In June, Edinburg Economic Development Corporation Board Director Veronica Gonzales pointed out something she thinks the city lacks: a niche.

McAllen, she said, has a niche in manufacturing. Pharr has agriculture. Other cities have bridges that link them with Mexico.

“We don’t have any of those components,” Gonzales said. “So ours might be some manufacturing, possibly, and then a lot of it would have to be in the hospitality area or entertainment area.”

Edinburg EDC Executive Director Raudel Garza said that’s not an uncommon sentiment among city leaders: they’re tired of seeing people spend their leisure dollars in cities other than Edinburg.

“A lot of the council members and board members feel that they are losing some sales tax dollars to neighboring cities,” he said, calling it a “leakage” in Edinburg’s economy.

Edinburg entertainment district: Can the city compete?

In theory, Edinburg should have a booming entertainment industry.

It’s the fastest-growing city in the Rio Grande Valley and one of the fastest-growing cities in the nation. 

Bert Ogden Arena, the largest indoor entertainment venue in the Valley, is in Edinburg, as is the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley’s main campus and its new football program, which plays its home games at the Robert and Janet Vackar Stadium in Edinburg.

The Hidalgo County Courthouse is also in Edinburg; hundreds of people from all over the county have to drive into the city every month just for jury duty, not to mention all of the judges and attorneys and county employees obliged to be there daily.

Edinburg is a town with bellies to be filled and thirsts to be quenched.

In reality, though, Edinburg’s hospitality industry is being overshadowed by its neighbors.

McAllen has a rambunctious entertainment district lined with clubs and a dozen-odd locally-owned fine dining establishments within a few miles of each other.

Edinburg can’t boast it has the same.

The only Top Golf south of San Antonio is in Pharr and the only Dave and Busters south of Corpus Christi is in McAllen. Edinburg doesn’t have a similar attraction. 

It does have mom-and-pop staples and a couple fancier bars and restaurants, but so do most other towns in the Valley. 

The city has been successful in attracting some chains: a Texas Roadhouse that opened a decade ago, a now-defunct Bob’s Steak & Chop House and a Walk-On’s Bistreaux & Bar that was perhaps Edinburg’s last major chain eatery addition.

That also doesn’t distinguish Edinburg; surrounding cities have been successful at attracting chains as well.

Citing growth at UTRGV and growth in general in Edinburg, EDC President Ronnie Rivera said growing the hospitality industry is a priority.

“Edinburg has to get prepared in the next few years to get people to stay here,” he said. “We have to be able to attract some entertainment venues. Great restaurants. Things like that.”

The role of incentives in driving hospitality growth

Sometimes, Garza said, he feels EDCs face unwarranted pressure to bring businesses to town.

He can’t wave a magic wand and make people open bars and restaurants in Edinburg.

“We just make people aware of what’s out there,” he said. “That’s our biggest job, our job is to market the community and make them aware of the opportunities. But it’s up to the property owners and the developers to make the deal happen.”

Garza’s underselling the city and its EDC’s efforts a bit. 

The city invested heavily to partner with UTRGV and make sure Valley collegiate football stays in Edinburg.

Garza indicated that’s already spurring investment in local entertainment. He said a developer with a 15-acre piece near Vackar Stadium is developing multi-family and retail space. Garza expects it will include nightlife venues and restaurants. 

“A lot of that is being driven by rooftops in the area, but also clearly by the stadium,” he said.

The city has also invested heavily in public entertainment.

In 2024 it opened its $14 million, 36,000-square-foot Arts, Culture & Event (ACE) Center. In 2022 it opened its Promenade Park Amphitheatre as part of a downtown revitalization effort.

Garza says amenities like that spark growth in the entertainment industry and can convince business people to invest.

One of those business people is Javier Mejia, who opened McIntyre Square Eatery & Bar, at 310 W. McIntyre St., about six months ago.

McIntyre Square has four tenants, a bar, and three food trucks that surround an outdoor eating area filled with picnic tables. It plans to expand at some point to an already purchased adjacent building that can host four or five more businesses.

The eatery is steps away from the amphitheatre and within walking distance of the ACE Center and city hall.

Mejia says those amenities made the location attractive.

“The police department hosted their National Night Out this past week. Six thousand people out there. It was packed,” he said.

So far, Mejia said, business has been good. Summer slowed down some, but he expects business to pick back up as students return to UTRGV.

“Can’t complain. I just want Edinburg to continue to push and incentivize business owners to open in Edinburg and continue to begin to create that community where you can come and have some meals and spend time with the family,” he said. “But it’s growing, it’s getting there.”

Mejia benefited from one of those business incentives this year: the Edinburg EDC’s Facade and Lot Improvement Program.

That program allocated as much as $400,000 to reimburse businesses up to $10,000 for repairs or improvements they make for things like patios, landscaping, parking lots and signage.

A little less than a quarter of the businesses that successfully applied for reimbursements through the program were hospitality businesses, including McIntyre Square.

Mejia says the program allowed him to install awnings over his outdoor eating area.

“It’s a big help,” he said.

What’s next for Edinburg’s entertainment districts?

What Edinburg is not short on is hospitality industry potential.

“So there’s pockets of what I would call not one particular entertainment district, but there’s pockets of those types of centers that will develop over time,” Garza said. 

There’s a large swath of undeveloped land between city hall and UTRGV’s campus.

Edinburg City Hall, Edinburg CISD’s administrative headquarters and the southeastern corner of UTRGV’s main campus are all within blocks of each other.

There’s a large swath of undeveloped land in between UTRGV and the city and school district’s buildings, much of it owned by the university and the EDC.

At one point, Garza said, there were talks between those three entities of developing that area into something called “Mid-Town” that would have aimed at building businesses that catered to university students.

Garza says that effort isn’t completely dead.

“Trying to attract some student life, if you will. So that should be a future entertainment district that we’re looking at and trying to cultivate,” he said

The neighborhood around the courthouse, western Edinburg north of McAllen and the increasingly developed intersection of Trenton Road and the Expressway are other areas Garza sees turning into entertainment hubs.

What exactly those hubs may look like one day isn’t completely clear.

There’s the prospect that Edinburg could land one of those unique entertainment locations that some of its neighbors have.

Rivera teased earlier this summer that a dueling piano bar with owners in Mexico has expressed interest in Edinburg, but he said talks are in early stages and declined to share many details.

An open records request for documents related to that sort of project yielded no results.

“So the idea is being tossed around. And they like Edinburg because of the university crowd,” Rivera said.

Largely, however, Rivera says he predicts new entertainment venues in Edinburg will be family-oriented. He says those sorts of businesses have been successful so far and he predicts that to continue.

“Edinburg is growing,” he said. “So Edinburg has to get prepared in the next few years to keep people in Edinburg.”