A FACILE HEADLINE, A FUDGING OF FACTS, AND DESTRUCTION

                         GBIC'S LOZOYA SLIPS MARIN A COOL $2.9 MILLION!!!

By Juan Montoya

That headline came from a local blog that featured only a picture of Greater Brownsville Incentives Corporation CEO Mario Lozoya and Ambiotec CEO Carlos Marin.

The insinuation is that Lozoya somehow gave Marin $2.9 million in return for some favor, or other unsavory insider deal on real estate. About the only expenditure recently was the purchase of 141 acres east of the 350 acres it already owns.

That land was owned by a company called Shades of Earth which owned 68 acres and Orestes which owned 71 acres which was handled by the same law firm in the sale to GBIC. The land is adjacent to the 350 acres GBIC owns.

If you will remember, GBIC was trying to acquire all the land around their acreage to attract a steel company. The company told Lozoya and the board that they were taken off the list because they didn't have the necessary acreage.

When Lozoya told them he thought he could get the necessary property by purchasing land around their planned industrial corridor, they told him the GBIC was again on their short list. GBIC figured it could acquire the necessary acreage (1,100-acres for an industrial park) for their operation. Lozoya looked at the land available east and west of the GBIC property and ran against some entrenched interests who saw the potential coming of the steel mill and saw dollar signs.

The first problem was to the east. One day after Lozoya told his board in executive session that they were going to approach the land owners east  of the 141 acres that were bought recently, they ran into a road block.

Somehow, local real estate speculator Patricio Sampayo had somehow heard of the GBIC plans and by the time GBIC representatives approached the owners of the 110- and 142-acre properties owned by the MD Wheeler Tract and the 37 acres owned by the Nunez Family, he had acquired a contract with an option to purchase the entire 289 acres.

In other words, the owners told GBIC reps they would now have to deal with Sampayo instead of with them. The price, of course, would not be anywhere near the appraisal value, but instead would include a hefty profit for the speculator. How did Sampayo know if no one but the board members and the GBIC attorney knew of the impending purchases?

No one is saying, but now he still holds the option on the land with no one to sell it to. However, if the GBIC had been able to acquire the land without Sampayo involved, it would have brought a $1.8 billion development which would have doubled the ad valorem (property tax) revenue for the city.

Why? After the steel company was told about the hangup on GBIC acquiring the property, they informed Lozoya they were on a fast track and that they were moving on to Corpus Christi which had the necessary acreage for them to start their operation.

That was to the east. To the west, the Community Development Corporation of Brownsville owns 215 acres where it wanted to build a housing development. But that ran head-on into the GBIC's Brownsville Industrial Area Plan from 2011, in turn based on the area’s designation as an industrial corridor in 2009.

Having a housing development next to an industrial corridor, south of a correctional institution (Cameron County's Rucker-Carrizales), and bordered on the south downwind from the United Pacific switching yards was not only incompatible but also dangerous because of the hazardous materials carried by the railroad.

 The CDCB ran into a road block when the city commission tabled their request to rezone the property to accommodate its second phase of the planned housing development. Instead, they have been approached by the GBIC to sell them the 215 acres for the planned industrial corridor.

In turn, the Planning and Zoning Commission, with land owner Abraham Galonsky pushing against it, denied the GBIC request for rezoning of GBIC's 350 acres to an industrial classification. Galonsky was said to have told the steel mill people that they should look for land north of FM 511. Insiders say that Galonsky and some of his partners own land in the direction of the Port of Brownsville.

How do you spell conflict of interest?

GBIC has agreed in principle to pay what CDCB is asking for the property, though CDCB Executive Director Nick Mitchell-Bennett said his organization has only offered a “ballpark figure” for how much cash it would require for the land and hasn’t discussed an exact dollar amount with GBIC or  signed a contract.

What's the holdup? The CDCB is asking for $27,000 per acre, $12,000 more per acre than when they  bought the land or $15,00 an acre. The GBIC has refused to pay that amount. Some sources say that Sampayo was also involved in the original sale of that 215 acres to the CDCB, with Mayor Tony Martinez acting as an intermediary. 

The CDCB property is far from a main road frontage and behind a correctional institution, and is not worth anywhere near the $27,000 per acre price it is asking from the GBIC.

Now, as to Lozoya "slipping" Marin a "cool $2.9 million," that's not only misleading, it's just plain incorrect. Marin did have an interest with four other investment partners (the 68 acres under Shades of Earth). But when Losoya told the GBIC board that he was interested in the potential purchase of  the  plot, Marin told Lozoya he had divested himself of the property to avoid the appearance of any potential conflict of interest.

The GBIC got the 141 acres that include frontage to FM 511, access to the UP railroad to the south, and retaining ponds necessary for flood prevention for $2.7 million, averaging about $19,000 an acre, far less than the $31,000 upper level market rate for similar properties in the area and $8,000 less per acre than the $27,000 per acre the CDCB is demanding.

So Brownsville lost a $1.8 billion steel plant which would have doubled its property tax revenue because of land speculation based on insider knowledge from the GBIC board and is now being held hostage on the 215 CDCB acres because CDCB Executive Director Nick Mitchell-Bennett thinks it has the GBIC over a barrel and wants to make a tidy profit. 

Having paid $3,335,000 for them, it now wants GBIC to pay the $5,805,000, a neat $2,580,00 profit. 

Who is trying to "slip" anyone a "cool" $2.5 million to who?