As early as 2008 – 10 years ago – F.W. Bert Wheeler, listed as owner and trustee of the 262-acre tract of land off Old Alice Road adjacent to the 300-acre property owned by the Greater Brownsville Incentives Corporation, tried to unload it to the Brownsville Community Improvements Corp.
Now, his new customer is the Community Development Corporation of Brownsville.
In 2008, the going price was $3.2 million. At the time, news reports indicated that City officials had hoped to use it for the future expansion of the 170-acre Sports Park. Also considered were a community center, police substation or commercial development.
But just as the BCIC was getting ready to close the deal, they said that the seller backed out. City officials at the time said that once other interested buyers heard of the impending sale, the seller had been "inundated" with higher bids, some as high as $5 million.The intended purchase, publicized by then-city commission Charlie Atkinson, apparently caught the attention of other prospective buyers. Atkinson had envisioned BCIC selling it for up to $8 million.
"It could have been a great opportunity," Atkinson said, adding, "there will be others."
That was back in 2008.
Two years later, in 2010, the Greater Brownsville Incentives Corporation (GBIC), the BCIC's sister development entity who each get a 1/4 cent share annually from the city's sales taxes for close to $5 million, bought a 350-acre tract adjacent to the Wheeler property and designated it as property to develop an industrial corridor.
Bordering both properties to the south is the main switching yard of the Union Pacific Railroad. On the north, PUB owns 82 acres and the Rucker-Carrizales Detention Center and the Border Patrol Station are nearby. (Click on bottom graphic to enlarge.)
Wheeler, who did not sell the property to anyone in the nine years after after turning the BCIC down, apparently found a willing buyer in the CDCB in November 2017. The selling price has not been disclosed, but it would be fair to say that it could be as much as twice or three times the $3.2 million the BCIC was going to borrow from the city to buy the same land.
On August 7, the CDCB proposed a development for affordable rental housing of 120 units that would be located near the Southeast portion of Sports Park Boulevard and Old Alice Road. Although a portion of the housing was to be affordable, a larger percentage would require tenants to pay rentals higher than a someone with a "disadvantaged" classification could pay.
Accordingly, the CDCB submitted an application to the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs for 2018 Housing Tax Credits for the development, called Casitas Palo Alto. Then-GBIC Interim Director Gilbert Salinas, Interim City Manager Michael Lopez and city planners knew about it an did not object. Even Mayor Tony Martinez was OK with it.
There was only one hitch. Nobody – not Salinas, not Lopez, not the planners, and not the mayor – let the chairs (first commissioner Jessica Tetreau and then commissioner Cesar de Leon) of the GBIC know what was planned for the site in the planned industrial corridor.
The residential development that the CDCB wanted did not fit the plans that the GBIC had for an industrial corridor there for heavy and light manufacturing. And a prospective tenant of the corridor – a steel plant – told the GBIC it would reconsider its plans to move there if a residential development was approved. They simply did not need the potential liability.
Additionally, representatives of the Union Pacific railroad, sounded the alarm that the proposed residential development would be directly upwind from its switching yards, a huge liability to the company in case of an accidental chemical spill or other mishap involving hazardous materials.
Back in 2008, Salinas was the spokesman for the Brownsville Economic Development Council, and said he was not surprised that the seller backed out.
"The Sports Park is an extremely attractive property," Salinas said, noting that the expansion of Merryman Road on its northern fringe that runs into Old Alice Road where the Wheeler property is located would only add to that. "It makes it very attractive for other investors."
There was also another sticking point. In order for the CDBC's plans to build the residential development, it had to rezone the properties from Dwelling "Z" to Dwelling "G." The zoning change passed on first reading during the August 7 city commission meeting.
But new GBIC CEO Mario Lozoya – whose contract was also approved at the same meeting – discovered that the rezoning would cast a cold towel on the industrial corridor plans GBIC had for their property next door. Approval of the rezoning would to residential development would result in a "devaluation" of the industrial corridor since major industry would likely not use the industrial corridor due to impending residential development, he warned.
