{"id":20430,"date":"2026-04-02T05:16:35","date_gmt":"2026-04-02T10:16:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rgvbusinessjournal.com\/podcast\/la-proxima-apuesta-industrial-del-valle-proyectos-de-mil-millones-de-dolares-y-la-carrera-por-el-talento\/"},"modified":"2026-04-02T05:16:35","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T10:16:35","slug":"la-proxima-apuesta-industrial-del-valle-proyectos-de-mil-millones-de-dolares-y-la-carrera-por-el-talento","status":"publish","type":"podcast","link":"https:\/\/www.rgvbusinessjournal.com\/es\/podcast\/la-proxima-apuesta-industrial-del-valle-proyectos-de-mil-millones-de-dolares-y-la-carrera-por-el-talento\/","title":{"rendered":"La pr\u00f3xima apuesta industrial del Valle: proyectos de mil millones de d\u00f3lares y la carrera por el talento"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"p1\">El Valle del R\u00edo Grande se est\u00e1 preparando para una nueva era de crecimiento industrial impulsada por la expansi\u00f3n del sector manufacturero, la din\u00e1mica transfronteriza y la creciente demanda de mano de obra cualificada.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">En este episodio del podcast del <em>Rio Grande Valley Business Journal<\/em>, la periodista Kristen Mosbrucker-Garza entrevista a Rick Carrera, del Consejo para el Progreso Econ\u00f3mico del Sur de Texas (COSTEP), para hablar de c\u00f3mo la regi\u00f3n est\u00e1 obteniendo una visi\u00f3n m\u00e1s clara de su base industrial y c\u00f3mo la est\u00e1 utilizando para atraer nuevas inversiones.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Carrera explica c\u00f3mo un censo regional de la industria manufacturera est\u00e1 ayudando a los responsables del desarrollo econ\u00f3mico a identificar capacidades, poner en contacto a las empresas y competir de forma m\u00e1s eficaz por los proyectos, al tiempo que destaca las ventajas del Valle en cuanto a mano de obra, proximidad a M\u00e9xico e infraestructura industrial existente.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">La conversaci\u00f3n aborda los principales proyectos que est\u00e1n dando forma a la regi\u00f3n \u2014entre ellos, la fabricaci\u00f3n de autom\u00f3viles, las inversiones en energ\u00eda y posibles proyectos de desarrollo valorados en miles de millones de d\u00f3lares\u2014, as\u00ed como la creciente importancia de la formaci\u00f3n de la mano de obra, los programas de fabricaci\u00f3n avanzada y la coordinaci\u00f3n regional a la hora de cerrar acuerdos.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Asimismo, analiza los retos que se avecinan, entre los que se incluyen las limitaciones en el suministro de agua y electricidad, los cambios en la pol\u00edtica comercial en el marco del USMCA y la necesidad de que el Valle transmita un mensaje unificado en un panorama de desarrollo econ\u00f3mico cada vez m\u00e1s competitivo.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"The Valley\u2019s next industrial play \u2014 billion-dollar projects and the race for talent w\/ Rick Carrera\" width=\"1200\" height=\"675\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/limti58aue8?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><em><b>The following is a rough, AI-generated transcript of Kristen Mosbrucker-Garza\u2019s 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.<\/b><\/em><\/p>\n<p><b>KRISTEN MOSBRUCKER-GARZA:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> We actually have semiconductor manufacturing already. Oh, you\u2019re on the border.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>RICK CARRERA:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> 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\u2019s got a microchip in it of some kind \u2014 a processor.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>KRISTEN MOSBRUCKER-GARZA:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> This is a $225 million investment. I understand it will be about 500 new jobs. Potential Saronic deal \u2014 this autonomous vessel that would be potentially fulfilling a Navy contract, or a startup out of Austin \u2014 a $3.2 billion project? Absolutely. Potentially up to 10,000 jobs.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>RICK CARRERA:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> The Rio Grande Valley is their prime target, or one of their prime targets, because it\u2019s the proximity to Mexico. But they\u2019re still in the U.S. The ports of entry, all the things that we have going for us. So that\u2019s, I think, going to be a trend moving forward here for at least the next couple of years.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>KRISTEN MOSBRUCKER-GARZA:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Well, welcome, everyone. This is Kristen Mosbrucker-Garza. I\u2019m 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.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>RICK CARRERA:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> It\u2019s an acronym. It\u2019s the Council for South Texas Economic Progress.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>KRISTEN MOSBRUCKER-GARZA:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> 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.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>RICK CARRERA:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Absolutely. So COSTEP has actually been in existence since the early \u201970s. 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.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>RICK CARRERA:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> 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\u2019ll tell me, \u201cI remember when COSTEP had the little graduation cap on top of its logo.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>RICK CARRERA:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> So that\u2019s 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\u2019t find them advantageous anymore. So we\u2019ve kind of \u2014 it\u2019s been several years now \u2014 pivoted back to regional economic development. That was probably around 2018 or 2019.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>RICK CARRERA:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> 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.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>KRISTEN MOSBRUCKER-GARZA:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Cool. You know, something that I know y\u2019all 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?