New capital projects chapter confronts growth challenges in the Rio Grande Valley

Editor’s note: This article is sponsored content provided by ERO Architects and the Institute for Leadership in Capital Projects. It was not produced by the Rio Grande Valley Business Journal editorial staff.

A newly formed Rio Grande Valley chapter of a Texas nonprofit devoted to capital projects will hold its next major event next week, convening economic development officials, utility executives, educators, and contractors to examine whether the region can build fast enough to hold the industrial investment now coming its way.

The Institute for Leadership in Capital Projects and the Harlingen Economic Development Corporation are co-hosting “Powering Texas and Regional Growth: Infrastructure + Workforce Exchange” on Thursday, Aug. 13, at the Harlingen Convention Center. The program runs from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.

The chapter is the newest of several the institute has organized across Texas, and its formation reflects a judgment that the Valley has moved into a different economic category. Brian Godinez, president of the I-LinCP RGV Chapter, said the organization’s track record elsewhere in the state drove the decision to plant a chapter here.

“We have been following and impressed with how the other I-LinCP Texas chapters have been the leading source for solutions that achieve capital project excellence and performance while delivering exceptional value to capital project stakeholders and the members of I-LinCP,” Godinez said. “We thought this would be perfect opportunity to bring their success to the Rio Grande Valley and begin a regional chapter.”

The institute is a nonprofit that works to improve how capital projects are planned, designed, delivered and operated. It does that through education, research and development, and collaboration among owners, designers and builders. Carol Warkoczewski, the founder and chief executive, described the work as connecting industry leaders to practical fixes.

“I-LinCP couples supporting industry leaders with bringing solutions to improve the planning, design, delivery, and operations of capital projects to improve the lives of the communities it serves,” Warkoczewski said. “We can accomplish this by evolving the capital projects industry through sharing of knowledge for optimized leadership, delivery, and performance through education, research and development, collaborative forums, and other events, products and services.”

Dale Fowler, manager of economic and business development at AEP Texas, will deliver the keynote. His presence signals the central question of the day. Electric capacity has become a gating factor for industrial site selection across Texas, and the Valley is competing for projects that arrive with large and immediate power demands.

The Valley has long sat at the end of the line electrically. ERCOT has treated the Lower Rio Grande Valley as a constrained pocket for years, served by long distance 345 kilovolt circuits running down from the north, with limited conventional generation inside the region and none of it planned. In the study that supported the current round of upgrades, the grid operator projected summer peak demand in the Valley reaching 3,200 megawatts and found potential reliability criteria violations at or above that level even with no equipment outages.

Utilities are building toward that gap. AEP Texas and Electric Transmission Texas have roughly 190 miles of new 345 kilovolt line and two substations planned for the region, with a stated target of putting them into service by the end of this year. An earlier reconductoring effort doubled the capacity of about 240-line miles of existing 345 kilovolt system without taking it out of service. Fowler works for the company carrying that load, which makes his keynote the most consequential item on the agenda.

Statewide the picture is steeper still. ERCOT filed a preliminary long term load forecast in April projecting demand of roughly 367,790 megawatts by 2032, more than four times the all-time peak of 85,508 megawatts set in August 2023. The grid operator cautioned that the figure is a planning snapshot rather than a prediction of what gets built.

Two panels follow the keynote.

The first, on capital projects and infrastructure, will be moderated by Beverly Loftus of the Harlingen EDC. Panelists include Gilberto Salinas, chief executive officer of the Greater Brownsville Economic Development Corporation, planning and development director Ana Hernandez, and Albert Escobedo, South Texas government affairs director for RGV Desal. The discussion is expected to cover power capacity, water availability, port improvements and utility readiness, and how those systems shape site selection and industrial expansion.

The second panel turns to workforce. Rafael Vela, chief executive of Workforce Solutions Cameron, will moderate. He will be joined by Andrea Figueroa Benton, director of community relations at NextDecade, Gina Cano-Monreal, provost of Texas State Technical College Harlingen, and Maricela “Mari” De León, executive director of RGV LEAD. That conversation is set to address the talent pipeline, alignment of training programs with employer needs, and local hiring commitments tied to major projects in energy, manufacturing, aerospace and liquefied natural gas.

The numbers behind that panel are the reason it exists. NextDecade asked federal regulators in April for permission to accelerate construction at Rio Grande LNG, raising its peak workforce to 7,500 and adding a night shift, with 6,500 workers on days and 1,000 at night. The request came as the company pushed to move faster on a buildout it values at $30 billion along the Brownsville Ship Channel. NextDecade has said the finished facility will support roughly 700 permanent jobs, with most of the onsite workforce drawn from the Valley.

A few miles away, SpaceX reported more than 3,400 employees and contractors at Starbase in the economic impact figures Cameron County released this year, along with an estimated 21,400 indirect jobs across the county. Cameron County Judge Eddie Treviño Jr. said earlier this year that the company had signaled plans to add about 4,000 more workers at the site during 2026.

Those two employers alone are recruiting from the same pool of welders, pipefitters, electricians and technicians that the Valley’s existing manufacturers depend on. Whether the region can supply that labor, or whether it gets trucked in from Houston and Louisiana, is the question the second panel is built to answer.

Organizers are pitching the luncheon as a working session rather than a showcase. The stated audience is public and private owners and owner representatives, architecture, engineering and construction firms, developers, real estate and economic development professionals, and local industry and community leaders.

Registration is $50 for institute members and $65 for nonmembers.

EVENT DETAILS

• What: Powering Texas and Regional Growth: Infrastructure + Workforce Exchange
• Hosts: I-LinCP RGV Chapter and the Harlingen Economic Development Corporation
• When: Thursday, Aug. 13, 2026
• Where: Harlingen Convention Center, Harlingen
• Cost: $50 members, $65 nonmembers
• Register: https://i-lincp.wildapricot.org/event-6742435/Registration
• Membership: https://i-lincp.wildapricot.org/membership

AGENDA

• 11:15 to 11:45 a.m. Check-in
• Noon to 1:30 p.m. Program

PROGRAM

• Keynote. Dale Fowler, manager of economic and business development, AEP Texas
• Panel 1, Capital Projects and Infrastructure. Moderator Beverly Loftus, Harlingen EDC. Panelists Gilbert Salinas, Greater Brownsville Economic Development Corporation. Ana Hernandez, planning and development director. Albert Escobedo, RGV Desal.
• Panel 2, Human Capital and Workforce. Moderator Rafael Vela, Workforce Solutions Cameron. Panelists Andrea Figueroa Benton, NextDecade. Gina Cano-Monreal, Texas State Technical College Harlingen. Maricela De León, RGV LEAD.