La construcción residencial en el Valle del Río Grande se encuentra bajo presión, ya que los constructores deben hacer frente a problemas de mano de obra, al aumento de los costes y a la incertidumbre política.
Mario Guerrero, director general de la Asociación de Constructores del Sur de Texas, afirmó que los contratistas comenzaron a expresar su preocupación a principios de este año, cuando se intensificaron las medidas de control de inmigración en las obras, lo que provocó trastornos en los equipos de trabajo y retrasos en los proyectos en curso. Su asociación fue la primera del sur de Texas en advertir públicamente de que las medidas de control estaban afectando a los plazos de construcción y aumentando el riesgo financiero en todo el proceso de construcción de viviendas.
Los retrasos en las obras, señaló Guerrero, hacen que los costes se disparen rápidamente, sobre todo para los constructores que dependen de préstamos a corto plazo para la construcción, y esos gastos acaban repercutiendo en los compradores. «No estamos diciendo que no hagan su trabajo», afirmó Guerrero. «Lo que decimos es que hay una forma mejor de hacerlo».
También habló sobre cómo se creó la Asociación de Constructores del Sur de Texas durante la crisis de suministro provocada por la pandemia de COVID-19, qué aprendieron los constructores de la extrema volatilidad de los precios de los materiales y por qué la disponibilidad de mano de obra se ha convertido en una de las principales limitaciones para la construcción de viviendas y su asequibilidad en toda la región.
Temas tratados
• Worksite enforcement and construction delays
• The “mid-pour” example and direct jobsite cost impacts
• Construction loans, banking risk, and inventory pressures
• Workforce gaps and the skilled trades pipeline
• Tariffs, interest rates, and affordability headwinds
• How the association formed and what’s next
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The following is an AI-generated transcript of the Podcast with Mario Guerrero, CEO of the South Texas Builders Association.
There may be minor mistakes in the transcript. Please refer to the link above or listen on your favorite podcast provider.
Intro:
MARIO GUERRERO: Not saying not to do your job. You’re causing harm to the economy. I saw a video of Ice enforcement showing up to a concrete pour and taking all the concrete workers in the middle of a concrete pour. Do you understand the level of loss there? We’re the only builders organization in South Texas to raise the flag, and I can even go to say that I have gotten death threats because of this.
Podcast:
NAXI LOPEZ: Hi, and thank you for joining us on this episode of the Rio Grande Valley Business Journal’s podcast. I’m Naxi Lopez-Puente. And today we will be discussing the state of the construction industry here in the Rio Grande Valley. Joining us today is Mario Guerrero, the CEO of the South Texas Builders Association. Mario, thank you so much for joining us.
MARIO GUERRERO: Thank you, Ms. Puente.
NAXI LOPEZ: To have you on our podcast.
MARIO GUERRERO: Thank you so much for the invitation. I greatly appreciate.
NAXI LOPEZ: It for sure. So, Mario, you are Association sounded the alarm. A few months ago, right on, on the immigration raids happening here in in the construction industry. Yes, ma’am. Talk to us about why you guys decided to do that.
MARIO GUERRERO: I think in the beginning. And the motive is still the same today, is that overall, I think we are just one piece at our construction sites. I think we want to make sure that if people are working is that we respect that right? The motive has always been to keep peace, and it has never been to just be disrespectful on try and say that somebody shouldn’t do their job.
MARIO GUERRERO: But unfortunately, in, in the Rio Grande Valley, because our organization does spread from Roma, Texas, all the way to SPI, we are all southern region of Texas. We are seeing a influx of, of immigration enforcement in our construction sites where they are basically questioning everybody and even people that do have proper documentation to be here and work legally are being taken in.
MARIO GUERRERO: And they are being told also that the documentation that they had gotten from the Biden administration does not count for this administration, which is kind of crazy because I think to myself, we are all under the law, right? We’re all under the one government. And I don’t believe that the government should change from one president to another. Right.
MARIO GUERRERO: We all have a, sound foundation, just like there is for a house, a sound foundation of what government is. So when you hear that and, you you you just don’t hear it. You’re you’re you’re getting calls from people that are actually going through it and telling you, hey, they just took my T, or they just took my dad, and they’re telling him that his proper documentation that he has is not valid for this administration, which is it’s scary.
NAXI LOPEZ: And so let me, let me backtrack a little bit, right. Because we just jumped into the, into the main issue. Right.
MARIO GUERRERO: We dug in the deep.
NAXI LOPEZ: All right. So for our viewers who don’t know what the South Texas builders Association is. Tell us, what would you guys do?
MARIO GUERRERO: So the South Texas Builders Association was founded during the one of the most, I would like to say, one of the scariest times that we’ve ever faced as a, as a, as a, human race. At least in my, in my time of living on this beautiful planet. It was actually formed during the time of Covid. And the reason that, the South Texas Builders Association was formed is because a lot of doors were closed on us during Covid, and we had nowhere to turn.
MARIO GUERRERO: So builders were facing crazy up charges on material. If a builder was paying $8 an OSB sheet, it went all the way up to $64. Some people even saw the numbers of $70, and it would fluctuate between 50 up to $6,065. That’s one sheet. If a house takes 300, you could just imagine what that would do to a builder.
MARIO GUERRERO: We had builders that were losing hundreds of thousands of dollars during this time.
NAXI LOPEZ: But why or why did Covid allow for that big upcharge in, in, or surge in price?
MARIO GUERRERO: I believe that what happened was is that the people that are at the mills creating this lumber at the time, for a moment there, they were not considered essential workers, just like you were essential if you worked in the oil industry and stuff like that. That caused a huge spike in price because they.
NAXI LOPEZ: Didn’t have.
MARIO GUERRERO: The the demand. Yes, ma’am. They didn’t have the workforce to produce the product, and they didn’t have the product to put out in the field.
NAXI LOPEZ: Okay.
MARIO GUERRERO: All right. So whatever product was on the field had to go up in price. That’s that’s insane. If you think about the upcharge and what, if you’re paying $8 and it goes all the way to $60, that’s crazy. It’s over 100% increase.
NAXI LOPEZ: Yeah.
MARIO GUERRERO: And we had companies at the time. We had companies that were losing, like I said, hundreds of thousands of dollars and a couple companies that lost millions of dollars. And there was nobody there for us. Nobody was there for us. There was no door that we could go to where they would say, hey, come in, we got you.