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>RICK CARRERA:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Well, to answer your first question, what inspired that is we as a region \u2014 and what I mean by the region, typically we consider it the seven counties of South Texas that run along the Texas-Mexico border \u2014 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.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>RICK CARRERA:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> 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\u2019t aware of that so much anymore.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>RICK CARRERA:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Back in the \u201980s and \u201990s, 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, \u201cOh, you\u2019re from that area that\u2019s known for maquiladoras.\u201d But they\u2019re becoming fewer and farther between. A lot of people are retiring or moving on to different things.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>RICK CARRERA:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> So what we found is that we\u2019re trying to reestablish the fact that we do have a good manufacturing ecosystem down here.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>RICK CARRERA:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> 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\u2019s 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\u2019t necessarily give you the full picture, depending on who paid to have their name come up first and all that kind of stuff.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>RICK CARRERA:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> So that\u2019s what prompted us to get a true census of the manufacturing companies in the entire region, so we can see who\u2019s building what, what are the capabilities, and how can we leverage that to better promote the ecosystem that exists here in terms of manufacturing.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>KRISTEN MOSBRUCKER-GARZA:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> You know, it\u2019s 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.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>KRISTEN MOSBRUCKER-GARZA:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> I remember looking through it and realizing that we actually have semiconductor manufacturing already. Oh, you\u2019re on the border.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>RICK CARRERA:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Absolutely. And so this goes back to the second question you asked me a minute ago. Not so much for me only because I\u2019m in this business, right? But for a lot of people, they\u2019ve told us, \u201cWell, I\u2019m really surprised that if you go to the data, out of all the companies here, they service hundreds of different industries.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>RICK CARRERA:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> So you\u2019ll find things like semiconductors and people will say, \u201cOh, you know, I didn\u2019t realize that was going on down there.\u201d I worked in the semiconductor industry many, many, many moons ago.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>KRISTEN MOSBRUCKER-GARZA:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Oh, really?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>RICK CARRERA:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Yes, I did, many moons ago. So people ask, \u201cOh, I don\u2019t see what\u2019s going on down there.\u201d 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\u2019s got a microchip in it of some kind \u2014 a processor.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>RICK CARRERA:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> So for me, that was the surprising thing \u2014 just the number of industries that the manufacturing industry down here serves in terms of their products and what they\u2019re building and what they\u2019re selling.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>KRISTEN MOSBRUCKER-GARZA:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> 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?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>RICK CARRERA:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> It does. I know here recently there hasn\u2019t been an official automotive cluster developed. We\u2019re working on some of that groundwork right now. Typically, a cluster would mean that\u2019s going to be a membership organization. You have your board of directors and all of that.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>RICK CARRERA:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> I think we\u2019re 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.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>RICK CARRERA:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> If it gets enough traction and we find there\u2019s 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.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>RICK CARRERA:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> So we\u2019ve 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\u2019t spend more time with them. That\u2019s probably the second or third group we\u2019ve entertained this year.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>RICK CARRERA:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> So the auto clusters are alive and well. Like I said, we may get to the point where it\u2019s a true cluster and a formal group. But right now we\u2019re just trying to get our bases covered with the basic census of who\u2019s here and what they\u2019re building.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>KRISTEN MOSBRUCKER-GARZA:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> For sure. And the City of McAllen just landed a manufacturer yesterday. I believe it\u2019s Valeo?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>RICK CARRERA:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Yes.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>KRISTEN MOSBRUCKER-GARZA:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> 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 \u2014 these business retention visits where you\u2019re just mingling with executives \u2014 they were like, hey, there\u2019s 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\u2019s a lot that played into that.