ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT IN DOWNTOWN BROWNTOWN?

 

Special to El Rrun-Rrun

Barricades have gone up around the building and parking lot of the old HEB grocery store in downtown Brownsville. The store closed on October 2019 after 60 years in business and was one of the smallest and oldest stores in the company. At the time, the store management said it was shutting down for needed repairs, but the store has never reopened since.

Just last week, concrete barricades went up to prevent people from using the parking lot as had become the custom for city employees and downtown shoppers. 

Some local observers say that the word is that the store and the property was bought by Benito Garcia, of the Solaris real estate group which has bought large tracts of real estate in the city's inner core. Solaris has also been one of the biggest recipient of grants from the Brownsville Community Improvement Corporation (“BCIC”) which partnered with the Elon Musk Foundation "to boost and accelerate Brownsville’s downtown revitalization efforts through one of the organization’s most effective programs, the Business Improvement & Growth (“BIG”) Program." 

BCIC claims in it's website that it has fostered over $3,000,000 in private investment towards businesses and properties in downtown with $450,000 leveraged for three years by the BCIC. Most of the development that occurred as a direct result of the program brought forth a variety of businesses, such as Terra’s Urban Kitchen near Market Square. So far, neither developers, the city, nor the BCIC have announced what is planned for the old grocery store locale, although some city commissioners say that opening a grocery store downtown remains a top city priority. 

And the remaining merchants with businesses adjacent to old grocery store (Ricardo's Restaurant and the Sportsman Club) say that the Solaris group representatives have already approached them with offers to buy them out. Until then, some property owners have been told, the property owners reach agreements on the properties, they say the area next to the store will operate as a for-pay parking lot.

Solaris is currently renovating at least three other properties adjacent to the store and one on Levee Street next to the late Mario Villarreal's Pesa building at 700 Levee Street. And the remaining merchants with businesses adjacent to old grocery store (Ricardo's Restaurant and the Sportsman Club) say that the Solaris group representatives have already approached them with offers to buy them out. 

The view of the top picture is from the Levee Street looking north and the bottom one is from the Elizabeth Street side looking south toward Levee. 

When the HEB grocery store was closed, it dealt a heavy blow to the economy in the downtown area. A large volume of its business came from Matamoros and northern Tamaulipas. Many of those shoppers often sold their blood at the plasma centers that attracted border crossers who were paid in debit cards and which HEB would cash requiring at least a $5 purchase at the store. The pandemic and restrictions on border crossers at the international bridges by immigration and U.S. Customs put a dent in that arrangement.