On the ridge of a lomita in rural Starr County, mesquite trees, sage, and cacti offered a vista for miles after construction crews cleared brushland for the first phase of a new master-planned, mixed-use development that took years to bear fruit.
Starr County native Julio Gonzalez, an engineer by trade, said he would drive past the ranchland for years and imagined something different for his community.
“We serve clients [as civil engineers] from Brownsville to McAllen. When we mention Starr County, many people often can’t even locate it on a map. But as locals, we know how much this community has grown,” Gonzalez told a crowd at the Nuestro Paraíso Ranch and Event Center near Rio Grande City on Thursday.
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Kristen Mosbrucker-Garza
Reporter
Kristen Mosbrucker-Garza is a versatile multimedia news reporter who lives and works along the Texas-Mexico border in Hidalgo County. Mosbrucker-Garza is a news reporter for the Rio Grande Valley Business Journal. During her career she's worked for the McAllen Monitor, San Antonio Business Journal, The Advocate Newspaper in Louisiana, Phoenix New Times, and public media outlets in Baltimore and Philadelphia.
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