Photos show brand new $1.2M Cavender’s in Weslaco surrounded by floodwaters, but the store stayed dry. Here’s how

On Friday, Weslaco leaders cut the ribbon on a brand new Cavenders near Interstate 2 and Texas Boulevard. The $1.2 million boot-and-western-wear store is an anchor tenant in a redeveloped shopping center known as Palm Plaza. 

Several days later, heavy rainstorms dropped several inches of rain across the Rio Grande Valley, which caused flash flooding in many communities. 

Photos and videos submitted by local residents on social media showed the Cavenders store surrounded by several feet of water. That same day, the frontage road next to the building was closed by the Texas Department of Transportation due to high water. 

On Tuesday morning, the Cavenders was open, and the store was dry inside, according to the developer behind Palm Plaza. 

That’s because the recently retrofitted drainage system of the shopping plaza, which originally dates back to the 1970s, worked, said Kirk Cypel, chief development officer for San Antonio-based CBG Real Estate. 

“Water never got into any of our buildings. This rainfall was way beyond anything anyone would expect, and our detention system held up really well,” Cypel said. “The rain was so heavy that the detention system actually got full. But the parking lot, because it’s lower down, acts as a second detention facility. In the past, there were rainwaters that used to flow off that shopping center and flood the frontage road, but in this case, we were able to control the water and have a better solution.”

Developers demolished an old restaurant near the frontage road and Texas Boulevard, but kept the rest of the plaza. Plans now include a new 5-acre plaza facing the frontage road with the drainage pond and canal behind it. 

As of midday on Tuesday, the parking lot was drained, but the retention pond area was still full. 

“Making the building pretty is not enough, so as part of our planning, we did extensive engineering studies on the property, and we realized that the possibility of heavy rainfall would be a real problem,” Cypel said. “In the past, there was no storm drain that ran through the property, so we installed that. So the concept was that during a heavy rainfall, the waters would collect on the parking lot, fall into the storm drains, the storm drains would feed into the detention pond, and the detention pond would slowly release the water, which is a way of preventing flooding in the area.” 

Weslaco Palm Plaza LLC purchased the property before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, and the deed was recorded back in November 2020, but the economic downturn delayed its progress for several years. 

Palm Plaza developers spent more than $9.6 million on plaza facade and site improvements over the past year, with work wrapping up in April 2026. That included relocating the frontage entrance to the middle of the lot, rather than next to the Cavenders store entrance. The plaza redevelopment is expected to be completed by the end of 2027, featuring a 100-foot pylon sign bearing the city’s name as a welcome to Weslaco. 

Landscaping for the plaza was expected to be installed in the coming weeks, which Cypel said is actually good news because it would likely have been washed away. 

“This was a premier center for the city of Weslaco for many, many years, but as time went on, the property became older, and it fell into disarray. Frankly, it became an eyesore for the city when you consider the expressway and Texas Boulevard are really the gateway to Weslaco, so it was kind of a shame,” Cypel said. “Our plan was to create a shopping center that was very special and different from the other buildings you see in the Valley, and if you look at phase one, I think we’ve been successful in that regard.” 

The Dollar Plus store in Palm Plaza recently underwent $210,000 in renovations and additions, according to Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation records. The next business expected to open at Palm Plaza is the Chinese and Sushi buffet Kurai Restaurant, with a $75,000 finish-out for a 7,500-square-foot store. 

Meanwhile, the neighborhood just west of the shopping center was inundated with floodwater, as were many others around Interstate 2, prompting high-water rescues. Some residents have been in temporary shelters on higher ground, and are dealing with flooded-out vehicles caught in the flash flooding and lingering high water in neighborhoods. 

“We’re willing to help and do whatever we can to help relieve the flooding to the west of us, working with the city, but it’s a much larger problem, and solving the flooding to the west of Palm Plaza is going to be a major infrastructure project [for the city],” Cypel said. “I think they’re aware of these problems, and I think [the city] is trying to solve them. I think the biggest problem is that Weslaco is a small city and doesn’t necessarily have the resources to take on an infrastructure project of this magnitude [for drainage]. We’re talking big dollars here. I think that at some point, the state or the federal government has to help.” 

And that’s just what Weslaco city leaders have been doing: the city lobbied in Washington, D.C. last week for $11.9 million for its Weslaco Plaza street drainage improvement project, which would cover design and construction, another $14 million for the city’s Agostadero drainage project, and about $704,300 for the Paisano Drainage Project scoping which would not include construction — the Paisano neighborhood that flooded during the most recent storm. 

That’s more than $25 million in city drainage projects alone for a city with about 45,000 residents. 

The city does collect sewer maintenance fees as part of property owners’ property tax bills, and Hidalgo County levies a drainage district fee, but those project upgrades are spread across the entire county, which includes many other competing cities. 

Other businesses closed during the heavy rainfall, like Nana’s Taqueria near International Boulevard and E 18th Street — about a mile south of Business 83 and 1.5 miles south of Interstate 2. By Tuesday morning, Nana’s was back open for Taco Tuesday, offering “all you can eat” after the storms. 

In historic downtown Weslaco, many businesses installed sandbags to prevent floodwater from entering their buildings, including Jose Cafecito’s Restaurant along Texas Boulevard near Business 83, which has been in operation for the past 14 years. 

Jose Cafecito was open by Tuesday morning, slinging coffee and Mexican diner food, yet again quipping it was “no longer waterfront property.”