MARIO GUERRERO: We got some sort of direction that you can do nothing. So at the time, since we didn’t have this, a group of people with Ronnie Cavazos, Efrain Gomez, Roel Moreno, Julio Carranza and many others that were the, the literally the founding fathers of this organization. They came with the idea that we all do the same thing in the construction industry.
MARIO GUERRERO: There’s nothing special other than the person running the company, but the construction’s all the same. The difference is, is that everybody puts their own personal touch on the on the homes, right? Everybody builds foundations, everybody trenches, foundations, raises the raises the framing goes ahead and puts electrical. All that good stuff. Right. And they became friends growing up in the industry.
MARIO GUERRERO: It was never a thing that builders would be friends. Never. If anything, other organizations that do exist kind of kept us apart. And we were never told that, hey man, that guy does the same thing as you. Maybe he has some ideas that you can bounce off each other and create something great. It was never like that.
NAXI LOPEZ: So that was the inspiration for creating the association.
MARIO GUERRERO: It was the it was the inspiration that we needed. And it’s shown us that we are stronger together. That’s why our slogan is we build together. We are stronger together. Because what is to say that because of that, we are here today and and we’re the only organization in South Texas. I would like to point this out. We’re the only or only builders organization in South Texas to raise the flag on what’s happening with immigration.
MARIO GUERRERO: We are the first. And I can even go to say that I have gotten death threats because of this. Nobody else. Nobody else is standing up for our industry. We are the only ones. Myself, my board and my organization are the only ones that are actually at the front line. Everybody else that could possibly do something is now trying to jump on the bandwagon that we have built with death threats, with pain, with fear, because we believe what’s happening is wrong and so.
NAXI LOPEZ: You know, you guys did put out that video, right? Like I mentioned, when was that video put out?
MARIO GUERRERO: And if I told you the.
NAXI LOPEZ: Day like November.
MARIO GUERRERO: Yes, ma’am.
NAXI LOPEZ: And but but the issue started, you know, way before that, right. So.
MARIO GUERRERO: Yes, ma’am.
NAXI LOPEZ: It’s it’s it’s about what you have seen. Right. This starting from, you know, when you started noticing the raids, when did the raids start to what you are seeing today? Paint a picture, right. For our viewers, for our readers, that aren’t that don’t have their ear to the ground.
MARIO GUERRERO: So I would like to say that I would like to believe that the rates have been going on for about a year now. Right. When they started, I obviously didn’t think it was right. We had we had we had a bunch of builders in the organization that were raising the alarm about what was happening, but I didn’t know how to raise concern for it because when you go against the system, you are not liked.
MARIO GUERRERO: Only people that see life like you through the same perspective are going to are going to be okay with what you’re saying. I just got lucky that when I took I, I, I grabbed my chair after I saw a video of Ice enforcement showing up to a concrete pour and taking all the concrete workers in the middle of a concrete pour.
MARIO GUERRERO: All right. Do you understand the level of loss there?
NAXI LOPEZ: Not just talk to us about it.
MARIO GUERRERO: Let me give you all an example. And this is coming from a builder. I’m a builder. I want to make that clear. I’m the executive director. I’m the CEO of the South Texas Builders Association. You have to trench. You have to put rebar. You have to do pest. You have to put lining. You have to pass inspection. You have to go through all these steps.
MARIO GUERRERO: And every step takes money. You start pouring concrete. There’s rebar in there, all that good stuff. They take everybody. What happens to the concrete? It goes bad. It’s not like they can take him back and say, hey, we’re going to remix this. So there’s a loss there. What happens to all the rebar? It goes bad. You you have to literally break that.
MARIO GUERRERO: You have to let it have. Imagine it’s a trench. You gotta let it sit and dry. Then you got to go in there, break it all and pray to God that you don’t break your rebar. Redo everything lining. Pass everything. And the construction company is already. It was already in the hole $15,000. Then they have to come in another $15,000 just to try and do the same steps again.
MARIO GUERRERO: I understand that this has to be done. I understand that. I’m not saying not to do your job. What I’m saying is, is that you’re causing harm to the economy. It’s not about not doing your job. If you’re if you’re making companies lose their profit, that’s a zero, right? But what happens if that zero turns to a negative because they just lost another profit in another home.
MARIO GUERRERO: And then that negative turns to another negative because they just lost their project and another home.
NAXI LOPEZ: So then they’ll default on their loans and they’ll affect other companies.
MARIO GUERRERO: So they default on their loans. Because a lot of people, if you don’t know this, a lot of the construction that is happening in the valley is, is literally happening on construction loans. If there’s a default on a loan and it’s a cycle that continues and continues and continues, what’s gonna happen to the bank?
NAXI LOPEZ: And yeah, it’s going to suffer.
MARIO GUERRERO: It’s going to suffer. And if there’s no money revolving, the economy is going to suffer. And and that’s that’s been my cry for help and my cry for help. Maybe isn’t the most popular one on the right, and maybe also the most popular one on the left. My my stance has always been on the middle. I’m not red.
MARIO GUERRERO: I’m not blue. I ain’t Republican, I ain’t Democrat, and I sure don’t want to play that game. I’ve learned that with this experience, I never want to be in politics, even though people are like, no, you’re good bro.
MARIO GUERRERO: No, no. That’s horrible. That’s horrible.
NAXI LOPEZ: It’s, yeah. Tricky, tricky game.
MARIO GUERRERO: It’s horrible. That’s not that’s not the stance. The stance is there’s a better way to do this. There should be a better way to do this than you going to worksites and terrorizing communities. Because there’s videos going out right now in Weslsco. There was a I don’t even know why how it could even be okay for a human being to think that they can do this.
MARIO GUERRERO: They’re in a Dodge Durango, all black, and they decide to get on the in in a subdivision where there’s families already living and there’s a couple lots that are open and they’re speeding. Like, I don’t want to exaggerate. They’re going to do this guy’s crazy, but let’s just say there were going between 50 to 60mph in the subdivision.
NAXI LOPEZ: Oh, come.
MARIO GUERRERO: Yes.
NAXI LOPEZ: And are we talking about law enforcement or. No, it was ice.
MARIO GUERRERO: No, it was ice. It was ice. No, no, they were going full speed. And I get it, you know, they someone ran. You can see in the video like somebody ran. But dude, you’re in a vehicle, bro. Get there. You know, I’m sure you could tackle the guy suplex and put him in a kamora. You know, do whatever you got to do.