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>RICK CARRERA:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Based on what I have heard \u2014 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.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>RICK CARRERA:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> But you\u2019re 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.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>RICK CARRERA:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> It is correct that the story they told was that in a business retention and expansion follow-up meeting \u2014 just staying in touch with their clients, which McAllen EDC does an excellent job of \u2014 that\u2019s 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\u2019s talk about this, right? What are the possibilities?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>RICK CARRERA:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> That\u2019s typically how these things go. Sure, companies will put out a request for information or say, hey, we\u2019re looking to expand. But a lot of times it\u2019s always at the grassroots level, like what\u2019s going on? And that\u2019s how these things get started.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>RICK CARRERA:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> So congratulations and kudos to McAllen EDC. That\u2019s an excellent job they did to get that landed here on this side of the border and remain in the region, because it\u2019s going to be a great job creator.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>RICK CARRERA:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> As a side note, when you get a company that\u2019s willing to expand like that here, they\u2019re 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\u2019m going to have some of my biggest and best management move to the area to operate this facility. Will they be happy here? Right?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>RICK CARRERA:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> So quality of life plays into that factor. And then the ecosystem \u2014 meaning whether their kids are going to go to good schools, and whether they\u2019re going to find the social networks they need to be happy and all that kind of thing.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>RICK CARRERA:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> I\u2019ve 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.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>KRISTEN MOSBRUCKER-GARZA:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Yeah. I\u2019ve 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 \u2014 high-paying jobs \u2014 just from a couple projects like SpaceX, potentially Saronic, and then I think the third one is the oil refinery, American First Refining.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>KRISTEN MOSBRUCKER-GARZA:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Just to catch people up with Valeo, it\u2019s in the City of McAllen near the International Bridge. Your plans would know this, right?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>RICK CARRERA:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> It\u2019s right off Ware Road in what they call their nearshore park.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>KRISTEN MOSBRUCKER-GARZA:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Yes.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>RICK CARRERA:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> And it is actually a nearshoring victory in every sense of the word.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>KRISTEN MOSBRUCKER-GARZA:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> 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.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>KRISTEN MOSBRUCKER-GARZA:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> So this is a $225 million investment. I understand it will be about 500 new jobs \u2014 high-paying jobs. I don\u2019t have the exact pay, but for a community like this, it\u2019s typically between $70,000 to $100,000. So that\u2019s kind of the idea we\u2019re talking about.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>KRISTEN MOSBRUCKER-GARZA:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> And then, just to catch people up, the potential Saronic deal is this autonomous vessel that would be potentially fulfilling a Navy contract. It\u2019s 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.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>KRISTEN MOSBRUCKER-GARZA:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> And then the oil refinery \u2014 another 500 jobs, same kind of pay scale, a $3.5 billion to $4 billion project. And then SpaceX\u2019s expansion \u2014 they already have, what, an economic impact of $13 billion?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>RICK CARRERA:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> And they\u2019re reportedly going to double their workforce by the end of the year.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>KRISTEN MOSBRUCKER-GARZA:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> So I kind of \u2014<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>RICK CARRERA:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> On the Saronic side, I\u2019ve 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\u2019m from, she was like, \u201cWe wanted to compete for that.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>RICK CARRERA:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> 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\u2019ve got space galore.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>RICK CARRERA:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> And that\u2019s 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.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>KRISTEN MOSBRUCKER-GARZA:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Yeah. And the Port of Brownsville, what, 40,000 acres?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>RICK CARRERA:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Yes.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>KRISTEN MOSBRUCKER-GARZA:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> That\u2019s a lot of space. So I think that\u2019s a good point.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>RICK CARRERA:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> 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\u2019t realize that we\u2019re in a position where we\u2019re poised to compete for a lot of projects moving forward.