Brownsville’s downtown master plan aims to turn its historic core into a walkable hub for restaurants, retail, and housing

Hundreds of people mingled, danced, dined, and shopped with marketplace vendors during Brownsville’s First Friday celebration in honor of Dia De Los Muertos.

The city’s Market Square was packed – and that’s what officials are hoping will happen with the rest of downtown in the coming years after its master plan is enacted. 

For the past five months, the city of Brownsville has been laying the foundation for its massive overhaul of the urban core, known as the Brownsville Downtown Renaissance Master Plan. 

The goal is to outline a land-use roadmap spanning International Boulevard to the south, Palm Boulevard to the north, Mexico Boulevard to the west, and Interstate 69 to the east — guiding the city’s urban core over the next decade and beyond.

“People are coming and investing in downtown. [They] are taking the chance because they know there’s potential there,” said Allan Garces, manager of Downtown Brownsville, an initiative inside the city’s office of planning and redevelopment services. “We’re capitalizing on this momentum by doing the downtown master plan instead of a hodgepodge. We want to make sure there’s a roadmap — that we’re aligning with what the community wants to see.” 

What the plan envisions

While the public survey, which garnered more than 500 responses, has since closed, the public can still weigh in on a proposed map.

Family-friendly amenities ranked highest among respondents, with 67% citing them as a priority, followed by cultural and art venues (63%), local restaurants (57%), and public gathering spaces (55%).

Brownsville city commissioners expect to adopt the plan by June 2026. 

Inside that polygon sits a historic downtown core that includes the Gateway International Bridge system, which connects pedestrians and vehicles to Matamoros, Mexico; urban parks; the Gladys Porter Zoo; a performing arts center; museums; and bus stations, as well as county and city offices. 

The city hired Fort Worth-based Freese and Nichols Inc. as the principal consultant to oversee the urban planning process. Freese and Nichols worked on downtown plans for Fort Worth, Canyon, Brownwood, Victoria, and Longview. 

Other consultants include Austin-based TXP Inc. to conduct a market analysis of the plan, El Paso-based LOI Engineers for the transportation and mobility section, and Fort Worth-based Livable Plans and Codes for urban design, zoning changes, and walkable mixed-use development. 

Consultants said residents and business owners were concerned about the lack of organized parking, especially during peak traffic periods, for visitors trekking to destination restaurants. 

There’s already a free shuttle that picks up visitors and drops them off around downtown tourist destinations. But there’s also the possibility of bringing back a downtown trolley and adding more parking garages. 

The city expects to widen its sidewalks, add benches, and provide more public space amenities. 

Dozens of buildings across Brownsville are still controlled by the city, some of which are vacant or in various stages of redevelopment. Most notable is Market Square, which was once a bus depot and has since been transformed into an urban park with retail and restaurants nearby. 

But not everything will require years of redevelopment before any changes are seen. 

“We definitely want to look at short-term wins. That’s something we’ve already allocated some funding for [through the city’s capital improvement plan],” Garces said. 

Those short-term wins include adding benches and replacing trash cans in the heart of the city.

Investments, investments, and infrastructure

The city hopes to accomplish many of these projects through public-private partnerships, its capital improvement program, and a newly created Tax Improvement Reinvestment Zone (TIRZ), Garces said. 

“The city’s investing in infrastructure. We’re able to support those property owners and business owners who are developing downtown so they don’t have to bore 50 feet to the next water line,” he said. “The revitalization in downtown is immense, and we’re only getting started.” 

Brownsville has three active Tax Increment Reinvestment Zones: two in the city’s northwest corner — mixed-use development Santander and master-planned residential community Madieria — and one on the southeast side encompassing downtown, which was expanded earlier this year to include the city’s riverfront. A fourth TIRZ, which included the shuttered shopping mall Amigoland, has since been eliminated due to inactivity. 

Brownsville has also been laying fiber-optic cable to bring municipal broadband to the city, including its downtown. That project is also expected to wrap up by 2026.

The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley is also retrofitting Brownsville’s Majestic Theater into a new performing arts center as part of the city’ downtown revitalization. 

There’s also a downtown hotel that is being rehabbed into affordable housing. That project is known as El Jardin. Another project under construction is Samano Studios, which will feature housing, a grocery store, and a rooftop farm. 

During a recent public meeting in which a draft plan was shared, some participants wondered why the city doesn’t sell more of its municipally owned properties to developers who could demolish or rehabilitate them. However, some properties in downtown Brownsville are protected as historical landmarks. 

One attendee asked whether the city could draw inspiration from its sister city, Matamoros, Mexico, which has several public plazas. There’s already a hiking and bicycle trail that may connect Matamoros and Brownsville, officials said. 

A shared vision for livability

Part of the downtown master plan calls for the retrofitting of the city’s zoning code, investing in public infrastructure, and preparing its downtown for future investment projects. 

“We’re headed in the right direction, but we still have so much space available, specifically here in the downtown area,” Kevin Rock, a Brownsville resident, told the Rio Grande Valley Business Journal. “A lot of people complain there’s not very many public spaces aside from Market Square in the downtown area. That’s a fair point. There’s not many places to sit down, not many shaded areas. There’s not much to do in the downtown area during the day besides shopping.” 

Rock said he’d love to see more collaboration across international boundaries. He envisions the potential for a massive urban park along Mexico Boulevard, which is slightly outside of the downtown master plan area. 

In Matamoros, there’s Paque La Rotonda, an urban park surrounded by mixed-use developments. 

“They jam-packed it with plazas, with restaurants, bars, clubs, shopping areas, and that park in the middle, you just see it packed with families every single night,” Rock said. “That’s something we desperately need in downtown Brownsville if we want to make it more attractive to the average person, not just to tourists, but to us. We’re the ones who are going to be using it more than anyone.”