MARIO GUERRERO: What if a child was playing on that street? Sure. What if there was a child playing on that street? They. They just killed a mother yesterday in Minneapolis. We have a serious problem. That’s that’s a serious problem. What’s going to be the line? And it’s sad because that’s not the country that you and I grew up in. I believe we’re the best country in the world because we can have open dialogue.
MARIO GUERRERO: Somebody called me, told me, hey, I’m going to kill you because of what you’re doing. I don’t believe in what you’re doing. And I don’t believe that that immigrants should be here. I think he’s like, my life is where it’s at today. Because immigrants took any possibility of me having a job and I’m listening to this guy say, no, not one word.
MARIO GUERRERO: He said, you don’t want to fight me. You don’t want to fight me. I was like, why would I fight you? I was like, I was like, you understand how blessed we are to live in the United States. Like we get to have this conversation. I don’t know who you are. I ended up talking to the guy for, like, 40 minutes.
MARIO GUERRERO: At the end, he was like, thank you for listening to me.
NAXI LOPEZ: And the dialogue right. The dialogue is the important thing. Right? And so that’s why we’re here today, right? To to talk about the issues of the construction industry. Right. We’re going through rates, but it’s not the only issue. Right. That is affecting the Valley’s industry when it comes to construction. Yeah, we’ve got tariffs. We’ve got expensive land affordability issues.
MARIO GUERRERO: We got shortage of labor and we already had a shortage of labor. And that’s a that’s a thing. Tariffs is not helping the price of of of what we’re using to build those houses. Affordability of land. Whether people understand this or not land is just going to keep getting more expensive.
NAXI LOPEZ: And they’re not making any more of it.
MARIO GUERRERO: It’s a scarce product, right. So if you do want to live in the city, you got to be able to purchase land today in order to stay in the city because everything’s just going out. And that’s what I tell people, hey, I can’t I have a person I can’t afford a lot in the middle of Edinburg because they want 85,000 for the lot.
MARIO GUERRERO: My okay. What’s your budget? Well, 60,000. All right. Just go to the outskirts of Edinburg. Everything is going to move out because everybody wants to live in the city. But there’s a price point for everyone. I don’t believe that affordability is a crisis. I believe that we need to be educated and understand what our price point is. Not everybody can afford a $300,000 home, and that’s okay.
NAXI LOPEZ: But what is the median price of a home here in the Rio Grande Valley?
MARIO GUERRERO: I would like to say that the median price would have to be between 200 and 30,000, up to 270,000. Sure.
NAXI LOPEZ: That’s what that’s what we found out, too, when we were looking at the information. Right. Yeah. I believe in Brownsville. It’s a little bit higher. Yeah. Than it is on, you know, the the Hidalgo County, Stark County side.
MARIO GUERRERO: Yeah, that would be the median. But the thing is, we also have to look at the valley for what it does have in jobs. The valley is not known for industrial work. We’re not known for we’re not known for refinery work. We don’t have people here that are working in refineries that are making $100,000 a year. The valley is known for construction.
MARIO GUERRERO: And what else? What could we get? If you think about it, I mean.
NAXI LOPEZ: Agriculture, we know retail.
MARIO GUERRERO: But who works in agriculture?
NAXI LOPEZ: Good. Good question.
MARIO GUERRERO: That’s a question. I’m guarantee you not, not not most Americans that we know are in agriculture. That’s why I’m like, okay, what else in the Valley doesn’t really have a lot other than the medical industry, the service industry and the construction industry. And then you do have like, you know, like your education and stuff like that. But where you’re I’ve had people are like, we have a shortage of labor.
MARIO GUERRERO: Well, yeah, you have a shortage of labor because you guys don’t want to pay.
NAXI LOPEZ: I mean, you do have those critics that say, hey, you guys are in this position because, the builders or subcontractors went out there and hired, people that are not legally authorized to work and, and maybe weren’t paying fair wages. And now, you know that there has been this, you know, approach to, to the enforcement. That’s why you guys are suffering.
NAXI LOPEZ: How do you respond to critics that say that.
MARIO GUERRERO: We have to be able to think in a broader term and understand that the system that we currently have has failed us. We live in a system that has programed us to go to school, and after that you go to college. The problem with that system is, is that you’re not giving the kids an opportunity that may not be ready to go to college at 18, the chance to explore different avenues, which would be.
NAXI LOPEZ: The trade school.
MARIO GUERRERO: You trade schools. But when I was, yes ma’am?
NAXI LOPEZ: We are seeing though, a lot more schools in our area. Right. Pushing kids to that. And I think, you know, society’s kind of waking up. Right. Because before you say, oh, why do you want to be a plumber? But plumbers make 100 grand here now.
MARIO GUERRERO: Dude, I know plumbers that are driving Ferraris right now. I know electricians driving Ferraris. There is a demand for Hvac, plumbers, electricians. Look, granted, you don’t want to work for it. If you don’t want to work for it, then what makes you think you’re that you deserve it? Nothing in this life that is worth anything is going to be given to you.
MARIO GUERRERO: You have to face resistance in order for the system to reward you with something. That’s the reality of life. We live right now in a system that is broken. When I put out the video, I also stated that the system is broken, and I’m very proud to say that we’re partnering up with RGV Lead and we’re going to we’re you’re going to see that coming out soon.
MARIO GUERRERO: And it’s not fake news. We’re going to we’re going to be partnering up with RGV lead, and we’re going to be making sure that these systems are implemented into high schools. We’re going to have we’re we’re the main sponsors. We’re going to have this big meeting where we’re inviting all sorts of Texas representatives and the education so that we can express that our system.
MARIO GUERRERO: Think about it like this out of every ten kids that go to college, out of every ten, there’s only four that graduate college. Imagine that. So that means you’re telling me that six out of ten kids are potentially in debt? What are we doing to these children? What are we doing to to our economy? Right. We need to think about what we can do.
MARIO GUERRERO: One to help the workforce, for sure. We need labor, and there’s nothing wrong with it. I was raised in this industry, and that’s why I’m so passionate about this, because I think it’s if there’s anything that you can do in this life, at least if I could do anything in this life to what I’m doing right now, I’d be a builder.
MARIO GUERRERO: I have the pleasure of building someone’s dream.
NAXI LOPEZ: So what are the challenges with being a builder? Aside from immigration? You know, what are the other top three things that you know? If you had a magic wand, you would, fix or,
MARIO GUERRERO: I would buy a helicopter for sure. I need it right now because I’m going to Rome all the way to Brownsville. No. I think that everyone’s challenges are different. You know, I think that everybody.