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>RICK CARRERA:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> The prevailing thought was that they\u2019re only going to be able to accommodate one or two of those, but that\u2019s not the case. We can accommodate both and then \u2014<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>KRISTEN MOSBRUCKER-GARZA:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> So yeah. And then potentially, if anyone wants to restart it, a third LNG facility.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>RICK CARRERA:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> I was having a conversation just a while ago with somebody here. I didn\u2019t read the article. I was traveling yesterday, and between planes I was scrolling through my phone and saw the headline. I didn\u2019t get a chance to read the article, but yes, that\u2019s another potential development.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>RICK CARRERA:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> I don\u2019t know what details to share or talk about here, but \u2014<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>KRISTEN MOSBRUCKER-GARZA:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Yeah, no, that\u2019s fine. I actually did an interview with the person who filed the FERC filing \u2014 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 \u2014<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>RICK CARRERA:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> There\u2019s 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.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>RICK CARRERA:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> We don\u2019t 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.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>RICK CARRERA:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> We\u2019ve entertained a few different groups from Mexico, and people ask on a personal note, what\u2019s with all these people from Mexico? So we get a lot of calls from companies in Mexico. Some are U.S.-owned, but they\u2019re based in Mexico. Obviously those decisions are made from both sides of the border, but they\u2019re 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.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>RICK CARRERA:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> It\u2019s because of the proximity to Mexico, but they\u2019re still in the U.S. The ports of entry, all the things we have going for us. So that\u2019s, I think, going to be a trend moving forward here for at least the next couple of years, until whatever\u2019s going to happen with USMCA happens.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>KRISTEN MOSBRUCKER-GARZA:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> For sure. And just to catch people up, USMCA is \u2014 I think of it as NAFTA 2.0 or 3.0 now. So it\u2019s the U.S., Canada, Mexico \u2014<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>RICK CARRERA:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>KRISTEN MOSBRUCKER-GARZA:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Yes. There you go. Essentially it\u2019s a free trade agreement between our nations, and who knows what\u2019s 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.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>RICK CARRERA:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Absolutely. For the most part, it has been good. There have been \u2014 I will share that I\u2019ve been here for a few years now, and we may start doing them again \u2014 but we would bring site selectors down and different groups and give them tours of the area. They\u2019d be fairly impressed, and we would start getting leads from companies looking to move or expand.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>RICK CARRERA:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Some were more foreign-based or whatever. But once the current administration took over and the talk about USMCA picked up, there\u2019s been some hesitancy. And that\u2019s across the board. It\u2019s not just us. I have these conversations with site selectors and other development representatives from all over the country pretty regularly.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>RICK CARRERA:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> So far it kind of goes across the spectrum. Some are putting everything on a complete stop. But we\u2019re more than a year into the current administration now, and some are saying, okay, we\u2019re going to move forward with some hesitancy here, but things still have to move forward, right?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>RICK CARRERA:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> To answer your question, for the most part it\u2019s 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.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>KRISTEN MOSBRUCKER-GARZA:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Well, while we have all of these new projects coming down the pipeline, in part because of that, we\u2019re already dealing with a community with water challenges, right? There\u2019s so much demand for water. The state\u2019s plan going out basically says we\u2019re going to need more. You can\u2019t rely on the Rio Grande solely into perpetuity.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>KRISTEN MOSBRUCKER-GARZA:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> There\u2019s a lot more development with groundwater and desalination. So when you\u2019re 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?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>RICK CARRERA:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> That\u2019s a really good question, and it varies by company and depending on which resource they need more than anything. That being said, it\u2019s probably more the electricity side than the water side.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>RICK CARRERA:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> On the electricity end, they can find ways around that to some degree \u2014 what they call power behind the meter. They\u2019re 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.