The Rio Grande Valley is positioning itself for a new era of industrial growth driven by manufacturing expansion, cross-border dynamics, and rising demand for skilled labor.
In this episode of the Rio Grande Valley Business Journal Podcast, reporter Kristen Mosbrucker-Garza sits down with Rick Carrera of the Council for South Texas Economic Progress (COSTEP) to discuss how the region is building a clearer picture of its manufacturing base — and using it to attract new investment.
Carrera explains how a regional manufacturing census is helping economic developers identify capabilities, connect companies, and compete more effectively for projects, while highlighting the Valley’s advantages in workforce, proximity to Mexico, and existing industrial infrastructure.
The conversation explores major projects shaping the region — including automotive manufacturing, energy investments, and potential multibillion-dollar developments — as well as the growing importance of workforce training, advanced manufacturing programs, and regional alignment in landing deals.
It also examines the challenges ahead, including water and power constraints, shifting trade policy under USMCA, and the need for the Valley to present a unified message in an increasingly competitive economic development landscape.
The following is a rough, AI-generated transcript of Kristen Mosbrucker-Garza’s interview with Rick Carrera of the Council for South Texas Economic Progress. There may be slight errors in the transcription and possible misspellings of proper names. For the full, unabridged conversation, listen to the episode above or through your preferred podcast platform.
KRISTEN MOSBRUCKER-GARZA: We actually have semiconductor manufacturing already. Oh, you’re on the border.
RICK CARRERA: But there are some clean-room operations down here right now, and some other parts. But those clean-room operations could service any number of industries. They may service semiconductors. They may service automotive. They may service small appliances. Because, you know, most people know now even your smart refrigerator is smart because it’s got a microchip in it of some kind — a processor.
KRISTEN MOSBRUCKER-GARZA: This is a $225 million investment. I understand it will be about 500 new jobs. Potential Saronic deal — this autonomous vessel that would be potentially fulfilling a Navy contract, or a startup out of Austin — a $3.2 billion project? Absolutely. Potentially up to 10,000 jobs.
RICK CARRERA: The Rio Grande Valley is their prime target, or one of their prime targets, because it’s the proximity to Mexico. But they’re still in the U.S. The ports of entry, all the things that we have going for us. So that’s, I think, going to be a trend moving forward here for at least the next couple of years.
KRISTEN MOSBRUCKER-GARZA: Well, welcome, everyone. This is Kristen Mosbrucker-Garza. I’m a news reporter here at the Rio Grande Valley Business Journal, and this is our podcast. We have a special guest today, Mr. Rick Carrera with COSTEP. Remind me the full name.
RICK CARRERA: It’s an acronym. It’s the Council for South Texas Economic Progress.
KRISTEN MOSBRUCKER-GARZA: Yes. So we have worked with COSTEP, and just to introduce people to who you are and why you exist, give us a better sense.
RICK CARRERA: Absolutely. So COSTEP has actually been in existence since the early ’70s. The primary focus, of course, was regional economic development. As time went on, they pivoted just a little bit. But the goal, no matter what happens, is to provide better opportunities for better living conditions, whether it be job creation through education, for the residents of the real South Texas region.
RICK CARRERA: At one point, they were heavily involved with student funding and providing financing opportunities for people to get higher education many moons ago. I still have people ask me about those programs sometimes. Or they’ll tell me, “I remember when COSTEP had the little graduation cap on top of its logo.”
RICK CARRERA: So that’s what they were known for for quite some time. Changes in federal laws and legislation kind of made those programs not necessarily disappear, but COSTEP didn’t find them advantageous anymore. So we’ve kind of — it’s been several years now — pivoted back to regional economic development. That was probably around 2018 or 2019.
RICK CARRERA: So our primary focus is to bring more traction to the area for higher-paying industries that can create better-paying jobs for our young and very, very talented workforce down here.
KRISTEN MOSBRUCKER-GARZA: Cool. You know, something that I know y’all have been working on for a while is this concept of getting a better sense of who are the manufacturers in our community and what are their capabilities. What inspired that? And what are some highlights that surprised you as you were going through the data?
RICK CARRERA: Well, to answer your first question, what inspired that is we as a region — and what I mean by the region, typically we consider it the seven counties of South Texas that run along the Texas-Mexico border — and those who are in economic development, or have been on the road for quite some time, are aware that northern Tamaulipas on the other side of the border has been known for its manufacturing processes and its ecosystem for quite some time.
RICK CARRERA: So we leverage that as much as we can to bring more industry to the area. What we were finding was that a lot of people outside of South Texas, outside of Texas even, weren’t aware of that so much anymore.
