South Texas Cities Along U.S.-Mexico Border Capture Investor Attention
If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
If you’ve never heard of the U.S.-Mexico border towns of Mission and McAllen, Texas, it’s in your best economic interest to remember them. The South Texas border has seen tremendous development over the last decade and investors are discovering what is amounting to a modern-day gold rush.
The Mission/McAllen MSA (part of the Rio Grande Valley) is one of the most exciting enclaves of economic prosperity today, with new businesses opening weekly to serve a rapidly growing population of more than 720,000.
Twenty years ago, the area held less than half the current population and its economy focused primarily around agriculture. Since then, investments have changed acres of farmland into shopping centers, residential subdivisions and industrial parks. Expansion of local companies and the relocation of more than 500 industrial companies have created more than 120,000 jobs.
Keeping up with the growing job market, population has increased more than 150,000 residents since the 2000 Census and is projected to double by 2025.
“There appears to be no economic slump in the area despite an overall downturn in the U.S. economy,” said Pat Townsend Jr., Mission Economic Development Authority CEO. “Businesses interested in the area simply need to look at the statistical data and the facts make it clear that this is where they need to be.”
Eight international bridges connect Mission/McAllen with the industrial border communities of Reynosa, Matamoros and Monterrey, Mexico. Together, regional population totals more than 5 million with Mission/McAllen being their nearest U.S. retail market. A new international bridge, Anzalduas International Bridge, linking Reynosa to Mission, will open in 2009 and another crossing has also been announced to the east.
“We have so much commerce between our two countries locally,” said Townsend. “Communities on both sides of the border have been very cooperative in helping make the economy strong and secure.”
McAllen/Mission Rankings
- 5th best place to buy real estate (CNNMoney.com)
- 1st in job growth, 2nd in income growth in Best Cities For Jobs Survey (Forbes.com 2008)
- 7th Top Performing City in the nation, ranked by job, wages and salary growth, short-term job and high-tech job growth (Milken Institute 2007)
- Highest percentage of annual job growth in total nonagricultural wage and salary employment primarily in retail trade employment (Texas Labor Market Review January 2008)
- Highest annual growth rate in employment, education, health services (Texas Labor Market Review January 2008)
- Reynosa is the only city in Mexico not to show a job loss in the maquiladora industry in the past five years (INEGI)
- 3rd in Texas for Sales Tax Collections per capita (Texas Comptroller)
- Top place for entrepreneurship in Southwest (Entrepreneur Magazine)
- Highest grossing retail mall, La Plaza Mall, in the United States (per square foot)
“More companies are finding out about us and relocating here every day,” added Townsend. “These border towns have been transformed into an exciting and prosperous metropolitan area.”
Source: Mission Economic Development Authority