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>RICK CARRERA:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> But if it\u2019s a very water-intensive operation, I\u2019m not saying they don\u2019t look at us, but that is taken into consideration. National media being what it is, sometimes it\u2019s unfairly portrayed that we have water issues, and sometimes it gives off the perception that we have none, and that\u2019s not the case. We do have some water.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>RICK CARRERA:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Just like on the electrical side, what some companies are doing now is finding ways to do water reuse \u2014 what they call purple water \u2014 reuse non-potable water for cooling towers and that kind of thing.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>RICK CARRERA:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> I guess what I\u2019m really saying is, again, it depends on which resource they need the most. But this isn\u2019t just us. This is across the country. A lot of companies are finding that they\u2019re going to have to invest in ways to regenerate power or reuse water in order to keep their operations running and solvent.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>KRISTEN MOSBRUCKER-GARZA:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> 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.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>RICK CARRERA:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> 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\u2019s a whole other discussion.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>RICK CARRERA:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> 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.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>RICK CARRERA:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> 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\u2019s 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\u2019s dry again. Another story for another \u2014<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>KRISTEN MOSBRUCKER-GARZA:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> 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\u2019s plenty of power generation happening across the state, but it seems like our transmission-line system \u2014<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>RICK CARRERA:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> The delivery is where there might be a potential issue, yeah.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>KRISTEN MOSBRUCKER-GARZA:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> And since we\u2019re sort of at the end of the line, literally, I know that our transmission companies are working toward new investments. They\u2019re expanding the grid. They\u2019re essentially making capacity larger. But AEP Texas is experiencing so much demand just from the existing residential, commercial, industrial base \u2014 not even all these new projects.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>KRISTEN MOSBRUCKER-GARZA:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> 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?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>RICK CARRERA:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Some of the power-delivery issues we just briefly mentioned wouldn\u2019t completely disappear, but a lot would be eliminated. Again, it comes down to the delivery there, and then you\u2019re still talking about substations and that kind of thing.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>RICK CARRERA:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> 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.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>RICK CARRERA:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> 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.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>RICK CARRERA:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> 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.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>KRISTEN MOSBRUCKER-GARZA:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> For sure. And when you\u2019re talking to companies, what do they say about our workforce? Our community has changed so much, right? We\u2019ve 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.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>KRISTEN MOSBRUCKER-GARZA:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> 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?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>RICK CARRERA:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Everything I\u2019ve 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.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>RICK CARRERA:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Not just the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley or South Texas College or Texas Southmost College or Texas State Technical College. They\u2019re providing for your degree people, right? But what we\u2019re 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.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>RICK CARRERA:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> So what we\u2019re 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\u2019re able to provide the workforce needed pretty rapidly.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>RICK CARRERA:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> What really works in our favor is, statistically speaking, we\u2019re a very young population. I think we\u2019re 28.9 years old. And that\u2019s young. I\u2019ll tell you that. I meet people from all over the country and ask them, statistically speaking, how old are you? And they\u2019ll say, well, we\u2019re 45 years old. That means they\u2019ve got a much older population.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>RICK CARRERA:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> If you\u2019re 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\u2019re younger, and I can grow them with the company and get them trained up? So that works really, really well for us.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>RICK CARRERA:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> I will tell you, I\u2019ve talked to some people here who have existing manufacturing companies, and the feedback I\u2019ve 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.