RICK CARRERA: Back in the ’80s and ’90s, especially once NAFTA went through, the maquiladora thing became a catchphrase. I occasionally still run into older economic developers and site selectors who remember those days and say, “Oh, you’re from that area that’s known for maquiladoras.” But they’re becoming fewer and farther between. A lot of people are retiring or moving on to different things.
RICK CARRERA: So what we found is that we’re trying to reestablish the fact that we do have a good manufacturing ecosystem down here.
RICK CARRERA: The other thing we run into is that I speak to site selectors and different companies that are considering expansion or relocation fairly often, and most of the time they will ask, okay, who’s basically in the neighborhood and what are they building? Of course, you can do a Google search and you can do all these other things, but Google searches don’t necessarily give you the full picture, depending on who paid to have their name come up first and all that kind of stuff.
RICK CARRERA: So that’s what prompted us to get a true census of the manufacturing companies in the entire region, so we can see who’s building what, what are the capabilities, and how can we leverage that to better promote the ecosystem that exists here in terms of manufacturing.
KRISTEN MOSBRUCKER-GARZA: You know, it’s interesting. Talking about trying to do that research yourself, I think I did that at one point. And I noticed that the name of the company is sometimes different, right? Not only because it could be in Spanish, but it could be a subsidiary, or it could have been bought and sold over the years and actually be owned by another. So I can imagine that being very much of a resource.
KRISTEN MOSBRUCKER-GARZA: I remember looking through it and realizing that we actually have semiconductor manufacturing already. Oh, you’re on the border.
RICK CARRERA: Absolutely. And so this goes back to the second question you asked me a minute ago. Not so much for me only because I’m in this business, right? But for a lot of people, they’ve told us, “Well, I’m really surprised that if you go to the data, out of all the companies here, they service hundreds of different industries.”
RICK CARRERA: So you’ll find things like semiconductors and people will say, “Oh, you know, I didn’t realize that was going on down there.” I worked in the semiconductor industry many, many, many moons ago.
KRISTEN MOSBRUCKER-GARZA: Oh, really?
RICK CARRERA: Yes, I did, many moons ago. So people ask, “Oh, I don’t see what’s going on down there.” But there are some clean-room operations down here right now and some other parts. Those clean-room operations could service any number of industries. They may service semiconductors. They may service automotive. They may service small appliances. Because, you know, most people know now even your smart refrigerator is smart because it’s got a microchip in it of some kind — a processor.
RICK CARRERA: So for me, that was the surprising thing — just the number of industries that the manufacturing industry down here serves in terms of their products and what they’re building and what they’re selling.
KRISTEN MOSBRUCKER-GARZA: Interesting. Yeah. And I know that there have sort of long been automotive clusters, right? In terms of automotive parts, paints, things like that. Does that still exist in the industry?
RICK CARRERA: It does. I know here recently there hasn’t been an official automotive cluster developed. We’re working on some of that groundwork right now. Typically, a cluster would mean that’s going to be a membership organization. You have your board of directors and all of that.
RICK CARRERA: I think we’re not going to take it to that level just yet. But we are going to develop a cluster in terms of at least identifying who are the players in that automotive sector and having some consensus among them, and at least keeping them informed on a group level.
RICK CARRERA: If it gets enough traction and we find there’s a need to establish that cluster in and of itself, then of course we will go that next step. But there are several automotive clusters throughout the country of Mexico and other countries in the world, and there are even some here in the U.S.
RICK CARRERA: So we’ve been in discussions with some. Matter of fact, Adam Gonzalez, my CEO, and Alma Saldana Cruz, my counterpart out of Laredo, entertained an automotive cluster group from various parts of Mexico over the last two or three days. I was able to meet with them a little bit this morning, but I was on business travel and couldn’t spend more time with them. That’s probably the second or third group we’ve entertained this year.
RICK CARRERA: So the auto clusters are alive and well. Like I said, we may get to the point where it’s a true cluster and a formal group. But right now we’re just trying to get our bases covered with the basic census of who’s here and what they’re building.
KRISTEN MOSBRUCKER-GARZA: For sure. And the City of McAllen just landed a manufacturer yesterday. I believe it’s Valeo?
RICK CARRERA: Yes.
KRISTEN MOSBRUCKER-GARZA: My understanding is they have been active for years in Rio Bravo, which is across from Donna. And then essentially during a routine site visit — these business retention visits where you’re just mingling with executives — they were like, hey, there’s an expansion that we have down the pipeline for this. And a lot of things have happened since that conversation, right? We have the tariffs. There’s a lot that played into that.
