Weslaco is no longer just benefiting from the Rio Grande Valley’s growth — it’s positioning itself to capture more of it.
In this episode of the Rio Grande Valley Business Journal Podcast, Naxiely Lopez-Puente sits down with Weslaco EDC Executive Director Steven Valdez to discuss the projects, investments, and long-term planning shaping the city’s future.
The conversation covers everything from a rapidly filling industrial park and the expansion of manufacturer Clever Foods to the arrival of Sam’s Club and the transformation of the FM 1015 corridor.
Valdez also shares how downtown Weslaco has evolved from a district with dozens of vacant storefronts into a growing destination for restaurants, retail, and nightlife, and why he believes the city’s central location has become one of its strongest economic advantages.
Plus, he offers a glimpse into a major development opportunity that could bring another significant wave of investment to the city.
Listen in for a closer look at the strategy, relationships, and projects driving Weslaco’s next chapter.
The following is a rough, AI-generated transcript of Naxiely Lopez’s interview with Steve Valdez, executive director of the Weslaco Economic Development Corporation. Minor errors and misspellings may appear. For the full conversation, listen to the episode above or through your preferred podcast platform.
Steven Valdez: Our 30-mile radius population is nearing about a million. So if you cut that in half, because that’s our workforce population, any company that we recruit to Weslaco knows that the workforce is going to be close by. We about three years ago opened the industrial park for business and started selling lots. And to be three years down the road from opening, cutting that ribbon, we’re now at 50-plus percent sold.
Steven Valdez: We have a 23-acre plot under contract right now. And if that goes through, God willing, we’ll be closer to 75%.
Naxiely Lopez: I know Sam’s — it’s the big one that’s going to bring in a lot of sales tax revenue. I imagine.
Steven Valdez: Their largest footprint store is 167,000 square feet. They’re doing a gas station. They’re hiring 200 employees. That’s just in construction alone — it’s close to $50 million. And so property taxes and sales taxes, the city gets a great boost.
Naxiely Lopez: Thank you for joining us on this week’s episode of the Rio Grande Valley Business Journal Podcast. I’m Naxiely Lopez Puente, and today we have a very special guest with us: Steve Valdez, the EDC director for the City of Weslaco. Steve, thank you so much for joining us today.
Steven Valdez: Well, thank you for having me. It’s great to be here.
Naxiely Lopez: Of course. All right, Steve, talk to us about Weslaco. The valley’s growing — what is growing with it? Tell us what’s going on.
Steven Valdez: Well, thank you, first of all, for the interview and for asking me to be here. Regional growth is amazing right now. Everybody in the entire valley is growing. And because we’re right in the middle, centrally located, it’s closing in on us. We see the excitement happening and the energy all around us — now, being centrally located means a lot more than it used to.
Steven Valdez: Weslaco being right in the middle is a big deal for us. When we start counting the miles to Port Brownsville and South Padre, that’s equal miles as it is to Roma and Rio Grande City. So it’s great to be right in the middle. Travel times are a big deal for people who might work and live in Weslaco.
Steven Valdez: Our 30-mile radius population is nearing about a million. So if you cut that in half, because that’s our workforce population, any company that we recruit to Weslaco knows that the workforce is going to be close by within a 30-mile radius. We feel really good about the position we’re at right now because of that centralized location.
Naxiely Lopez: I used to work in Weslaco about 20 years ago, and I have seen so much growth lately. It feels like business after business after plaza. Talk to us about that.
Steven Valdez: Going back to our centralized location — I’ll mention Glacier. Funny story with them, because one of the things they were most concerned about was their workforce. Once they left McAllen, whether their workforce would follow them to Weslaco. They were able to retain 90% of their staff because people realized we’re not really that far away.
Steven Valdez: The location they used to be in — Nolan and Bicentennial in McAllen — the congestion around that area made it difficult to get there alone. Now employees can get in their car, drive 10, 15, 20 minutes, and still get to their work site. Out of 200 employees, 90% stayed. About 5% said they retired, so really we’re talking about 95% retention.
Steven Valdez: There again, the value of being regionally centralized was a big deal. Glacier was probably our biggest industrial acquisition. And since we’re on the subject of our industrial park — we about three years ago opened it up for business and started selling lots. To be three years down the road from cutting that ribbon, we’re now at 50-plus percent sold.
