Valeo, a French auto parts maker with local ties, plans $19M facility in McAllen

A French auto parts maker with an established presence just across the Rio Grande is planning a $19 million industrial expansion in McAllen, the Rio Grande Valley Business Journal confirmed Tuesday. 

The company, Valeo, is headquartered in Paris and has an extensive operation across North America. It maintains a regional headquarters in Troy, Michigan and manufactures vehicle components ranging from electrical systems to hybrid and driver-assistance technologies.

Details about its project in McAllen remain limited. 

The company declined an interview on Tuesday, but confirmed that a third party filed plans on its behalf for a 226,007-square-foot shell warehouse designed for manufacturing use. That’s roughly the size of four football fields under one roof.

The facility is expected to be built south of Military Highway and west of Ware Road, according to filings with the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation. 

Construction is slated to begin Friday and conclude in January 2027.

The industrial site property owner, 140 Ware Road LLC, is controlled by Joaquin Spamer of CIL Group.

Spamer did not respond to requests for comment, and previously cited non-disclosure agreements with an unnamed company he was trying to bring to the region. 

Spamer is also a leader with RioPlex, an organization that promotes the Rio Grande Valley to outside investors and collaborates with economic development organizations across the region — in this case, the city of McAllen. 

Global manufacturer with local ties

Valeo employs 13,000 workers across plants in various Mexican cities, including Querétaro, Ciudad Juárez, Toluca and Río Bravo —  which sits directly across the Rio Grande from Donna.

In 1982, the auto parts maker opened its Valeo Sistemas Electronicos maquiladora in Rio Bravo, and in 2020, it expanded the plant by more than 250,000 square feet and added 624 jobs, bringing total employment there to roughly 2,000 workers. 

At the time, the facility, which manufactures advanced automotive electronics such as camera and driver-assistance systems, was described as one of Valeo’s largest and fastest-growing operations in Mexico.

In 2024, the company also opened a new technical center in Querétaro and hired hundreds of workers there. 

Last year, Valeo sought to mitigate the impact of tariffs on its products because it has extensive operations in China, a country that faced tariffs of up to 145% under the Trump administration. 

Valeo told investors that it conducted “an exhaustive review” of its entire supply chain to reduce tariffs, such as moving plastic molds used for car parts from China to Mexico.

The move made the products compliant under the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement and shielded the company from the increased tariffs.  

Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down that tariff regime, but the Trump administration has already implemented a worldwide baseline tariff of 10% under a different provision in the law, with a threat to increase it to 15%.

It was not immediately clear if the ruling, which struck down the tariffs, would affect Valeo’s decisions to invest in South Texas.