RICK CARRERA: Based on what I have heard — I was not here for the celebration that happened the other day, but I have read up on it and had a couple of brief conversations with folks from McAllen EDC on it. They presented some of that information to the automotive cluster that was here this morning.
RICK CARRERA: But you’re absolutely correct. They did mention that the whole discussion on tariffs did play into that decision-making process in terms of wanting to establish on this side of the border.
RICK CARRERA: It is correct that the story they told was that in a business retention and expansion follow-up meeting — just staying in touch with their clients, which McAllen EDC does an excellent job of — that’s how the conversation started. They got word that they were looking at various locations to do an expansion, and they were like, wait a minute, let’s talk about this, right? What are the possibilities?
RICK CARRERA: That’s typically how these things go. Sure, companies will put out a request for information or say, hey, we’re looking to expand. But a lot of times it’s always at the grassroots level, like what’s going on? And that’s how these things get started.
RICK CARRERA: So congratulations and kudos to McAllen EDC. That’s an excellent job they did to get that landed here on this side of the border and remain in the region, because it’s going to be a great job creator.
RICK CARRERA: As a side note, when you get a company that’s willing to expand like that here, they’re looking at a multitude of factors. One is obviously your workforce, right? And land availability, power, those kinds of things. Beyond that, you have to consider, okay, I’m going to have some of my biggest and best management move to the area to operate this facility. Will they be happy here? Right?
RICK CARRERA: So quality of life plays into that factor. And then the ecosystem — meaning whether their kids are going to go to good schools, and whether they’re going to find the social networks they need to be happy and all that kind of thing.
RICK CARRERA: I’ve always mentioned this about our region: we are able to provide the ecosystem to keep employees happy. And this is another example of that. These are big expansions. Having worked in manufacturing at one point or another, I can tell you manufacturing job satisfaction can be very high. But you still have to have a life outside that plant. And the ecosystem we provide here lends itself to other companies landing in this area.
KRISTEN MOSBRUCKER-GARZA: Yeah. I’ve noticed a lot of investments in quality of life. It was one of the big topics the City of Brownsville was doing some math on in terms of how many more jobs they may expect — high-paying jobs — just from a couple projects like SpaceX, potentially Saronic, and then I think the third one is the oil refinery, American First Refining.
KRISTEN MOSBRUCKER-GARZA: Just to catch people up with Valeo, it’s in the City of McAllen near the International Bridge. Your plans would know this, right?
RICK CARRERA: It’s right off Ware Road in what they call their nearshore park.
KRISTEN MOSBRUCKER-GARZA: Yes.
RICK CARRERA: And it is actually a nearshoring victory in every sense of the word.
KRISTEN MOSBRUCKER-GARZA: Yeah. I was reading that they were actually producing some of the plastic injection molding in China, and then they relocated that to Mexico. That was part of this reshoring process. Their long-term client is General Motors.
KRISTEN MOSBRUCKER-GARZA: So this is a $225 million investment. I understand it will be about 500 new jobs — high-paying jobs. I don’t have the exact pay, but for a community like this, it’s typically between $70,000 to $100,000. So that’s kind of the idea we’re talking about.
KRISTEN MOSBRUCKER-GARZA: And then, just to catch people up, the potential Saronic deal is this autonomous vessel that would be potentially fulfilling a Navy contract. It’s a startup out of Austin. A $3.2 billion project, absolutely. Potentially up to 10,000 jobs, with average salary, I think, between $80,000 to $90,000, depending.
KRISTEN MOSBRUCKER-GARZA: And then the oil refinery — another 500 jobs, same kind of pay scale, a $3.5 billion to $4 billion project. And then SpaceX’s expansion — they already have, what, an economic impact of $13 billion?
RICK CARRERA: And they’re reportedly going to double their workforce by the end of the year.
KRISTEN MOSBRUCKER-GARZA: So I kind of —
RICK CARRERA: On the Saronic side, I’ve got to share with you, I was at a conference earlier this week and I met one of the competitors to the Port of Brownsville for that project. Once I explained who I was and where I’m from, she was like, “We wanted to compete for that.”
RICK CARRERA: And I will tell you, this is good for the port and good for us as a region. They thought that when the announcement went out about the refinery, that was going to take Brownsville out of the running for Saronic, because there was no way that port could accommodate both operations. And I said, well, actually they can accommodate both and then some, because they’ve got space galore.
RICK CARRERA: And that’s a huge asset that we have as a region, that we have that port with that space to provide for these kinds of operations. Those are both sizable operations if they both land. The Saronic one, I understand, is a pretty good shot, but I would leave it to the port to make those announcements for sure.