NAXI LOPEZ: Has an industry, though. I mean, I can see workforce.
MARIO GUERRERO: You know, workforce for sure.
NAXI LOPEZ: Tariffs.
MARIO GUERRERO: It’s affecting the pricing of goods, for sure. It really is. But we’ve been dealing with that. You see, for some reason everything the market’s always on an up and down train. And there’s what I would like to believe. The construction industry and the oil industry always get hit hard. And for some reason the agriculture industry always gets bailed out.
MARIO GUERRERO: It’s like they have really good attorneys because those guys, nobody.
MARIO GUERRERO: Messes with those guys, right?
MARIO GUERRERO: But for some reason, the construction industry and the and the oil industry, we always we always get hit right. And tariffs have affected the price of of goods, which is it’s making it harder for builders to build homes. That’s another thing we’re seeing. And now the whole immigration thing has put we’re already dealing with the tariff strain.
MARIO GUERRERO: And then the immigration thing came in and it was just like, dude, like when you put people against a wall and you hold them up against the wall, you’re choking them. Like, that’s how some people feel right now. When when they can’t, when they can’t find trades. The prices are goods are increasing. Interest rates are also a little hard out there.
MARIO GUERRERO: And it’s it’s all of these things hitting people at once. And the reality is, is that most of these companies are trying to finish a product and hope to God that they get sold if the it is a spec home, so that you could just make another one and pray to God that they didn’t lose on that spec home with immigration or tariffs or, or all sorts of different things that could come at you during construction and try and put the next money on the next slot, like there’s there’s honestly not a lot of like when people I’ve met, people like construction, there’s there’s all this money.
MARIO GUERRERO: There’s not a lot of money in construction. There really isn’t. You have to be in the construction industry as a builder, at least a minimum of ten years to really see money. But if not, you’re you’re just putting money back into land and trying to buy more acquisitions and trying to build a little bit more and trying to build a little bit more.
MARIO GUERRERO: But this is the way I view the pie.
NAXI LOPEZ: Okay?
MARIO GUERRERO: The there’s a big pie. And so civilians, we get a little crumb. That’s all we get. Whatever that crumb is, it’s a fraction of what money there is in the world. So to me, it’s like, why would the system make it harder to make a crumb.
NAXI LOPEZ: And the outlook. Right. Your, your association hosted an event just this morning called the.
MARIO GUERRERO: The the.
NAXI LOPEZ: 2026 outlook.
MARIO GUERRERO: Yes, ma’am. And it was packed.
NAXI LOPEZ: What is the outlook.
MARIO GUERRERO: The. And it was packed. Well, I’m going to be honest with you. We’re gonna be honest right here.
NAXI LOPEZ: I hope so.
MARIO GUERRERO: I was not in the meeting. I was not in the meeting. And the reason I wasn’t in the meeting was because I was back and forth with, with, I was back and forth with Mrs. De La Cruz, Chief of Staff. As you all know, we do have a meeting coming up on January 19th, and, she will be there.
MARIO GUERRERO: Miss Dela Cruz will be there. Henry Cuellar will be there.
NAXI LOPEZ: Is that open to the public? Is that just.
MARIO GUERRERO: Yeah, it’s open to. It’s open to the public. Hey. So, look, we want to make sure one we got to make sure that everybody knows that this meeting on January 19th, which is going to be at the McAllen Convention Center.
MARIO GUERRERO: Number one, it’s peace. Okay. We’re coming for peace. This is it. We’re going to limit people on time. If you want to speak. Everybody gets a chance on the mic. We’re going to give you you’re.
NAXI LOPEZ: Going to have an open mic.
MARIO GUERRERO: Well that’s how we did the first meeting. Were you there.
NAXI LOPEZ: I was not oh.
MARIO GUERRERO: Dude.
MARIO GUERRERO: And it was crazy. It was it was crazy to witness because we put 200 chairs and out of the 200 chairs, we had 380 that we counted 380 something people we had, we had a signing list of 350 signatures that we have as a template. So my assistant printed it out and I looked at the list and I was I looked at the chairs, I was like, there’s too many.
MARIO GUERRERO: I looked at the chairs. I was like, it’s too many chairs. And my emotions is like, we’ll be all right, man. I mean, at least people will get to sit down. They’ll have some space. There’s 380 something people that showed up. It was insane. All the chairs were taken. And then there was people standing all around.
NAXI LOPEZ: And are these people in the industry? You know, do you get like, curious people or protesters?
MARIO GUERRERO: Oh, we had some we had all sorts of. Yes, ma’am. Yes, ma’am. I cannot say that we had industry. I think it’s because it’s a topic that’s really affecting a lot of people. There’s a lot of obviously a lot of people in the real estate industry that are being affected. But then there’s there’s a lot of people that are that are not in the industry, just as, you know, your everyday family that’s also being affected.
MARIO GUERRERO: Right. We did have, you know, we limit everybody to two minutes. We did an open mic for about I think I think we did a 45 minute open mic. Okay. And everybody got.
NAXI LOPEZ: You have to put a limit of not you’re going to be there.
MARIO GUERRERO: Yes. Yes ma’am. Yes ma’am. In the beginning it was an introduction of why we called this meeting. We let our board president, Mr. Ronnie Cavazos, give a speech. We also let our treasurer, Efrain Gomez, give a speech. They did a great job, giving those speeches.
NAXI LOPEZ: Format? Same format for this one.
MARIO GUERRERO: Yes, ma’am.
NAXI LOPEZ: Happening? 19th.
MARIO GUERRERO: January 19th at the McAllen Convention Center.
NAXI LOPEZ: With Congresswoman Monica De La Cruz.
MARIO GUERRERO: Miss Monica De La Cruz will be there. Henry Cuellar would be there, confirmed. And I can and I can confirm that, want to thank their chief of staff, Karen, for taking care of that for us. We’re very grateful for that. So.
NAXI LOPEZ: What are you hearing from our representatives when it comes to this issue? Right. Because, you know, if you’re following politics, right? Congresswoman De La Cruz, is a Republican. Cuellar is a, moderate Democrat, right. And, you know, to have both of them at the table,
MARIO GUERRERO: It’s says a lot it’s I commend them. Think about that. You have two different parties that should be mortal enemies, as the media likes to put it.
NAXI LOPEZ: Right, which, I mean, we could we could argue semantics here, right?