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>RICK CARRERA:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> But thus far, most of what I\u2019ve heard is very, very positive. The only time I\u2019ve heard anything really negative \u2014 and this is just me, I\u2019m not saying this is all-encompassing across the board \u2014 is that when you dig down into it, those companies maybe weren\u2019t providing a good culture, and what they were looking to pay employees may not have been what those jobs probably should have paid.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>RICK CARRERA:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> That\u2019s not a critique on anybody. Maybe that\u2019s what their industry pays and that\u2019s what it can afford to pay, and that\u2019s just a byproduct of that. But typically, if there\u2019s been anything negative about our workforce, there have been extraneous factors that lead into that. It\u2019s not necessarily because of the quality of the person.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>KRISTEN MOSBRUCKER-GARZA:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> And what is y\u2019all\u2019s definition of a good-paying job or a high-paying job? Because you kind of mentioned that\u2019s really the thrust of y\u2019all\u2019s organization \u2014 to bring quality jobs to our communities.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>RICK CARRERA:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> That\u2019s a really good question. I don\u2019t know that I have, on a personal level, put a number to that. I will tell you that I\u2019ve spoken to companies who say, hey, I\u2019m having a hard time attracting workforce, and they\u2019re paying probably around what Walmart or some of the other large retailers are paying.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>RICK CARRERA:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> That makes it a little difficult because some people, depending on the age bracket and demographic, may find they\u2019d rather work in a retail environment than go work doing something else that\u2019s going to pay the same amount of money.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>RICK CARRERA:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> So to answer your question, it would have to be something that\u2019s 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.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>RICK CARRERA:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> So I look back to when I was that age, and while I haven\u2019t 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.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>KRISTEN MOSBRUCKER-GARZA:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> You know, it\u2019s funny. I\u2019m 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\u2019re doing work for a union. But it pays better, and he\u2019s able to provide for a family.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>KRISTEN MOSBRUCKER-GARZA:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> I think pay is really a conversation in our communities right now. Because people are like, one of the reasons I\u2019m 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 \u2014 we do have a low cost of living, but it has increased.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>RICK CARRERA:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> It has increased substantially, especially with the cost of housing over the past five years. On a personal level, I\u2019ve already had sidebar conversations with people who\u2019ve told me, oh, my cousins are already looking at the refinery and wondering where they can get those jobs.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>RICK CARRERA:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> 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\u2019m directing them to any number of different people to talk to.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>RICK CARRERA:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> But yeah, those conversations are happening already. One thing I will say is that with the McAllen announcement, I\u2019m already seeing posts on social media saying, well, they\u2019re just going to pay minimum wage. They\u2019re not going to pay minimum wage, not by a long shot.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>RICK CARRERA:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> To find the quality of worker they\u2019re going to need to produce what they\u2019re going to produce in that plant is not a minimum-wage proposition \u2014 far from it. There are a lot of naysayers out there that are quick to say that, but that\u2019s not the case.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>RICK CARRERA:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> 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.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>RICK CARRERA:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> These weren\u2019t lavish lifestyles. I\u2019m 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.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>KRISTEN MOSBRUCKER-GARZA:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> 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\u2019re going to have a lot of transplants, and we\u2019re changing a lot.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>RICK CARRERA:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> 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 \u2014 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\u2019s at.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>RICK CARRERA:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Long story short, there was opportunity, right? He was able to do that for himself. And I think we\u2019ll 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.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>KRISTEN MOSBRUCKER-GARZA:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> 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?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>RICK CARRERA:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> 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.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>RICK CARRERA:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> I think if we \u2014 and I understand there are naysayers out there and they maybe don\u2019t want to see some of the industry we\u2019re trying to attract come to the area, and I can certainly empathize with some of their concerns. But the communities that I\u2019ve 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\u2019re going to recruit more industry here.