KRISTEN MOSBRUCKER-GARZA: Yeah. And the Port of Brownsville, what, 40,000 acres?
RICK CARRERA: Yes.
KRISTEN MOSBRUCKER-GARZA: That’s a lot of space. So I think that’s a good point.
RICK CARRERA: I talked to a couple other people representing ports, and when I mentioned the space that we had, it was like, oh yeah. They didn’t realize that we’re in a position where we’re poised to compete for a lot of projects moving forward.
RICK CARRERA: The prevailing thought was that they’re only going to be able to accommodate one or two of those, but that’s not the case. We can accommodate both and then —
KRISTEN MOSBRUCKER-GARZA: So yeah. And then potentially, if anyone wants to restart it, a third LNG facility.
RICK CARRERA: I was having a conversation just a while ago with somebody here. I didn’t read the article. I was traveling yesterday, and between planes I was scrolling through my phone and saw the headline. I didn’t get a chance to read the article, but yes, that’s another potential development.
RICK CARRERA: I don’t know what details to share or talk about here, but —
KRISTEN MOSBRUCKER-GARZA: Yeah, no, that’s fine. I actually did an interview with the person who filed the FERC filing — someone who wants to reopen it, the Innova LNG project. It had shut down, but now that all the geopolitical and market conditions have changed, you know, the Strait of Hormuz is closed, the price of gas, price of diesel, and demand for LNG is just —
RICK CARRERA: There’s a lot going on. And if you look at the political ramifications and some of the decisions being made, those are direct results of that.
RICK CARRERA: We don’t get politically involved in anything. But when you start watching the news and seeing how things are playing out, again, the USMCA potential changes played into some of the factors for Valeo to land in McAllen.
RICK CARRERA: We’ve entertained a few different groups from Mexico, and people ask on a personal note, what’s with all these people from Mexico? So we get a lot of calls from companies in Mexico. Some are U.S.-owned, but they’re based in Mexico. Obviously those decisions are made from both sides of the border, but they’re really looking at us because should things change with USMCA in a way that really requires them to be more U.S.-based products, the Rio Grande Valley is their prime target, or one of their prime targets.
RICK CARRERA: It’s because of the proximity to Mexico, but they’re still in the U.S. The ports of entry, all the things we have going for us. So that’s, I think, going to be a trend moving forward here for at least the next couple of years, until whatever’s going to happen with USMCA happens.
KRISTEN MOSBRUCKER-GARZA: For sure. And just to catch people up, USMCA is — I think of it as NAFTA 2.0 or 3.0 now. So it’s the U.S., Canada, Mexico —
RICK CARRERA: U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement.
KRISTEN MOSBRUCKER-GARZA: Yes. There you go. Essentially it’s a free trade agreement between our nations, and who knows what’s going to happen with that. But in some ways, do you think it has been good news for the Valley that it has continued? Because a lot of this twin-plant growth and all that kind of expansion started with NAFTA.
RICK CARRERA: Absolutely. For the most part, it has been good. There have been — I will share that I’ve been here for a few years now, and we may start doing them again — but we would bring site selectors down and different groups and give them tours of the area. They’d be fairly impressed, and we would start getting leads from companies looking to move or expand.
RICK CARRERA: Some were more foreign-based or whatever. But once the current administration took over and the talk about USMCA picked up, there’s been some hesitancy. And that’s across the board. It’s not just us. I have these conversations with site selectors and other development representatives from all over the country pretty regularly.
RICK CARRERA: So far it kind of goes across the spectrum. Some are putting everything on a complete stop. But we’re more than a year into the current administration now, and some are saying, okay, we’re going to move forward with some hesitancy here, but things still have to move forward, right?
RICK CARRERA: To answer your question, for the most part it’s been mostly positive, but there has been some hesitancy in the market and in the industry right now to really make some big, big moves. Though there are some people doing it.
KRISTEN MOSBRUCKER-GARZA: Well, while we have all of these new projects coming down the pipeline, in part because of that, we’re already dealing with a community with water challenges, right? There’s so much demand for water. The state’s plan going out basically says we’re going to need more. You can’t rely on the Rio Grande solely into perpetuity.
KRISTEN MOSBRUCKER-GARZA: There’s a lot more development with groundwater and desalination. So when you’re talking to companies considering our region, what do you hear more? Do you hear more about power? Do you hear more about water? What are the considerations they are most interested in?
RICK CARRERA: That’s a really good question, and it varies by company and depending on which resource they need more than anything. That being said, it’s probably more the electricity side than the water side.
