Thursday, August 19, 2010

Santana Textiles to hold Edinburg groundbreaking event next month

Rio Grande Guardian
By Joey Gomez

EDINBURG, Aug. 18 - The City of Edinburg will commemorate the official start of construction of their long awaited Santana Textiles facility next month.

City officials plan to hold a long awaited groundbreaking, and reception for Santana's new facility on Sept. 8. The groundbreaking will take place onsite of the new facility at the city's North Industrial Park in North Edinburg.

The reception, which will also include a fashion show meant to display Santana products, will take place at the city's auditorium located next to City Hall.

"We're starting to really see this come to fruition," said Pedro Salazar, executive director of the Edinburg Economic Development Corporation. "You know the impact, you know the potential, so it's exciting. There are a lot of exciting things going to happen in Edinburg, so that's encouraging."

Brazil-based Santana is considered to be one of the top-10 denim manufacturers in the world in terms of production volume, according to the EEDC.

Santana is slated to construct their 775,000 square foot denim manufacturing plant at the City's industrial complex over the next 18 months, according to Salazar. The upcoming plant will create 800 jobs.

Santana's complex will be completed in four phases within the next five years. The company is slated to invest $170 million in Edinburg, with a capital investment of at least $80 million, according to the EDC.

Edinburg's plant will be Santana's sixth, and most technologically advanced facility to date, according to the EDC. The company currently has

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Brownsville approves $2.3 million for sports park

August 19, 2010 12:30 AM
By EMMA PEREZ-TREVINO, The Brownsville Herald

The City Commission on Tuesday approved the Brownsville Community Improvement Corp.’s financing plan for $2.3 million in upgrades to the Brownsville Sports Park.

BCIC, which is funded through sales tax revenues, will be getting a $1.8 million loan from First National Bank. That sum, plus $500,000 that BCIC has put away in reserves, would be used to build restrooms and dressing rooms and provide covered stadium seating.

The terms of the loan were not available as of press time. Commissioners Charlie Atkinson, Anthony P. Troiani, Ricardo Longoria, Rose M. Z. Gowen and Edward C. Carmarillo voted in favor of the plan while Mayor Pat M. Ahumada Jr. and Commissioner Melissa A. Zamora voted against it.

Atkinson and Troiani serve on the BCIC board as chairman and board member respectively while Longoria served previously as chairman.

The commissioners approved the measure amid the promise of concerts, soccer tournaments, boxing matches and ...

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