Steven Valdez: We have a 23-acre plot under contract right now. And if that goes through, God willing, we’ll be closer to 75%. We’ve got a project coming up in the summer that’s going to start construction — another 100,000-square-foot facility, a company called Clever Foods.
Naxiely Lopez: What do they do?
Steven Valdez: They do gummies — health, pharmaceutical or nutraceutical gummies. If you’ve seen the Goalie brand — everybody’s on gummies. We all are.
Naxiely Lopez: Yeah, I mean it’s so much easier, right? Would you rather take a pill or have a gummy?
Steven Valdez: Yeah. And they already have a plant in Weslaco and they’re doing so well that they’ve bought another 15-acre tract and are about to start construction, hopefully in the summer, at the very latest by the end of this year.
Naxiely Lopez: Wow. Well, congratulations.
Steven Valdez: We’re excited about them.
Naxiely Lopez: What else is going on? I know Sam’s — it’s the big one that’s going to bring in a lot of sales tax revenue, I imagine.
Steven Valdez: It is. And it’s really going to change the 1015 corridor. Highway 1015 starts in Progreso and makes its way through Weslaco. I’ve been a product of this region my whole life, and I remember when Shary Road was a farm road. We kind of see 1015 going in that same direction.
Steven Valdez: And at the anchor, at the forefront of that, is going to be a Sam’s Club.
Naxiely Lopez: And once you have something that big coming in, everybody wants to be next to it — the foot traffic, the vehicular traffic alone.
Steven Valdez: Exactly. Their largest footprint store is 167,000 square feet. They’re doing a gas station. They’re hiring 200 employees. Toward the end of the summer, they’re going to set up a satellite location for people looking for a job. So reach out to us at the EDC so we can let you know how to apply for jobs at Sam’s Club.
Steven Valdez: But in construction alone, it’s close to $50 million. And so property taxes and sales taxes, the city gets a great boost.
Naxiely Lopez: Talk to us about sales taxes. What have you seen? Are you all growing? Is it keeping steady?
Steven Valdez: I’ve been there 10 years, and in those 10 years we’ve had a steady increase from year to year. We track it month to month. There have been a couple of times we’ve seen it dip a little lower than we expect, but then we compare that to all the other valley cities and we’re all going through the same highs and lows. But just two years ago we hit the billion-dollar sales tax mark.
Steven Valdez: So there’s $1 billion in taxable sales generated from all the businesses in Weslaco. That money stays in Weslaco. Any business owner, whether large or small — that’s money you get to keep and use to promote and run your business. To be at the billion-dollar mark and be a city of 50,000 population, that’s really a good place to be.
Naxiely Lopez: You’ve been at the EDC for 10 years now. What have you seen from when you started to where you are now?
Steven Valdez: We’ve been fortunate to see all three sectors grow almost at the same time. In economic development, I call it the trifecta. And I’m not even a gambler. But to be able to say that your residential growth is growing — we had, in the last four years, an average of 1,500 permits per year for new construction, housing, multifamily housing, home improvements.
Steven Valdez: 1,500 is a good number. We’ve got rooftops coming and retail follows rooftops. Our acquisition of retailers — some we recruit, some come on their own because they know the numbers look good. And then, as I mentioned, to be able to open an industrial park and be 50% sold in three years — that’s an indication all three sectors are growing together.
Steven Valdez: When one grows faster than the other, somebody pays a price. If you don’t have the rooftops to handle the retail and retail is growing faster than it should, those businesses tend to go out of business because there aren’t enough people living in Weslaco who are shopping. And then you have to have job creation — that’s where the industrial comes in. So we’re in a real good position to see all three growing together.
Naxiely Lopez: Wonderful. I know there’s been a focus on developing downtown Weslaco. I was there a few months ago and was very surprised to see how active it was — people walking in the middle of the day, going from one store to another. In the middle of summer, too. Talk to us about what’s happened there.
Steven Valdez: Downtown has really taken on its own identity now, albeit because we’ve had some long-standing businesses that have been there a long time. Lionel’s Western Wear, Season’s Fine Jewelry, the Wells store — we have to first give credit to the companies that are at the base and foundation of our downtown.
Steven Valdez: Then we’ve had smaller companies come in. We have restaurants and bars, so now we have a nightlife. We used to say that at 6 p.m. we roll up the sidewalks and go to sleep. Now there’s foot traffic at night as well. You can start on one end of town within a six-block radius and work your way to different opportunities for whatever you might like in terms of your evening.