RICK CARRERA: On the electricity end, they can find ways around that to some degree — what they call power behind the meter. They’re going to get electrical power off the meter and, as much as they need to, power generators or something within the plant or their operation.
RICK CARRERA: But if it’s a very water-intensive operation, I’m not saying they don’t look at us, but that is taken into consideration. National media being what it is, sometimes it’s unfairly portrayed that we have water issues, and sometimes it gives off the perception that we have none, and that’s not the case. We do have some water.
RICK CARRERA: Just like on the electrical side, what some companies are doing now is finding ways to do water reuse — what they call purple water — reuse non-potable water for cooling towers and that kind of thing.
RICK CARRERA: I guess what I’m really saying is, again, it depends on which resource they need the most. But this isn’t just us. This is across the country. A lot of companies are finding that they’re going to have to invest in ways to regenerate power or reuse water in order to keep their operations running and solvent.
KRISTEN MOSBRUCKER-GARZA: Absolutely. I mean, I remember ten years ago there were projections that the Texas Hill Country was going to run out of water by 2050. And people still keep moving there.
RICK CARRERA: Absolutely. They said the Edwards Aquifer can only support so much, right? But the movement is still there. Then you have these torrential downpours and those kinds of things on the water side. That’s a whole other discussion.
RICK CARRERA: We could talk for another three hours about the number of detention ponds and retention ponds needed here. As people are aware, when it rains, it really pours here, and we get flooding. County and civic leaders are probably better prepared to handle those things now than they were several years ago.
RICK CARRERA: What I mean by better prepared is they now have plans in place to create more detention ponds, retention ponds, and that kind of thing. Because all of us know it’s hot and dry outside right now, but we could get a massive downpour two weeks from now, then the water is in the street, and then two weeks later it’s dry again. Another story for another —
KRISTEN MOSBRUCKER-GARZA: Another time. Yeah. And on the power side, what you said earlier was really interesting. Historically, my general understanding about the Valley and power is that there’s plenty of power generation happening across the state, but it seems like our transmission-line system —
RICK CARRERA: The delivery is where there might be a potential issue, yeah.
KRISTEN MOSBRUCKER-GARZA: And since we’re sort of at the end of the line, literally, I know that our transmission companies are working toward new investments. They’re expanding the grid. They’re essentially making capacity larger. But AEP Texas is experiencing so much demand just from the existing residential, commercial, industrial base — not even all these new projects.
KRISTEN MOSBRUCKER-GARZA: One of the things they shared with me that they were really excited about was this new line that would essentially be, what, 765 kilovolts. What would that potentially open up for economic development in the Valley if we had infrastructure that big?
RICK CARRERA: Some of the power-delivery issues we just briefly mentioned wouldn’t completely disappear, but a lot would be eliminated. Again, it comes down to the delivery there, and then you’re still talking about substations and that kind of thing.
RICK CARRERA: But for the most part, it opens up a lot of doors because even AEP has mentioned to me that the demand for transformers is so high. To create a substation and that kind of thing, the lead time on some of those components is three years, 36 months.
RICK CARRERA: I have heard of other people in the private sector purchasing their own to circumvent potential supply bottlenecks, or finding suppliers that can deliver faster. To answer your question, the 765 opens up a lot of possibilities for us in terms of the high-power delivery some of these newer operations are going to need.
RICK CARRERA: So having those lines is great. You still have to get it into the ground. But there are groups, companies, organizations out there doing what they can to help that process.
KRISTEN MOSBRUCKER-GARZA: For sure. And when you’re talking to companies, what do they say about our workforce? Our community has changed so much, right? We’ve grown a lot. There is a higher level of advanced degrees in our community over time. There are a lot of technical skills historically. Our community colleges are really collaborative with industry and training and things like that.
KRISTEN MOSBRUCKER-GARZA: What is sort of the impression of our workforce? What are companies saying our workforce needs more work on, or more education regarding, to better situate our community for them to want to invest?
RICK CARRERA: Everything I’ve heard about our workforce thus far has been very positive. What helps our workforce is the sheer number of institutions of higher education here to help get them trained up.
RICK CARRERA: Not just the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley or South Texas College or Texas Southmost College or Texas State Technical College. They’re providing for your degree people, right? But what we’re finding on the industry side is that most companies may not necessarily need a four-year-degree person, but they need a person with a training certificate of some kind.
RICK CARRERA: So what we’re finding is that South Texas College, being one, is producing certificates people can get within six months. Same thing with Texas Southmost College, Texas State Technical College, a lot of community colleges. They’re able to provide the workforce needed pretty rapidly.