MARIO GUERRERO: Right. But it’s crazy, right? It’s crazy. It’s crazy that that’s where we’re at. Right? And it’s in. It’s beautiful to see that two different parties can put their differences aside and say, you know what? We do actually have some sort of issue down there in the region. Now when we did have because we had we had a private meeting with Monica de la Cruz.
MARIO GUERRERO: It just happened. We actually, you know, we got all the paperwork done for that. We got a real meeting that happened, behind closed doors with her. And then we had media come as well. It just happened last week. Once again, thank you to Karen for putting that together. When we talked to her about our issues, she knew there was a problem, but she didn’t know it was at this extent.
MARIO GUERRERO: There. It’s that right. And when we asked her certain questions like, should there be warrants that should be presented when people are showing up, can they just bombard a place? There was a place in, Harlingen where these guys threw, like a chemical in there to see who they can get out of the house. It ruined the house.
MARIO GUERRERO: You can’t sell that after that. And so, like, all these things, but I see this, like, I see Covid in Covid. There was a lot of questions, right? And there was a lot of fear. And within that fear, you know, there was people doing the crazy stuff. I think Vicente, the Vicente Gonzalez posted a picture like a lady, like in a plastic bag with like, all these crazy things, right?
NAXI LOPEZ: I mean, people were wearing all sorts of things.
MARIO GUERRERO: Yes, ma’am.
NAXI LOPEZ: And I know the picture you’re talking about. It was, an associated Press picture of the January 6th. Yeah, yeah, they were in the in Congress. Yes. And I, I did I did see that picture post it recently and he.
MARIO GUERRERO: Posted.
NAXI LOPEZ: It, I saw the, the bag and I was like, wow, we really did survive a, a crazy time.
MARIO GUERRERO: Imagine that. It just imagine that. So in that time we didn’t know how to handle that. And that’s what’s happening today. And we also have to remember that our politicians are human and we we cannot come to politicians with anger and we cannot come to them demanding stuff. We got to come to them with reason, and we have to be able to tell them the truth.
NAXI LOPEZ: So what is the reasoning that you guys use to get their attention to get them? Because, you know, if you look at the Republican Party, they’re a lot of the rhetoric was, well, immigrants are taking American jobs. Right. So what is it that you told, Monica dela Cruz is office that you know, got them on board with?
MARIO GUERRERO: I think she’s.
NAXI LOPEZ: A voice for what’s happening here in the industry, even though it might break a little bit with party lines.
MARIO GUERRERO: I think I think, Miss De La Cruz is team saw the outcome that we had on November 17th, and they were like, hey, there’s something going on down there. Yeah, she covers a really, narrow district. Yeah, yeah, it’s very interesting to see that. Right? You think about it like, man, whoever drew that up, district.
MARIO GUERRERO: Yeah. Oh, they’re like like, dude, you’re like. It’s like like this. And it’s like.
MARIO GUERRERO: You do it right for the camera, right? But it’s like, you see that? And not just that. Their travel schedules so hectic and that’s why
NAXI LOPEZ: But what were the point? What is it were you saying, like, look at how much we’ve lost as far as anything to.
MARIO GUERRERO: Get to go ahead and get the meeting with her or at the meeting.
NAXI LOPEZ: Just in general, you know, what is it that is swaying, or at least, you know, having her administration focus on this issue?
MARIO GUERRERO: I think it is the the economy. It’s the economy. Like, you have to see the money revolve. The money has to revolve. If money is not revolving, the economy is not moving. The economy is a wheel. I am not an economist and I am not a professional when it comes to the economy. But I could tell you that we need to make sure that these loans that have been taken out from the banks are paid off.
MARIO GUERRERO: We don’t have the workforce to supplement for the drastic amount of, of, pickups that we’ve been seeing. And we let her know that we’re like, look like, this is this is the real issue. We had 20 different business owners show up to that meeting. They held us to only 20 people. They were like, we only won 20 business owners.
MARIO GUERRERO: You can select them. And, I didn’t select them. I gave the opportunity to the organization to pick who they wanted. And they, you know, they this person, this person, this person and they were very honest with her. And they told her, you’re Monica, we’re not going to the industry is not going to survive another year of this.
MARIO GUERRERO: Because if you start having loans default, it’s going to really affect the banking system.
NAXI LOPEZ: And when we’re talking about loans, we’re not talking about homeowners. We’re talking about builders. Yes. Take out loans to construct these suckers.
MARIO GUERRERO: Yes. Thank you for making yes, yes, yes.
NAXI LOPEZ: We’re talking.
MARIO GUERRERO: About. Yes. Because a lot of a lot of these builders, a lot of these builders, guys like, they’re building off construction loans, you know, and they’re, they’re building off the construction loan. They’re putting the house in the market. And you know what’s funny? I think it’s funny when people are like, well, the builders can sell the house or whatever they want.
MARIO GUERRERO: That’s also a misconception. It’s not true. Okay. The builder has to stay into a guideline, right? So whenever they put a house in the market and before it goes into the bank for sale, let’s say that they get a contract and somebody wants to buy it. They have to make sure it meets appraisal. That appraisal makes sure that builders are not price gouging.
MARIO GUERRERO: So there’s no such thing as like whenever builders get to sell their houses whatever they want. No, we get regulated by an appraiser and that’s everybody. That’s why you see houses in a subdivision that are sold within the same price. It’s very rare that you see a house. It’s like $100,000 difference, you know. But yeah. Yeah.
NAXI LOPEZ: And so, you know, critics would say, well, there’s so much inventory right now, in the Valley, I mean, it’s a buyer’s market. You know, this slowdown right now isn’t really affecting much. I mean, there’s inventory out there. How would you respond to those critics?
MARIO GUERRERO: Buy it. Buy it, buy it by.
NAXI LOPEZ: The inventory.
MARIO GUERRERO: Buy the inventory. If you got money in the bank and put on properties, buy it because properties are going to skyrocket. So that would be my advice. If you see money, if you see that you have some money in the bank and you have a use for FHA, or you have some sort of thing that you can do, to put some money on a property, which would be like a rental property, or you can buy a home that you can rent out of somebody else, and maybe that family pays for that note or whatever the case may be, do it.
NAXI LOPEZ: And so actually during the but this morning, one of my reporters was there and she told me that, that some builders can’t sell the homes and are actually renting them out instead of selling them.