Steven Valdez: We just got to announce that Southern Roots is coming to one of our historic buildings on the corner of Fifth Street and Texas. It’s a beautiful old bank building, two stories. And if anybody’s ever been to Southern Roots and seen how they dress up their building — their food is amazing, the owners are amazing — to be able to bring that to a top corner in Weslaco is really going to be a nice boost.
Naxiely Lopez: Wonderful. We were talking about vacancies — what did you see when you first started at the EDC versus where you are now when it comes to vacancies and the type of businesses in downtown Weslaco?
Steven Valdez: Thank you for bringing that up. When I started about 10 years ago, we would go from First Street to Sixth Street — within that four-to-five block area, we had 15 vacancies. We started trying to figure out what we could do to not look so empty.
Steven Valdez: One of the first things we started doing was facade grant improvements. We could go to a business owner and say, we’ll split the cost up to $5,000 to repaint, remodel the exterior — new doors, new windows, whatever it took to make the facade look better. Little by little, people started taking advantage of those facade grants.
Steven Valdez: We have another grant called the Weslaco 101 — 101 means 100% of improvements on the inside, again on a 50/50 split. It particularly targets older buildings that have structural issues, plumbing or electrical. Anytime a code enforcement officer would go in and say you need to upgrade the entire electrical system because it’s outdated and antiquated, we would come in and split the cost. That was a boost to people who were always afraid of investing because of the expense involved. These two grants really were the game changers.
Naxiely Lopez: Are they still available?
Steven Valdez: They’re still available. That’s probably been our two longest-standing grants — available for all 10 years I’ve been there. When we exhaust those funds, we always go back to our board members and they’re always willing to fund one or two more cycles. Then we revive it again in the next budget year.
Steven Valdez: And we have a very intact and accessible downtown. You get off the expressway, go south on Texas Avenue and you’re there — as opposed to some other communities where downtown is a little out of the way. Ours is accessible. It’s visible. It’s historic. We’ve got some nice older buildings that have been there nearing 100 years.
Naxiely Lopez: Wow. And you guys just had a groundbreaking with Pollo Loco. Talk to us about that.
Steven Valdez: Yeah. Pollo Loco is a long relationship. We had talked to them prior to COVID — and this is what we mean when we talk about building relationships, about maintaining a relationship over a period of time. When COVID hit, everybody got nervous. The world stopped. They were right about to acquire a property, and then everything paused.
Steven Valdez: We got past COVID, and Weslaco has been booming. They’ve been looking ever since for the best spot. Together, we showed them several different locations. They landed a deal with a property owner who made it affordable to them. And so it was really nice to see people who had wanted to be there, who were worried about the risk, realize the risk was gone and move forward. We broke ground yesterday.
Naxiely Lopez: And look at that — how long did it take? Six years of relationship building.
Steven Valdez: I was given an opportunity to speak at the groundbreaking and I was able to say, this is what relationships mean. A lot of times you see a ribbon cutting or a groundbreaking, and for us, that’s really the end of a years-long process of work that’s gone into that. You’re right — six years. It took a while. But they’re here and we’re looking forward to their chicken.
Naxiely Lopez: And speaking of relationship building, I know you guys were recently in Las Vegas for ICSC — the International Council of Shopping Centers conference, one of possibly the largest retail real estate conferences there is. Talk to us about what happens at those conferences and what you all did.
Steven Valdez: I think the most value that we bring to that conference is that our leadership is right there side by side — our mayor, our city manager, our city commissioners, our board members. We’re all there working together. Whether you’re satisfying meetings and appointments you’ve preset or cold calling and literally knocking on doors — well, not quite doors, but big convention center booths — we’re just making contacts.
Steven Valdez: And the best part about what we started noticing, probably in the last five years, is that we used to go and people would say, ‘Well, where are you from?’ And we’d say, ‘We’re from Weslaco, Texas.’ And they’d say, ‘Well, where is that?’ We’d have to say, ‘McAllen, Harlingen, Brownsville.’ We don’t have to do that anymore.
Steven Valdez: Now people say, ‘Oh yeah, I know where Weslaco is.’ And the doors start to open from there. I always look at ICSC as relationship building — and moving the needle. We’re already working on projects that once we go there and have all of our leadership to say, ‘We’re here to support you in whatever you need, whether it’s permitting, drainage, whatever it takes to make it a successful venture’ — we get to move the needle every time we go and represent our city.