RICK CARRERA: What really works in our favor is, statistically speaking, we’re a very young population. I think we’re 28.9 years old. And that’s young. I’ll tell you that. I meet people from all over the country and ask them, statistically speaking, how old are you? And they’ll say, well, we’re 45 years old. That means they’ve got a much older population.
RICK CARRERA: If you’re a big corporate company looking for your next expansion or relocation, you have to ask yourself, am I going to put myself in a place where the majority of my talented people are getting ready to retire already? Or am I going to put myself somewhere that I can actually develop the workforce I have because they’re younger, and I can grow them with the company and get them trained up? So that works really, really well for us.
RICK CARRERA: I will tell you, I’ve talked to some people here who have existing manufacturing companies, and the feedback I’ve gotten is very, very positive about our workforce. Most people are looking for a good opportunity. It goes back to the employer-employee relationship, the culture built within the company, that kind of thing.
RICK CARRERA: But thus far, most of what I’ve heard is very, very positive. The only time I’ve heard anything really negative — and this is just me, I’m not saying this is all-encompassing across the board — is that when you dig down into it, those companies maybe weren’t providing a good culture, and what they were looking to pay employees may not have been what those jobs probably should have paid.
RICK CARRERA: That’s not a critique on anybody. Maybe that’s what their industry pays and that’s what it can afford to pay, and that’s just a byproduct of that. But typically, if there’s been anything negative about our workforce, there have been extraneous factors that lead into that. It’s not necessarily because of the quality of the person.
KRISTEN MOSBRUCKER-GARZA: And what is y’all’s definition of a good-paying job or a high-paying job? Because you kind of mentioned that’s really the thrust of y’all’s organization — to bring quality jobs to our communities.
RICK CARRERA: That’s a really good question. I don’t know that I have, on a personal level, put a number to that. I will tell you that I’ve spoken to companies who say, hey, I’m having a hard time attracting workforce, and they’re paying probably around what Walmart or some of the other large retailers are paying.
RICK CARRERA: That makes it a little difficult because some people, depending on the age bracket and demographic, may find they’d rather work in a retail environment than go work doing something else that’s going to pay the same amount of money.
RICK CARRERA: So to answer your question, it would have to be something that’s going to pay substantially higher than what they would be able to find in a retail environment. I worked retail. I actually loved it as a kid. But the reason I moved on from retail was because I wanted something that was going to provide a little bit better of an opportunity from a financial standpoint.
RICK CARRERA: So I look back to when I was that age, and while I haven’t put a number to it, it would have to be something good enough to drive somebody to go get the skills or whatever they require to move on to that particular position.
KRISTEN MOSBRUCKER-GARZA: You know, it’s funny. I’m one of eight children, right? So I have a plethora of other life experiences. One of my brothers worked in retail for years and years, but moved on from retail, got an HVAC education later in life, and ran his own company. I think now they’re doing work for a union. But it pays better, and he’s able to provide for a family.
KRISTEN MOSBRUCKER-GARZA: I think pay is really a conversation in our communities right now. Because people are like, one of the reasons I’m out in Houston working at an oil refinery is because it pays so, so well. So I really hope that the oil refinery in my backyard, where I can go home to my family at night, will pay similarly. Because when you look at inflation, cost of living, gas — we do have a low cost of living, but it has increased.
RICK CARRERA: It has increased substantially, especially with the cost of housing over the past five years. On a personal level, I’ve already had sidebar conversations with people who’ve told me, oh, my cousins are already looking at the refinery and wondering where they can get those jobs.
RICK CARRERA: I had somebody message me a couple of weeks ago, the day after the announcement came out, asking who do I talk to about these positions. I’m directing them to any number of different people to talk to.
RICK CARRERA: But yeah, those conversations are happening already. One thing I will say is that with the McAllen announcement, I’m already seeing posts on social media saying, well, they’re just going to pay minimum wage. They’re not going to pay minimum wage, not by a long shot.
RICK CARRERA: To find the quality of worker they’re going to need to produce what they’re going to produce in that plant is not a minimum-wage proposition — far from it. There are a lot of naysayers out there that are quick to say that, but that’s not the case.
RICK CARRERA: Going back to your point, people are looking at that. Even when I lived outside the Valley for several years, there were a lot of people who were born and raised in the Rio Grande Valley who would have moved back here in a heartbeat if they could have found the opportunity that would be able to sustain the lifestyle they had created for themselves.
RICK CARRERA: These weren’t lavish lifestyles. I’m not saying they had houses on Lake Travis and were driving Bentleys or anything like that. But they had good incomes, could support a family, had benefits and retirement plans and that kind of thing. So I do think we may actually see some people relocating back to the Rio Grande Valley for the right opportunities.
