanded to four lanes,” Salinas said. “There are almost 4,000 people out there on a daily basis within four shifts and then truck traffic with 200 to 300 trucks going out there per day. Boca Chica could potentially be the new Starbase City.”
Salinas said other transportation industries are working with SpaceX to see how they can improve the movement of materials to Space X.
“The airports are working hand in glove with us right now. The expansion of the runway right now is trying to make traffic out there a little easier,” he said. “Rail helps move materials as well as the deepwater port. It’s all really coming together, creating some great synergies.”
Salinas said the plan is now to create for the future.
“We planned for this ten-plus years ago in planning with the LNG plants but now we just can’t build it fast enough. And that goes to everything, housing, restaurants, commercial sector, all of the above,” he added.
Space X employs around 4,000 people, Salinas said.
“Just in the last 12 months, Brownsville proper has created more than 5,000 to 6,000 jobs. One thousand-plus of those were created by Space X. And the LNG plants account for more than 2,000 employees that they brought onboard in addition to the 1,000 (employees) they had before. And they’re supposed to hit 6,000 employees within the next year and a half, I think,” Salinas said, adding that the remaining 3,000 new jobs can be attributed to local companies, some in the automotive sector, and some in advance manufacturing.
“That’s not including the new companies that we’re getting ready to announce here in the next few months, which is going to be a huge injection of more capital as well as more jobs in the area,” Salinas said.
As for the new industrial park being built in Brownsville, Salinas said this will also bring many jobs to the area.
“We’re getting ready here in the next month to break ground on the first 100 acres of a 700-acre industrial park that this organization is getting ready to build,” he said. “That will be out on the city’s north side, the far north side. So, 700 acres are going to be a huge part of what I like to call the economic driver for this whole region.”
Salinas added the park is being built in an industrial zone and not a foreign trade zone.
“The announcement next week will open the door to the tech center, dare I say, the semiconductor sector,” he said. “Brownsville Metro is No. 1 as far as an emerging economy; the No. 4 city as far as higher income households that are being built; and the No. 5 city in the United States that people are moving in to the most.”
