Monday, July 19, 2010

Last Chance to Register for Dr. Linneman's Economic Outlook to be held July 21 at 1PM

Click here to register
Click here to register

Pharr, TX to get a new H.E.B. supermarket

Mayor: Pharr to get a new H.E.B. supermarket


PHARR — The city may soon see a new H.E.B. grocery store, Mayor Leo “Polo” Palacios said.

Company officials would not confirm they are planning a new location in south Pharr, but Palacios said he has been working with the company and that construction may begin in 2011.

“We’ve been working with them to get things going,” Palacios said. “We met last week to discuss the plans.”

A H.E.B. spokeswoman ... Click here to read more

Friday, July 16, 2010

Mexico looks to gain edge over struggling China

The Monitor
Ana Ley
July 15, 2010 9:50 PM

McALLEN — Mexican business leaders hope to gain an edge over Chinese manufacturers reeling from rising production costs.

Foreign companies that depend on China’s low costs to compete — from distributors of plumbing equipment to automobile manufacturers — are shifting factories to other developing countries.

“There are a lot of companies that are leaving China,” said Eduardo Coronado Quintanilla with the Camara de la Industria de Transformacion de Nuevo León, the state’s chamber of industry. “It’s not as cheap as they thought.”

That message resonated during a conference Texas A&M University hosted Thursday in McAllen, where Coronado noted difficulties in working with companies overseas. Calling a supplier on the phone, he said, is often too complicated due to time-zone differences. E-mail exchanges can often take days.

At the start of the economic recession in late 2007, some companies were overwhelmed with surplus inventory from suppliers in China. It took months before many could reduce their supply to meet a dramatically lower demand. As the economy began to recover, companies ran into the opposite problem — not enough inventory.

“Their ability to react is very limited,” Coronado said. “We have ... click here to read more

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

CNBC: Texas No. 1 state for business in 2010

McAllen Economic Development Corporation
July 14th, 2010

And the article starts:

“They say everything in Texas is big, and that sure goes for its stature in business.”A recent study from CNBC ranked Texas the No. 1 state in the United States for business based:

* Cost of Doing Business, Workforce, Quality of Life, Economy, Transportation & Infrastructure, Technology & Innovation, Education, Business Friendliness, Access to Capital and Cost of Living.  Texas received the highest amount of points ever.

This is great news for McAllen. McAllen offers a competitive, low-cost business model that allows companies to have a strategic global location and direct access to the North American and Latin American markets.

View the full report here

Free Web Conference - A Global Economic Briefing with Chief Economist Dr. Peter Linneman


NAI Global is holding our live quarterly web conference ~


A Global Economic Briefing with Chief Economist Dr. Peter Linneman on Wednesday, July 21st at 1 PM EDT.

We invite you to listen to this free web conference. Please click here to register

TxDOT awards $34 million for East Loop Project

July 13, 2010 9:25 PM
By LAURA B. MARTINEZ, The Brownsville Herald

The sights and sounds of tractor-trailer rigs traveling through state Highway 48 to International Boulevard in Brownsville could become less of a nuisance for motorists and businesses in a few years.

The Texas Department of Transportation of TxDOT’s State’s Pass Through Financing Program recently awarded Cameron County more than $34 million for the construction of the East Loop Project.

The East Loop project, which has been in the planning stages for at least 15 years, would connect Veterans International Bridge at Los Tomates to the Port of Brownsville.

It would allow the rerouting of traffic from ... Click here to read more

Friday, July 9, 2010

New Logistical Model Gives Manufacturers an Alternative to China

Third Coast Offers Competitive Advantages Businesses Can't Find Anywhere Else in the World
PR Newswire
EDINBURG, Texas, July 2 /PRNewswire/ --

Where else in the world do you have a region that has wages at an average fringed labor rate of $2.50 per hour on the south side, and the largest market in the world on the north side? That's the question Keith Patridge, President and CEO of the McAllen (TX) Economic Development Corporation asks manufacturers from around the world who are looking for locations that keep them competitive in the global marketplace. The answer is Rio South Texas, which encompasses the southernmost counties of Texas, Northeastern Mexico and the new Third Coast.

The "Third Coast" refers to the Port of Brownsville in Rio South Texas, the Mexico West and East Coast Ports of Lazaro Cardenas, Manzanillo and Altamira and Veracruz. "In the new Third Coast logistical model, shipments from these ports are moved by truck or rail to Rio South Texas where they're combined with products produced in maquiladora plants in Reynosa and Matamoros, then shipped directly to the customer," Patridge says.

Redefining the Business of Manufacturing

This model saves companies time and money because:

• Transportation costs decrease.

• Delivery is generally 3-5 days faster.

• Globally sourced and produced products go through a central location, eliminating the need for regional warehouses.

• Final assembly and customization at time of sale can be completed using the low cost ($2.50/hour labor) maquiladora plants in Northeastern Mexico.

• Customized product orders can be delivered in 24-48 hours.

China Can't Compete

In its report – Competitive Alternative 2010 – KPMG has ranked Mexico as the world's most cost competitive location among developed nations in all industry sectors. "Add all the savings of the Third Coast model and Rio South Texas is more competitive than China," Patridge says. "Plus, China can't compete with the flexibility, build-to-order capabilities and fast customer delivery available with a Rio South Texas location."