KRISTEN MOSBRUCKER-GARZA: Oh yeah, I think that will be something to watch for sure. Because we have a lot of new people in our community, right? We’re going to have a lot of transplants, and we’re changing a lot.
RICK CARRERA: But they follow opportunity, right? Austin became what it was because it had such a high level of opportunity for anybody. I had a roommate when I lived in Dallas who moved to Austin with absolutely nothing — no job, just a couple things in the back of his truck. Within a couple of weeks, he stayed with a friend, got a job doing contract labor for somebody, and from there moved on to something else and something else and eventually got to where he’s at.
RICK CARRERA: Long story short, there was opportunity, right? He was able to do that for himself. And I think we’ll start seeing more of that here in the Rio Grande Valley as we continue to bring and attract good industries like McAllen and Brownsville and the port are doing, and the rest are doing for that matter.
KRISTEN MOSBRUCKER-GARZA: If there was one particular challenge or sticking point that you wish you could just wave a magic wand and make disappear, what would it be in your field?
RICK CARRERA: Wow. That is a really, really good question. I think water is always going to be an issue, right? Even though there are going to be water-reuse plans, like I mentioned, water is always going to be a concern.
RICK CARRERA: I think if we — and I understand there are naysayers out there and they maybe don’t want to see some of the industry we’re trying to attract come to the area, and I can certainly empathize with some of their concerns. But the communities that I’ve gotten to know over the past few years, when you dig down deep into them, everybody is on that same page in terms of, we’re going to recruit more industry here.
RICK CARRERA: I even spoke to a site selector about this earlier this week, and he said you can kind of tell when you go into a community whether they really want you there or not. All the EDCs here do a fantastic job, and even they will tell you, and I will tell you, not every company is going to be a good fit here. Some of them maybe we don’t want to attract. But those that we do want to attract, let’s make sure that we’re all on the right page and presenting a clear and concise message as a region saying, hey, we want you here.
RICK CARRERA: It goes back to the naysayers I see posting on social media. Everybody’s entitled to their opinion. Absolutely. That’s what social media is for. But we need to promote the region as best we can as a unified group and make sure we’re doing our best to bring more to the area.
RICK CARRERA: I say that because it is a very, very competitive landscape out there, more so than probably most people would think or understand. Every region has its positives and negatives, right? But you’ll never see anybody from that region talk about the negatives of that region ever. I’ve never seen it.
RICK CARRERA: Maybe it happens in small groups or particular sections of the population. And it’s not necessarily a huge problem here. But I see it enough to think that we need to make sure we’re all putting our best foot forward to try to get the best industry we can to the area.
KRISTEN MOSBRUCKER-GARZA: Historically, we’ve had a lot of influx from companies up north maybe closing a plant so they could open a plant here, right? Something I thought was really interesting — I got a chance to chat with the Valeo executive, and I asked, is this a twin plant? Is this that same model, just a different version? Apparently it’s not, and I thought that was really interesting.
KRISTEN MOSBRUCKER-GARZA: I wonder if we might see something like that moving forward, where they may have operations over the border, they may have some kind of footprint — I think they had a warehouse in Pharr for however long.
RICK CARRERA: Been there for a long, long time.
KRISTEN MOSBRUCKER-GARZA: Yeah. And now they’re bringing the manufacturing over. They basically said they’re producing very high-tech, very valuable products that are going to go inside these cars — everything from essentially the circuit board that takes in all —
RICK CARRERA: They will be producing the brain for the vehicle, for lack of a better way to put it, and a liquid-cooled brain. I’m a car guy, so I find that extremely fascinating.
RICK CARRERA: Anytime you have a processor, it’s liquid-cooled because it is moving at an incredible speed. When processors move at that rate, they create a lot of heat. That’s why, remember the old desktop computers and the fan would kick on after it had been running for a while? Even laptops do that now because that processor is getting hot because it’s processing a lot of information.
RICK CARRERA: So when liquid-cooled processors became a thing, I don’t know, ten or twelve years ago, I just found that fascinating. If they’re going to be producing that level of technology in McAllen, that’s significant.
RICK CARRERA: He’s absolutely correct, based on what little I have seen from that. I think that was a bigger reason for them to pick McAllen. Of course, proximity to the other side was important, but they also looked at the education ecosystem that we have here that produces X number of engineers and can support that type and that level of manufacturing and technology.
KRISTEN MOSBRUCKER-GARZA: Yeah. We’re now building software-defined vehicles, and there’s a different type of —
RICK CARRERA: It’s a different type of vehicle. And people ask me about Mexico. It’s not necessarily cheap labor that drives companies there anymore. Is labor cheaper? Of course it is. But it’s skilled labor, right?