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>RICK CARRERA:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> 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\u2019t want to attract. But those that we do want to attract, let\u2019s make sure that we\u2019re all on the right page and presenting a clear and concise message as a region saying, hey, we want you here.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>RICK CARRERA:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> It goes back to the naysayers I see posting on social media. Everybody\u2019s entitled to their opinion. Absolutely. That\u2019s what social media is for. But we need to promote the region as best we can as a unified group and make sure we\u2019re doing our best to bring more to the area.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>RICK CARRERA:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> 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\u2019ll never see anybody from that region talk about the negatives of that region ever. I\u2019ve never seen it.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>RICK CARRERA:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Maybe it happens in small groups or particular sections of the population. And it\u2019s not necessarily a huge problem here. But I see it enough to think that we need to make sure we\u2019re all putting our best foot forward to try to get the best industry we can to the area.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>KRISTEN MOSBRUCKER-GARZA:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Historically, we\u2019ve 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 \u2014 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\u2019s not, and I thought that was really interesting.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>KRISTEN MOSBRUCKER-GARZA:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> 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 \u2014 I think they had a warehouse in Pharr for however long.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>RICK CARRERA:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Been there for a long, long time.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>KRISTEN MOSBRUCKER-GARZA:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Yeah. And now they\u2019re bringing the manufacturing over. They basically said they\u2019re producing very high-tech, very valuable products that are going to go inside these cars \u2014 everything from essentially the circuit board that takes in all \u2014<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>RICK CARRERA:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> They will be producing the brain for the vehicle, for lack of a better way to put it, and a liquid-cooled brain. I\u2019m a car guy, so I find that extremely fascinating.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>RICK CARRERA:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Anytime you have a processor, it\u2019s liquid-cooled because it is moving at an incredible speed. When processors move at that rate, they create a lot of heat. That\u2019s 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\u2019s processing a lot of information.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>RICK CARRERA:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> So when liquid-cooled processors became a thing, I don\u2019t know, ten or twelve years ago, I just found that fascinating. If they\u2019re going to be producing that level of technology in McAllen, that\u2019s significant.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>RICK CARRERA:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> He\u2019s 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.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>KRISTEN MOSBRUCKER-GARZA:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Yeah. We\u2019re now building software-defined vehicles, and there\u2019s a different type of \u2014<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>RICK CARRERA:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> It\u2019s a different type of vehicle. And people ask me about Mexico. It\u2019s not necessarily cheap labor that drives companies there anymore. Is labor cheaper? Of course it is. But it\u2019s skilled labor, right?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>RICK CARRERA:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> You have okay, we\u2019re 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\u2019s still running at lower cost. In this particular case, it\u2019s 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.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>RICK CARRERA:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> And that\u2019s why it\u2019s not a twin plant. A twin plant would have been \u2014 and this goes back to the census we put together, which we\u2019re still adding to \u2014 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\u2019re not actually producing anything.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>KRISTEN MOSBRUCKER-GARZA:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> And what about food manufacturers? Because I remember y\u2019all had a bit of a discussion about that.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>RICK CARRERA:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> We did. So for food manufacturing, depending on the type of industry \u2014 and this is nothing disparaging about bakeries or mom-and-pop operations \u2014 we have to figure out what our threshold is. Typically, we\u2019re looking for operations that are mass producing, selling in large quantities to corporate buyers or distributors, not smaller-scale production for local consumption.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">We\u2019re still trying to navigate that because we don\u2019t want to leave out a quality manufacturer. But we are working to define where that floor is \u2014 what qualifies at a regional economic development level.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>KRISTEN MOSBRUCKER-GARZA:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Right. I can think of examples \u2014 a popular pan dulce brand pitching a factory in San Juan. That would create jobs. It is manufacturing. But it\u2019s more regional. Versus a food manufacturer in Brownsville that secured incentives for a $117 million expansion.