MARIO GUERRERO: Yeah, I believe it. Yeah. So just think about that. You have to resort to making sure. Because when a builder gets a construction loan, as soon as they ask for a draw, they have to start paying interest on that loan. Right? So if there’s a builder that’s paying multiple, you know, maybe $1000 or $1500, $2,000 on interest over time, if you’ve already waited, let’s say you’ve waited three months and years.
MARIO GUERRERO: You’re paying $2,000 on interest on a house. That means that they’re they’re checking they’re taking that out of your account. They have direct access to your account because it’s the bank. They’re going to take $6,000 already. Boom, 6000 out. And you’re not seeing anything come in because maybe nobody’s going to see your house. You have to rent it.
MARIO GUERRERO: You have to rent it. It’s still on the market, but it’s being rented.
NAXI LOPEZ: And now, on the other side, they’re saying also that builders that want to build subdivisions are not getting those loans anymore, because there’s so much inventory out there that the bank is kind of like, I don’t know that I want to lend out any more money to another builder. When, you know, all of these other builders already owe us money.
NAXI LOPEZ: Yeah.
MARIO GUERRERO: So yeah. No, I mean, that was that was foreseen, right? The bank is always going to have to protect its own interest. The bank has to protect its own interest because they’re taking a risk. It’s all it’s all give and take. So it’s a gamble. And as as a builder, I can’t knock on the bank for wanting to, for kind of being a little bit more cautious when it comes to that money.
MARIO GUERRERO: Right. We got to be very careful because as a bank, you have to protect the economy. Our economy’s come through banks more than anything. We definitely don’t want no bank run. We don’t want that. That would be horrible. So they’re they’re already seeing that projects are taking a little longer than most. If it would take you 4 to 5 months to build a home that’s taking you 7 to 8 months.
NAXI LOPEZ: Now, is that because of the workforce? Yeah.
MARIO GUERRERO: Yeah, it’s because of the workforce, not because there’s a lot of supply. Thank God we’re good. We’re good with supply. It’s not like covet. So it’s it’s weird now, now there’s now there’s a lot of supply, but not a workforce. As opposed to, like, there was a workforce, but there was no supply, right? So it kind of, like, flipped on us, right?
MARIO GUERRERO: So we’re seeing that. But, I mean, you can’t you can’t look at the bank and be like, well, they don’t want. No, the bank has to protect the best interests of the people.
NAXI LOPEZ: You know? Okay, we’re going to take a quick break for our sponsors and we’ll be right back.
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NAXI LOPEZ: All right. Welcome back. Thank you so much. So we were continuing with our conversation on the state of construction. Yes, ma’am. All right. What else can you tell me? What’s going on here?
MARIO GUERRERO: Man, I lost my train of thought. I know that the last topic that we were on was, the whole banking and how you said that there was somebody at the meeting and that they, had heard that the banks don’t want to lend out money for development and whatnot, but that that that should have been foreseen. You know, you cannot expect for a bank to want to risk the $5 million investment.
MARIO GUERRERO: Million dollar investment, whatever it is. That could be $500,000 investment. And see how how much how slow down. Right. So I, I totally understand where the bank is coming from. And I wish I would have know that you had somebody at the meeting. You guys are. You guys are.
MARIO GUERRERO: Sneaky.
NAXI LOPEZ: Hey, we’re the Business Journal.
MARIO GUERRERO: Well, then. Well, I’ll tell you this. You ask her what I said to that meeting because I went ahead and, because it’s it’s one of those things where. And you can ask her, but, you know, raising awareness should not be something that people should be afraid of. You know, I really believe that you should be able to have every ounce of confidence to speak your voice that God gave you, especially in the best country in the world we live in the best country in the world.
MARIO GUERRERO: Look what we’re doing. We’re having dialog and you can bounce ideas off me. And I do say.
NAXI LOPEZ: And, you know, we spoke about this earlier, because we as journalists had been hearing, early on, right beginning in June, that these raids were happening, that they were affecting construction companies. And I know because we kept trying to talk to contractors and organizations to to give us right, the comments to give us the, the information.
NAXI LOPEZ: And a lot of people were really tight lipped and they didn’t want to speak out about it, because obviously it carries the negative connotation that, hey, we’re hiring people that are not supposed to be working. Right. But, but yeah, you guys, like I said at the beginning of the podcast, your association really rang the bell.
MARIO GUERRERO: And the thing is, look, nobody should have any fear in their heart to speak for whatever they believe to be true in their perspective.
NAXI LOPEZ: Freedom of speech.
MARIO GUERRERO: You should be able to express yourself. We live in a country that that’s our God given right to be an American citizen. You being an American citizen, you should be able to voice your opinion. Now, I voiced my opinion that I thought that what’s happening is wrong, and I believe that there’s probably, if not hundreds of thousands of people that say, no, dude, you’re wrong.
MARIO GUERRERO: And that’s okay. I am no one to fight with anybody. Who am I to tell anybody? No, dude, I’m right and you’re wrong. No. First, I don’t have time. Today it is 3:05 and I have not a breakfast yet.
NAXI LOPEZ: Welcome to the club.
MARIO GUERRERO: Like I don’t have time to even know what’s going on. I have a team that controls my social media. I don’t even know. Like, that’s. And that’s the thing. It’s like we should respect each other’s point of views, and we should be able to have dialouge with each other and be able to bounce these things. Because what what would our world be if we were not able to?
MARIO GUERRERO: And what I believe is, is that social media has taken that from us. It’s taken the the ability to have a conversation, which is the most important thing you and I don’t know each other. You and me are complete strangers. I don’t know you and you don’t know me, but okay.
NAXI LOPEZ: But. And if I could just be a devil’s advocate here. Short conversation is great, but conversation without action. Where does that leave you? Right? Like the the dialog is great, but you know what? What do you see the chances of, you know, this whole situation either coming to, stop coming to a solution. I mean, I know that, Congresswoman De La Cruz has proposed some new legislation.
NAXI LOPEZ: Right? But, how easy or difficult is it going to get or is it going to be to, to get not just from, you know, talking about it to some actual result?
MARIO GUERRERO: I think the first step is raising the concern, which we’ve done, that, the action is what is honestly on the ground. I mean, just today there was action on it. Then yesterday there was action on it. There has not been any day since November 17th that has not had action. There’s action from the South Texas Builders.
NAXI LOPEZ: Association is that when you release the video?
MARIO GUERRERO: No. November 17th was when we had the meeting.
NAXI LOPEZ: Oh, okay.