RICK CARRERA: You have okay, we’re building widgets, and maybe somebody is just pushing the press all day. But then you have skilled labor doing things that are more intricate, and that’s still running at lower cost. In this particular case, it’s the level of talent that they needed. It basically required that they get here on the McAllen U.S. side as opposed to the Mexican side.
RICK CARRERA: And that’s why it’s not a twin plant. A twin plant would have been — and this goes back to the census we put together, which we’re still adding to — one thing we left off of that is a strictly warehouse operation. Some companies have a warehouse in Pharr or other parts, and all it is is a pass-through. They move product from some factory somewhere in interior Mexico, bring it across, and put it in a warehouse. We left those off our manufacturing census because they’re not actually producing anything.
KRISTEN MOSBRUCKER-GARZA: And what about food manufacturers? Because I remember y’all had a bit of a discussion about that.
RICK CARRERA: We did. So for food manufacturing, depending on the type of industry — and this is nothing disparaging about bakeries or mom-and-pop operations — we have to figure out what our threshold is. Typically, we’re looking for operations that are mass producing, selling in large quantities to corporate buyers or distributors, not smaller-scale production for local consumption.
We’re still trying to navigate that because we don’t want to leave out a quality manufacturer. But we are working to define where that floor is — what qualifies at a regional economic development level.
KRISTEN MOSBRUCKER-GARZA: Right. I can think of examples — a popular pan dulce brand pitching a factory in San Juan. That would create jobs. It is manufacturing. But it’s more regional. Versus a food manufacturer in Brownsville that secured incentives for a $117 million expansion.
RICK CARRERA: A huge expansion.
KRISTEN MOSBRUCKER-GARZA: Exactly. Hundreds of jobs. Different scale.
RICK CARRERA: Right. And we may end up including both, but with distinctions. For now, we’re focused on operations like you mentioned — larger-scale production, multiple shifts, significant employment.
At that point, it becomes less about the product and more about the process. What kind of manufacturing is happening, and does it help us recruit similar companies?
Because the census we’re building isn’t just informational — it’s a recruiting tool. It helps us answer a common question: can companies plug into what already exists here?
We get inquiries from companies that aren’t ready to relocate fully but want to partner locally — have someone here produce components, then integrate them into their own operation elsewhere.
That’s where this becomes strategic. It’s not just who’s here — it’s how they connect to future deals.
KRISTEN MOSBRUCKER-GARZA: That makes sense. And we should mention, we’re recording today from the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley Brownsville campus during an advanced manufacturing symposium. UTRGV has an advanced manufacturing institute, Texas A&M has one as well — how does that fit into the region’s pitch?
RICK CARRERA: It fits directly into the ecosystem. It’s not necessarily a dealbreaker if those programs don’t exist, but it absolutely strengthens the case.
If I’m advising a company on where to locate, I want to know — if something goes wrong in production, who can help solve it? Who understands the technology?
That’s where institutions like UTRGV come in. They give companies confidence that there’s technical expertise here — people who can support R&D, troubleshoot issues, and collaborate.
I sat in on some of those sessions today — very technical discussions. But that’s a good thing. It shows the depth of capability we can offer companies considering the region.
KRISTEN MOSBRUCKER-GARZA: And what’s next for COSTEP?
RICK CARRERA: We’re continuing to build out the industrial data system. We host quarterly meetings — what we call “Friends of COSTEP” — and bring in site selectors to speak with regional stakeholders. Our next one is already near capacity.
We also organize what we call quick tours — bringing in companies, site selectors, and industry groups for one- to two-day visits to showcase the region.
That’s our core mission: awareness. Not just for COSTEP, but for South Texas.
We’re also in early conversations with several companies. Too early to share details — and that’s intentional.
Deals are lost when confidentiality is broken. I’ve seen it happen. A project falls apart, and hundreds of jobs go with it. So discretion matters.
KRISTEN MOSBRUCKER-GARZA: And that’s something people may not always understand — especially with public companies.
RICK CARRERA: Exactly. There are legal requirements. Timing matters. Disclosure rules matter. So when information isn’t shared, it’s not reluctance — it’s process.
KRISTEN MOSBRUCKER-GARZA: Understood. Well, thank you for the time.
RICK CARRERA: Always happy to do it. If it helps promote the region, it’s worth it.
KRISTEN MOSBRUCKER-GARZA: And for those following along, you can find more coverage at RGVBusinessJournal.com or subscribe to the podcast.
RICK CARRERA: Thank you all.
