Group pulls counties together to sing Valley's praises to the world

December 15, 2009 7:47 PM
By STEVE CLARK, The Brownsville Herald

It’s easier said than done for longtime rivals to put aside their differences and join forces for the larger good, but that’s exactly what the Rio South Texas Economic Council is attempting to do, all in the name of job creation.

Nonprofit Rio South was formed last year to get the economic interests of Cameron, Hidalgo, Starr and Willacy counties in sync as a way of raising all ships. It started when County Judge J.D. Salinas III and other Hidalgo County officials wanted to expand the Greater McAllen Alliance, an economic development group. Bill Martin, CEO of the Harlingen Economic Development Corporation, overheard a conversation to that effect and decided he wanted in. Today Martin is Rio South’s chairman as well as HEDC chief.

"We’re trying to broaden our horizons," he says. "We realized we actually will get farther by working together than we would working separately."

Rio South’s purpose is to market the Valley nationwide to large corporations that are searching for new sites, and to the consultants those corporations hire to scout sites for them. Population density is usually a deciding factor in where a company locates its operations, which means the Valley is often overlooked.

"We feel that sometimes, perhaps we get eliminated because none of our individual towns are large," Martin says. "But if you look at what’s going on in our region we’re at 2.3 million people, so we’re a large metropolitan area. In fact, our research indicates that we’re the 23rd largest metropolitan area in the United States and the third largest in Texas. We’re just trying to get on the radar screen of these site location consultants and major corporations that are looking for new locations." More here.