MARIO GUERRERO: Yeah. My my personal life has not been the same since that meeting. It has not been the same I have I’ve been able to make some great relationships with our congresswoman, great, great relationship with Henry Cuellar, Vicente Gonzalez. I’m going to meet the lady that is running for governor tomorrow. Miss Gina Hinojosa, James Talarico is coming on my podcast.
MARIO GUERRERO: My life has not been the same.
NAXI LOPEZ: Has it been worth it?
MARIO GUERRERO: It’s been it’s been more than worth it. And I hope I, I never did this for any glorification. I did this because I honestly thought it was wrong what was happening. I just hope that, you know, I get I got a death threat yesterday, and I got a death threat this morning. I got an email also this afternoon of somebody saying that,
MARIO GUERRERO: Like, you know, they they wish that I die and they wish that I, shut up about this thing, that and all this stuff. And, you know, you think about these things and.
MARIO GUERRERO: You know, our politicians go through that, right? And I’m not a politician. I’m just a civilian that is raising awareness to an issue that is, affecting our economy. Right. You want me to read you a letter that we got?
NAXI LOPEZ: Oh, gosh, I want to say yes, but if it’s too crazy, we may edit it out.
MARIO GUERRERO: You can decide. So check this out. This came in the mail from the District of Columbia. That means it’s Washington, DC. For the people that don’t know that, check this out.
NAXI LOPEZ: Not from the country of Columbia.
MARIO GUERRERO: No, the District of Columbia. It says Ronnie Cavazos, board president of the South Texas Builders Association. Quotation. So something that he said on November 17th, business is down significantly. If we continue on this trajectory, we will see a lot of business fail.
MARIO GUERRERO: Followed by the message sent by somebody out of Washington, DC. Tough shit. Ronnie, Texas voted 96% for Trump. Trump carried almost every county in your area except for two. Your people wanted Trump and you got him. It is certainly entertaining to watch him.
NAXI LOPEZ: Okay, we’re going to have to bleep a lot of this over.
MARIO GUERRERO: You deserve it. Looking forward to both businesses and personal bankruptcies. For many of you and you Trump supporters. And I don’t think that people like you, you you get a letter like that in the mail. And my first reaction is like, who has time?
NAXI LOPEZ: But that said to me.
MARIO GUERRERO: You know, like, what the heck? Like, how did you like, you really thought.
MARIO GUERRERO: That we’re going to get this letter and be like, oh my God, no, do like first who has time? And second, I feel sorry that you feel like you have to say something like that.
NAXI LOPEZ: But but he’s not the only one. There are so many people out there that are saying this because our area, I mean, this person is not wrong. When did our area really switch to the Republicans?
MARIO GUERRERO: Yes, ma’am. Yes, ma’am.
NAXI LOPEZ: But we’re kind of seeing the effects of that.
MARIO GUERRERO: Think about what our area saw in the Democrat.
NAXI LOPEZ: Uh huh.
MARIO GUERRERO: We saw an influx of immigrants that we had never seen before. We saw an extreme amount of influx of immigrants we had never seen before. Our borders were clogged with thousands of people. But you know what’s funny is that those people didn’t stay in the valley.
NAXI LOPEZ: And they did not.
MARIO GUERRERO: And yet again, people think they did because they’re misinformed. We saw, an administration that looked weak. Right. And then you have this businessman that shows up was like, I’m gonna fix everything. I wanna make it all better, and I’m going to make the economy great. We were in a declining economy already. We really were. We? We were in the well.
NAXI LOPEZ: So let’s not deviate too much into the political world because we can be there forever.
MARIO GUERRERO: This guy’s like, I like this guy.
NAXI LOPEZ: Let’s focus on the construction industry. You know, there’s realtors, right? That say what prices. There’s plenty of construction. There’s plenty of, like injection of new revenue. Not again. How do you respond to that?
MARIO GUERRERO: I love realtors. I think that, I think that if you’re not going to go to college, get your real estate license early, 18 years old, get it. You can do it. Takes about two months. I think everyone should have it. Realtors are always gonna have something to sell. Think about it. There’s always land you can sell.
MARIO GUERRERO: There’s always somebody home you can sell, and there’s always new construction and they can represent somebody. So if I if, you know, I’m a realtor and you’re like, hey, I want to go buy something, I got you, don’t worry about it. That’s what it is. They the realtor will always have work. But the problem is, is that being a good realtor, because nowadays we live in the age of social media.
MARIO GUERRERO: So if you’re tall, blond, blue eyed with heels, and you do the social media right, you have a possibility you’re gonna make a lot of money because you’re marketing yourself, right? If you’re tall, dark, handsome, whatever, you’re going to make a lot of money because people are going to look at you and they’re going to judge you by appearance, and they don’t know if you know anything or not.
MARIO GUERRERO: But if you can talk and you can put a contract together on zip forms, you could represent them.
NAXI LOPEZ: And so that workforce, the what is the word, the gap, right, that we have right now in workforce. How is that translating to, delays in construction?
MARIO GUERRERO: It’s it’s correlating 100%.
NAXI LOPEZ: How much. So if give me give me an example. Paint me a picture.
MARIO GUERRERO: If a house would take 4 to 5 months of basic 2000 square foot home, you’re looking at a 16 living 1600 square feet living home, with, let’s just say 5000 square foot home that’s living 500, 500, on the garage on on the garage space. That’s a 2000 square foot home total. Now, let’s say that that was taking you, which is a very basic house, was taking you three months.
MARIO GUERRERO: Right. The small home, you can, you know, take it out with your finishes and stuff. Sure. Three months, just just 2000, 2000. You know, the basic 1500.
NAXI LOPEZ: Starter.
MARIO GUERRERO: Starter home three months. Right. Let’s say I think that that now is probably going to take about.
MARIO GUERRERO: Double which would be six months. And God willing that that it doesn’t take seven months. Right. And that’s so what.
NAXI LOPEZ: Does that do aside from you know, you have to wait for your home longer. Does that drive the price up
MARIO GUERRERO: No no no. Well remember guys it it does not drive price of of homes up because homes are regulated by appraisals. So that’s not a thing. And that’s a misconception that people have. No that doesn’t do that. What happens is, is that it delays the time that a bank gets paid. It delays the time that a builder gets paid in order to turn that money around and potentially buy another lot, or maybe buy two lots at delays at time.