Naxiely Lopez: Wonderful. We were talking earlier about strategic planning. I know there’s some movement in Weslaco when it comes to how to grow the way you want to grow. Talk to us about that.
Steven Valdez: We have a great board of directors. And while we always have some direction and focus, every EDC is here to create jobs, create wealth for your community, create business opportunities and successful economic development. But the strategic plan is really more of a roadmap — a dos and don’ts — and it forces us to understand who we are, to identify who we are and where we want to be.
Steven Valdez: We talked to a few agencies that do strategic plans. In fact, the day before yesterday, we interviewed the top three. One was for a strategic plan and another was for our downtown urban development plan. We hope to make a decision by later this month.
Steven Valdez: They’re going to help us design a roadmap we can guide ourselves by. So we can have a company come to us for an incentive and look at that roadmap and ask, is this the type of company we want to recruit? Do we offer them an incentive? How much? It really helps us identify industries we already have enough of — ones that are going to come regardless of whether the EDC helps or not. This strategic plan helps us identify that.
Steven Valdez: And the same with our downtown. Our downtown is continuing to grow. Even though it’s captured within a certain footprint, there’s housing to consider. How can we look three to five years out to make decisions now about how we grow our downtown? Those are really two big steps we’re looking forward to.
Naxiely Lopez: All right. What else is on the table for the EDC?
Steven Valdez: We just love our centralized location. We look forward to continuing with the kind of opportunity we’ve seen so far. We’ve got great leadership. I’m very blessed to have a great team — we have six staff members, including myself. I love the team that works so hard every day. They come in excited and energetic. And the direction we get from our board of directors and our city leaders and elected officials — there’s a very thin line between the EDC and the city. We work so well together.
Naxiely Lopez: That’s very important.
Steven Valdez: And that’s a result of our leadership — our mayor, Adrian Gonzalez, who’s been there for about three years now, wanted to really make sure that relationship was solid and that we’re there to support the city. We wanted to make sure even in the strategic plan that whatever goals we set are in line with what the city wants and what they expect of us as an EDC. So we’re in a good place.
Naxiely Lopez: Any major announcements, any major projects you want to tease?
Steven Valdez: We’re looking at a significant parcel of land where we’re finally at the table, having some great conversations with companies that took us a while to get there. That was because of the influence and voice of our mayor, who got us to that table with two entities that we were barely on the radar of. Hopefully by early next year, we’ll be able to make an announcement of what that’s going to be. It’s some significant acreage — it’s going to be retail. We’re also hoping the hospitality industry would neighbor it as well. It’s really going to give us an opportunity to take Weslaco to another level. We’re already doing great, but to continue that momentum with a huge step moving forward — I really can’t talk specifically.
Naxiely Lopez: That’s OK.
Steven Valdez: We always say loose lips sink ships. When the expectation that something’s coming gets out too early, that doesn’t do us any good.
Naxiely Lopez: Well, I have to try, Steve. Anything else you want to talk about that maybe I didn’t ask?
Steven Valdez: I think you hit on all the topics. We hit pretty much everything.
Naxiely Lopez: Thank you. Sounds like an exciting time for Weslaco. If somebody wants to reach out to the EDC — has a question, a concern, wants to bring a business — how can they reach you?
Steven Valdez: We’re at the EDC office. Our phone number is (956) 969-0838. I’ll even give you my cell phone number because I use it for work all the time anyway — (956) 279-9368. Our website is the EDC website. We’re not very hard to get ahold of. If you can’t reach us for any reason, it’s because we’re on vacation or the office is closed.
Naxiely Lopez: Or hard at work somewhere.
Steven Valdez: Right. But one of the compliments we feel really good about is when companies reach out to us, we respond. We’re data-driven. We think that information is what people need to make a decision. And so when they ask us for information, we deliver as quickly as we can.
Naxiely Lopez: Well, data is king. All right, thank you so much, Steve. We really appreciate you coming and telling us about all of these exciting things happening in Weslaco. We really appreciate it.
Steven Valdez: Thank you so much for having me.
Naxiely Lopez: Thank you. All right. For those folks at home, remember to keep subscribing, keep watching, and we’ll see you next week.