In the next meeting where the second and final reading of the rezoning was to be considered, De Leon asked that the item be tabled. A unanimous city commission approved his motion. And that's where matters stand now.
Although Wheeler is listed as the trustee in the tax-office records, they do not state who he is trustee for or who owns the properties. When CDCB officials have been asked who they are, they refuse to say, raising suspicions that something questionable might be afoot with the real-estate transaction.
These and other questions – GBIC board members and administrators insist – must be answered before any action to approve the rezoning can even be considered.
20 comments:
Your missing a key point. The property owned by GBIC is zoned residential. Lozoya himself said at the City Commission meeting that there were no plans for that property only that it was one of several properties a company had inquired about. Again, no plans for it. Just like the new North Brownsville Industrial Park that remains empty costing GBIC a pretty penny. Also, if you have GBIC board members and administration leaking potential industry coming to Brownsville, they themselves are jeopardizing those projects. Lozoya, you should know the significance of confidentiality, but egos will continue to stymie the city's progress. Building a consistent property tax base with the development of residential will create jobs, increase city coffers and allow for the city to provide more resources to its residents, ie, infrastructure improvements (as Tetreau stated for her reason to not vote for the downtown cameras), quality of life projects, more city staff, etc. These are all things outlined in the same GBIC plan referenced, so why oppose a sure thing for a maybe? Compromise can only occur with communication but it appears the only communication GBIC board members have are with blogs and each other. I am tired of seeing our leaders draw lines in the sand, motivated by greed, who takes credit, and god knows what else -- all at the expense of our community, our city and the people of Brownsville. Discord will never bring the growth we all deserve.
Another scam caught before it happened, the sticky fingers brigade got caught by the balls and couldn't find a way to get get it to work. Where are they now trying to get another scam working
Mario Lozoya touts himself as a problem solver whose number 1 goal is social mobility. You've inherited a political mess. How will you solve this one when they're dangling your exorbitant salary over your head as your motivation to "do the right thing?" Social mobility means elevating the social classes via economic opportunity, fair/higher wages and more. Yet, your counterpart at BCIC, with the same budget and comparable economic goals as governed by state statute, earns a fraction of your salary. The very nature as to how you were hired certainly conflicts with what you deem to represent.
Gilbert Salinas could not organize a stag party in a strip club. Now he has been granted incentives for his own consulting firm. Nothing but hush money to cover up the Columbian fraud scam. Send him to jail along with the Jackass Jasons Hilts the credit card thief.
The first order of business for GBIC is to cancel the new CEO Contract. $250,000 a year is an absurd and unjustifiable salary for such a small corporation. It is a total waste of taxpayer's monies. Board members and city commissioners, do the job that you were elected to do and get rid of this overinflated salary.
GREED
The Port of Brownsville will reap the benefits of COB lousy leadership.
4.33
Yes to true, and his counter part at the BEDC uses the company credit card for everything he wants, he takes as much as Lazoya earns weekly and for his Columbian mistress scam, covered up by The fraudulent work of Gilbert Salinas. Watch your back Lazoya, as you are no match for the Jackass Jason Hilts and Gilbert Salinas, they will eat you between tacos.
The role of GBIC is to bring industry to the City, not get into land deals. GBIC needs to be audited to see what has happened to the money spent over the past few years, as there has been more than the Columbian scam. They say that the BEDC is being audited?, Hilts will die of old age, by the time they get the result. They are still waiting for the City Audit on Cabler, what a farce, call for an audit, wait three years Subject forgotten.
culo
Seriously?
Do you really want a steel mill polluting that area, including, the Border Patrol Station, the County Sheriff's Office, the County Jail, the County Magistrate's office, and the existing neighborhoods(also, to the north east of the UP tracks}? Not to mention the kids at the Sport Park, if the wind shifts to the North?
This is probably BS, anyway, since this location is the "steel mill's" "second choice" for Brownsville, not the first. Why? Because there is a Los Fresnos School District elementary school across 511 from this property. This is the biggest down-side for any manufacturing facility to consider. Residential is second. This is an example of poor planning by the GBIC Cartel.
