Development Boost Along Expressway 83 | Jackson Triangle McAllen, TX | NAI Rio Grande Valley

Development Boost Along Expressway 83
By Elizabeth C. Martinez
Valley Business Report

As economic pressures seem to be easing in certain parts of the country, phone calls from individuals making inquiries about retail and office space in McAllen has increased recently, according to Mike Blum, partner and managing broker for NAI Rio Grande Valley.

“In the past few weeks there have been more calls and showings of property for office and retail space,” Blum related. “The properties that people show most interest in McAllen are on North 10th Street, the downtown area, and especially along Expressway 83.”

One commercial retail plaza that has been constantly improving is Jackson Triangle, which is located on the Northwest corner of the intersection of Expressway 83 and Jackson Road in McAllen. The property will consist of approximately 37,800 square feet of retail space. The first of the Jackson Triangle tenants included Taco Cabana and AT&T. Since then, Baskin Robbins and Pay-N-Trade have joined them. Most recently, a sign for Cabrito Grill Steaks and Piano Bar went up.

Some of the most important things that businesses think about when choosing a retail of office space include: Is the location an ideal spot? Is there traffic in the area? And is it the right price?

Pedro G. Ayala, president of PGA Studio, Inc. a McAllen-based architecture firm, thinks about these questions when he signs on to work on a project.

“As a design principal for the firm, I feel I have a responsibility to create spaces that are going to be right for the occupants as well as their consumers,” Ayala explained.

“When it comes to building a retail environment, we always think about not only accomplishing the owner’s goals such as maximizing the site and cost constraints, and creating an attractive façade for the community and not turning it’s back on a major street as seen in other Big Box Retail Zones.”

Ed Alvarado, AIA, who worked on the Jackson Triangle project with Ayala, noted that the area is exposed to over 170,000 vehicles per day. Because of its unique triangular shape, doors face the bordering streets, thus creating the most storefront for the owner and the tenant. Not bad, for businesses who seek visibility.

Given the positive signs commercial real estate is beginning to move in the Upper Valley, there still remains to be a heighten focus on falling rent prices and the increasing number of defaults on commercial real estate loans.


Elizabeth C. Martinez is a partner in the public relations firm of Media Morphosis phone (956) 821-8662. Martinez served as Managing Editor and General Manager of The Business Times

Two U.S. Companies Shifting Production to McAllen, TX Border Town, Reynosa, MX | NAI Rio Grande Valley

Kohler sinks U.S. plant, expands in Reynosa

September 16, 2009 11:23 PM

By Sean Gaffney

The Monitor

McALLEN — Two U.S. companies announced plans this week to shift production to factories in Reynosa, bolstering unemployment in a maquiladora industry assailed by a global downturn in manufacturing.

On Monday, Kohler Co. said it will shutter a U.S. plant and fold production of stainless steel sinks into its Reynosa facility. On Wednesday, Steelcase, an office furniture manufacturer, said it will open a new facility to build chairs in early 2010.

Grand Rapids, Mich.-based Steelcase said it was unsure how many jobs the new facility would create.

Kohler said the expansion of its factory in Reynosa will not create new jobs. The company will rehire workers that had been laid off. Kohler declined to say how many jobs have been cut this recession.

With the downturn in housing, demand for sinks manufactured at Kohler’s Searcy, Ark., facility had fallen and the company had to fuse production with the factory in Reynosa, Todd Weber, a vice president for the Kohler, Wis.-based manufacturer said.

“Both of our plants are underutilized,” he added. Kohler expects to close the Searcy facility by the end of the year.

Steelcase expects to launch production at its new factory in early 2010, said Jeanine Holquist, a company official. None of the company’s other factories will be closed and no workers will be laid off, she added.

“We were looking for a place to consolidate our chair production,” Holquist said. “It gave us a great location to serve customers across North America and it helps us to control shipping cost as well.”

Kohler and Steelcase are the latest major manufacturers this summer to announce expansion in Reynosa. LG Electronics said in July that it was folding production at a plant just across the border from California into its Reynosa maquiladora. The South Korean manufacturer said it expects to create 1,200 jobs with the shift which is expected to finish this month.

A global downturn in manufacturing has slammed Reynosa’s maquiladoras this year, contributing to a 5.3 percent decline in employment. Analysts have said the job loss is slowing and that manufacturing in Reynosa should begin recovering by 2010.

Often, new employment in Reynosa comes at the cost of domestic manufacturing jobs. At the Searcy, Ark. plant, which famously weathered a strike that lasted from December 2006 to November 2007, the majority of Kohler’s 57 employees will lose their jobs the day before Thanksgiving.

Buck Layne, president of the Searcy Regional Chamber of Commerce, said that while the city was disappointed to lose the factory, the area has actually added jobs in recent months that could help mitigate the loss. The factory, which opened in 1966, once employed more than 400 people, Layne said.

The Reynosa plant, the other facility which manufactures sinks, opened in 2002 when the “housing market was thriving (and) demand for stainless steel sinks was equally robust,” the company said in a press release.

The recent economic revitalization in Searcy, a city with a population of about 20,000, has been led by natural gas companies, which have added about 2,000 jobs in the last 18 months, Layne said.

“It’s a global economy these days, but we need to make sure that we’re playing on an even field,” Layne said. “It’s just very discouraging to see jobs leaving the U.S.”

Sean Gaffney covers business, the economy and general assignments for The Monitor. He can be reached at (956) 683-443