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>RICK CARRERA:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> A huge expansion.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>KRISTEN MOSBRUCKER-GARZA:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Exactly. Hundreds of jobs. Different scale.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>RICK CARRERA:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Right. And we may end up including both, but with distinctions. For now, we\u2019re focused on operations like you mentioned \u2014 larger-scale production, multiple shifts, significant employment.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">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?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Because the census we\u2019re building isn\u2019t just informational \u2014 it\u2019s a recruiting tool. It helps us answer a common question: can companies plug into what already exists here?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">We get inquiries from companies that aren\u2019t ready to relocate fully but want to partner locally \u2014 have someone here produce components, then integrate them into their own operation elsewhere.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">That\u2019s where this becomes strategic. It\u2019s not just who\u2019s here \u2014 it\u2019s how they connect to future deals.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>KRISTEN MOSBRUCKER-GARZA:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> That makes sense. And we should mention, we\u2019re 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&amp;M has one as well \u2014 how does that fit into the region\u2019s pitch?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>RICK CARRERA:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> It fits directly into the ecosystem. It\u2019s not necessarily a dealbreaker if those programs don\u2019t exist, but it absolutely strengthens the case.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">If I\u2019m advising a company on where to locate, I want to know \u2014 if something goes wrong in production, who can help solve it? Who understands the technology?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">That\u2019s where institutions like UTRGV come in. They give companies confidence that there\u2019s technical expertise here \u2014 people who can support R&amp;D, troubleshoot issues, and collaborate.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">I sat in on some of those sessions today \u2014 very technical discussions. But that\u2019s a good thing. It shows the depth of capability we can offer companies considering the region.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>KRISTEN MOSBRUCKER-GARZA:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> And what\u2019s next for COSTEP?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>RICK CARRERA:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> We\u2019re continuing to build out the industrial data system. We host quarterly meetings \u2014 what we call \u201cFriends of COSTEP\u201d \u2014 and bring in site selectors to speak with regional stakeholders. Our next one is already near capacity.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">We also organize what we call quick tours \u2014 bringing in companies, site selectors, and industry groups for one- to two-day visits to showcase the region.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">That\u2019s our core mission: awareness. Not just for COSTEP, but for South Texas.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">We\u2019re also in early conversations with several companies. Too early to share details \u2014 and that\u2019s intentional.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Deals are lost when confidentiality is broken. I\u2019ve seen it happen. A project falls apart, and hundreds of jobs go with it. So discretion matters.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>KRISTEN MOSBRUCKER-GARZA:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> And that\u2019s something people may not always understand \u2014 especially with public companies.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>RICK CARRERA:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Exactly. There are legal requirements. Timing matters. Disclosure rules matter. So when information isn\u2019t shared, it\u2019s not reluctance \u2014 it\u2019s process.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>KRISTEN MOSBRUCKER-GARZA:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Understood. Well, thank you for the time.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>RICK CARRERA:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Always happy to do it. If it helps promote the region, it\u2019s worth it.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>KRISTEN MOSBRUCKER-GARZA:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> And for those following along, you can find more coverage at RGVBusinessJournal.com or subscribe to the podcast.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>RICK CARRERA:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Thank you all.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":20433,"template":"","podcast-category":[],"class_list":["post-20430","podcast","type-podcast","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":{"description":"","video":""},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v28.4 (Yoast SEO v28.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>La pr\u00f3xima apuesta industrial del Valle: proyectos de mil millones de d\u00f3lares y la carrera por el talento - Rio Grande Valley Business Journal<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.rgvbusinessjournal.com\/es\/podcast\/la-proxima-apuesta-industrial-del-valle-proyectos-de-mil-millones-de-dolares-y-la-carrera-por-el-talento\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"es_ES\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"La pr\u00f3xima apuesta industrial del Valle: proyectos de mil millones de d\u00f3lares y la carrera por el talento\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"El Valle del R\u00edo Grande se est\u00e1 preparando para una nueva era de crecimiento industrial impulsada por la expansi\u00f3n del sector manufacturero, la din\u00e1mica transfronteriza y la creciente demanda de mano de obra cualificada. 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