MARIO GUERRERO: So if there’s a house, let’s just say right now there’s an influx of inventory. But I’m going to ask you a question. If you never bought a house before, would you rather buy a new house for a used house?
NAXI LOPEZ: I actually have never bought a home.
MARIO GUERRERO: Okay, so.
NAXI LOPEZ: What?
MARIO GUERRERO: Since you’ve never bought a home, would you prefer your first home to be a new home or an old or used home?
NAXI LOPEZ: You know, I’m I’m really. I love to play the devil’s advocate, so I could argue for both. Okay. My husband hates that, by the way.
MARIO GUERRERO: It’s okay. It’s okay.
NAXI LOPEZ: But I would argue that, you know, a home that’s already been built. You know, you know, the ins and outs, right? Does it flood? Does it, you know, versus a new home in a new subdivision where you don’t have any of that information? I don’t know, that’s kind of where my mind is.
MARIO GUERRERO: Can I play devil’s advocate?
NAXI LOPEZ: Would I love a new home? Absolute.
MARIO GUERRERO: Could I play devil’s advocate? Yes.
MARIO GUERRERO: Okay. Okay, so let’s say you’ve never bought a home and I’m the one. That’s right. I’m a broker, right? I have my own brokerage. So let’s like I said, I’m not a paper boy. I really do this. You come to me and I’m going to tell you, okay? You were approved for 300,000. There’s all these houses that are available on the market that are pre-owned homes.
MARIO GUERRERO: They’re they’re built 2012, 2014, whatever the case may be, then you have all these new houses on the market that are in your price range. And there may be done at a high level, spray foam insulation. They might have a, you know, it’s probably a smart home where you can control everything off an iPad and stuff like that.
MARIO GUERRERO: It’s in your price range, right? When you start seeing all these things and you’re like, well, why wouldn’t I buy the new one? Right? Why would it? Why would I go back in time? Right. Materials are only getting better. Materials that are houses are being built with are only getting better. They’re becoming more energy efficient. What is the name of the game?
MARIO GUERRERO: You got to save a dollar somewhere. Sure. Right. And what’s what kills us? Electricity. You know water. We were.
NAXI LOPEZ: Cooling the home.
MARIO GUERRERO: The other day. My wife was like, I just paid 300 something on on AC. I was like.
MARIO GUERRERO: That’s like I was like, you’re barely letting me know. I was about to go to sleep. Well, it’s like you’re barely letting me know this right now. Like, thanks a lot. Like I was like, what happened right there? Like what? Oh, it’s because.
MARIO GUERRERO: We were running the AC all day or whatever, I don’t care. Run. I mean, that’s home. But what I’m saying is like, don’t ever scheme yourself of a purchase of a new home because the materials are only getting better. The houses are only getting better. That will potentially save you a couple thousand dollars in, you know, bills and stuff like that.
MARIO GUERRERO: But that’s what I always tell my clients. I always tell them, don’t ever think, well, it’s because I would not know. Like think about vehicles. Vehicles only get better.
NAXI LOPEZ: Well, you know.
MARIO GUERRERO: Let me play devil’s advocate.
NAXI LOPEZ: I, I have a 2004 GMC truck. And it is heavy. It’s the material, right? You you don’t see that in trucks nowadays? Yeah. The job. So. Yeah, it doesn’t always work that way, but.
MARIO GUERRERO: Oh, you’re talking about like. Like you feel like it was built better, right? Yeah. Yeah.
NAXI LOPEZ: The material, you know, you hit my truck and you know it’s going to hurt your car.
MARIO GUERRERO: Before they hit your truck. You’re hitting a train, right? Like it’s it’s built out of metal, right? It’s like aluminum or carbon fiber.
MARIO GUERRERO: Or whatever they’re using nowadays. This,
NAXI LOPEZ: Roundabout way, to say what vinyl versus old or what is it that your what what’s your point?
MARIO GUERRERO: My advice would be if you are in the market to purchase a home, look at the materials that these homes are being built with you as a buyer have every right to ask, hey, is this foam or is the exterior foam? They’re stuck with that. So ask about the material. Is it exterior with the Hevo or is, is the exterior foam?
MARIO GUERRERO: Is the insulation foam insulation all across the house? What does the house come with? What kind of windows were used? There’s different grades of windows. There’s good windows. Just like there’s bad windows. The same with everything. Just like there’s a good table, you know? So always look at the material and do your research. What material is best?
MARIO GUERRERO: Energy efficient. That’s it. There’s there’s nothing different than the just the material because the material can. Have you ever been like in a, in a, in a place and you’re like, man, I can feel the heat from outside. It’s a material. It’s just not good material. So my advice would be, if you’re purchasing a home, go ahead and just ask what material was use.
MARIO GUERRERO: You can always ask for a material list from a builder. They’ll give you the list, and then you can go and do your research and find out how how the energy efficiency is on that material.
NAXI LOPEZ: Okay. Perfect. All right.
MARIO GUERRERO: She’s going to go buy a home now.
NAXI LOPEZ: Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.
NAXI LOPEZ: I’m I’m I just hold off on that right now. In any case, it is a buyer’s market.
MARIO GUERRERO: It is a buyer’s market is. Yeah. I mean, you could get whatever you want right now. I’ll take the arena.
NAXI LOPEZ: Well, this has been a great conversation. Anything else that you would like to add that I didn’t ask?
MARIO GUERRERO: No, I just want to say thank you to you for the invitation. I really appreciate it. So first time I’m actually on a podcast that’s not my podcast. So I want to say thank you to that. And, thank you for not being afraid to bring this topic into the light. We really appreciate that as an organization.
MARIO GUERRERO: I do want to say thank you to all our representatives that have been very vocal with the issue that we have at hand. I want to say thank you to all the mayors, especially Mr. Omar, that did attend the meeting. Mr. Ramiro Garza as well. We have great leaders in this community. And I just want to say thank you to them.
MARIO GUERRERO: And remember, guys like we all have a voice. Whether you agree with what I’m saying or not, it doesn’t matter. We should be able to come together and have dialog, just like we had dialog today. And don’t be afraid to use it because it’s honestly the only thing that you really have in this life. Right? So I just want to say thank you to you again, and I want to say thank you to all our elected officials that have been super supportive over all of this.
NAXI LOPEZ: Wonderful. Well, thank you so much, Mario. We really thank you, mayor. We had a very lively discussion. But, for those of you at home or at work listening to us, we appreciate you. And we’ll see you next week.
MARIO GUERRERO: Thank you.