The development of Rio South Texas – the 3rd largest market in Texas, 23rd largest market in the United States and largest U.S./Mexico border region – is being guided by the Rio South Texas Economic Council (RSTEC). Because of the strategic advantages Rio South Texas offers, RSTEC is developing the infrastructure and skilled labor necessary to support global manufacturing.

Media Contact:
Gwendolyn McCormack

1-888-RSTEC01 (888-778-3201)
Direct Line: 956-607-1197
news@riosouthtexas.com

Click here to read more

Walmart Strategy Demonstrates Retailers’ Ongoing Demand for Warehouse/Distribution Space

In 2009, American retailers occupied more than 5 billion square feet of warehousing/distribution space. Although significant new leases are way down, retailers do continue to extend and/or renew their lease holdings. Many are attempting to downsize, but all are said to be reviewing their long-term warehousing strategies.

Marc Wulfraat, a transportation industry expert at TranSystems in Montreal, CA, suggests we look at the distribution strategy of Walmart, the world’s largest and most successful retailer, to better understand why retailers will still need distribution centers. “At last count, Walmart’s U.S. network consisted of 147 large-scale distribution centers, comprising flow-through general merchandise facilities, grocery distribution centers, fashion/apparel facilities and dedicated import facilities,” Wulfraat notes. “Walmart’s distribution centers are absolutely massive. The prototype general merchandise distribution center is 1.2 million square feet; the typical grocery distribution center is 880,000 square feet; and its largest import facility in Texas is 4 million square feet. Most of the distribution centers are an average of 125 to 150 miles from the stores—a huge competitive cost advantage compared to retailers who ship from farther away.”

It is generally accepted that the world’s largest retailer set the stage for warehousing strategies. “It is estimated that Walmart self-distributes 85% of the cost of goods on its retail shelves as compared to less than 50% for its competitors,” Wulfraat says. “While Walmart has contracted with third party logistics providers for specific distribution operations, it owns and operates the vast majority of its 120 million square feet of distribution center space. In simple terms, Walmart’s entire business strategy is based on squeezing out cost across all levels of operations to achieve its low-price competitive advantage. For most retailers, logistics represents one of the largest controllable expenses on the income statement and Walmart’s distribution efficiencies are at the heart of why this company has grown to $405 billion since the first Walton’s five and dime was opened in 1962.”

The need for warehousing is directly related to the type of products sold. Turnover of product SKUs and restocking requirements will ultimately define the warehousing strategy. Calibrated correctly, calculating square footage will be a simple metric exercise. If short-term and long-term distribution strategies are not professionally determined and leveraged against best practices, spikes in demand will create expensive and disruptive challenges to the retailer.

-Paul A. Waters, SIOR, CCIM, CRE, FRICS



Based in New York City, Paul Waters, SIOR, CCIM, CRE, FRICS, is Executive Vice President-The Americas at NAI Global, where he is responsible for business development and client relationships among major corporate end users of office and industrial space.

Thursday, July 8, 2010

New white paper from Dr. Peter Linneman now available!

Robust Recovery in 2010 Will Just Return U.S. to Middling Economy, Says NAI Global Chief Economist Dr. Peter Linneman

Strong, steady economic growth over the next two years will just return the U.S. economy to a pre-2008 level, giving us back what we needlessly lost due to government-induced panic and poor lending practices, according to a new white paper from NAI Global Chief Economist Dr. Peter Linneman. The white paper examines the overall outlook for the job market and provides a forecast for the next three years.

“The key for the real estate sector is job growth, as a recovery without jobs does not fill buildings,” Dr. Linneman noted. “We anticipate that the next three years will continue to see average job growth of 250,000 jobs per month, for a three-year job increase of at least 9 million jobs by early 2013.”

“That is robust job growth, but it is important to remember that our forecast would leave us with almost the same number of jobs in mid-2013 as existed at the beginning of September 2008,” said Dr. Linneman. “Even with a robust recovery adding 9 million jobs over the next three years, we will still have an anemic unemployment rate of 7%. Hence, we expect a robust rebound to mediocrity.”

A Robust Rebound to Mediocrity?, NAI Global’s white paper, reviews payroll history and trends, providing an economist’s view of the recovery’s impact on the jobs market today and tomorrow.

This latest white paper follows Capital Markets Show First Signs of Recovery, Dr. Linneman’s treatise on the impact of how a rise and recovery in asset prices will lead to investors becoming more active, how capital markets will start to show recovery and the impact on the commercial real estate industry.

Click here  to view the white paper from NAI Global Chief Economist Dr. Peter Linneman

Dr. Linneman is also Professor of Real Estate, Finance and Public Policy at the Wharton School of Business, University of Pennsylvania, and Principal, Linneman Associates.

Santana Textiles to start construction on Edinburg plant later this month

July 07, 2010 10:11 PM
Jared Janes
The Monitor

EDINBURG — Brazilian denim manufacturer Santana Textiles is set to begin building a production facility later this month on a 33-acre site at the Edinburg North Industrial Park.

Steel and other construction materials have been delivered to an adjacent property in preparation for the work that is expected to begin within the next few weeks, said Roberto Cantu, the company’s CEO for its Edinburg operations. The manufacturer will apply for a building permit once it receives authorization from the state to proceed.

The company first announced in July 2008 that it would open its sixth plant — and first in North America — in Edinburg to produce high-end denim, but the 775,000-square-foot facility has ... Click here to read more