Apparently, this "problem" (finding a location for the steel mill) is too difficult for the "problem solver" Lozoya to solve. They couldn't possibly consider another location, could they? Can you say "Shade[y Dealings] of Earth" Who owns that? Why are they trying to force this "industrial corridor" here? Do you think it might be because the GBIC Cartel are trying to render service to their masters: Marin and Hernandez?
You whine about Chairs Tetreau and De Leon not knowing about the project and yet, their director, Gilbert Salinas, as you have stated, knew all along. This is called incompetence. If Tetreau and De Leon can't even communicate with their own director, they shouldn't be there. Tetreau and Betancourt are the ones that let BEDC run rampant and out of control and now they try to blame it on the Mayor. Sorry, the buck stops with you Betancourt, Tetreau and De Leon. You amateurs are to blame for this mess and all the others that GBIC has failed on.
The critics are right, Lozoya ... just wait. Brownsville politics are frontier tough. You'll find out.
Montoya: They would have you believe what they "feed" you, but remember: when you are paid to spread their propaganda, they don't have to give you the truth. Credibility has no price, it's earned. You're losing what you had, because of these puppet masters.
Did you see the UP letter? Have you seen the concerns from the "steel mill?" Next you'll be helping them to re-instate "Imaginary Brownsville."
Your whole conspiracy scenario is so speculative that it amounts to nothing more than "fake news."
These so-called industrial corridor plans are a joke. The GBIC Cartel hasn't even delivered on their other two industrial parks...nada. If Lozoya was so savvy, why didn't he, also, try to get his residential property, next to the CDCB rezoned to commercial. Why? Because it's BS. They are trying to protect their puppet master's property. They know the steel mill and any other manufacturing operation does not want to be near an elementary school or residential area. It's already a residential area to the west. Yes, you seem to have left that little fact out, didn't you.
Also, just west of this CDCB project and the "imaginary industrial corridor," there are at least a 1000 homes, apparently, directly in line with the deadly UP spills you speculate on, and, now, imaginary steel plant pollution emissions.
Wake up people! Vote these clowns out! May is just around the corner. Take your government back from these amateurs, who seek to benefit only special interests in the hopes of advancing their subservient political careers.
Viva Bronsbil !!!
Hold it guys. That property belongs to Carlos Marin. Your Image Brownsville Guru.
Now the BCIC director will probably ask for the same ridiculous overinflated salary of GBIC director. What a shame for city commissioners to have offered that unjustifiable $250,000 a year salary. To make matters worst, just to be responsible for handful of employees doesn't make any sense at all. We, the tax payers are subsidizing these huge salaries and we deserve better than this. Only in the poorest city in the USA would you see such mismanagement of tax payers funds.
Its funny how Marin and Hernandez have a couple of incompetent City leaders trying to push their agenda... What part of "incompetence" do they not understand?
Carlos Marins property is zoned for light industrial - whats not properly zoned is GBICS land. Its zoned the same as the CDCB land, Dwelling. CDCB wants to build houses on dwelling zoned land, and GBIC wants to build a steel mill on dwelling zoned land. I don't think the GBIC has any leverage here.
CDCB can sue the City for stupidity, and us taxpayers will fork the bill again.
Some one explain to me how there are 2 steel mills interested in Brownsville? Is there another one other than Red River Steel? That one wants to go to the Port.
Everyone is so focused on the salary the retard Lazoya is getting the smokescreen is out covering up the crooks in GBIC. Lazoya is a puppet.
If the retard has a better education, better resume, makes more money than you, what does that make you?
It's not the education or experience that gets you such a nice job with a super salary, it's who you know. And that is fact in Brownsville politics.
Thats a totally different point - we're focusing on "retard" comment.
I think calling someone a retard is actually a perfect reflection of the education the name caller has.
I think the name caller gives himself more credit than he deserves, it actually shows how ignorant he is. I would take Toyotas opinion of Mr. Lozoya over his personal insult any day.
Yet another industrial park? The one at Titan Tire remains empty.
The port already has a 40,000 acre industrial park.
Ya basta.
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