PALMVIEW, Texas – A 15,000 square-foot standalone emergency clinic will be the anchor tenant for the City of Palmview’s Main Street project.
The development was discussed at a recent Commercialization and Investment Tour hosted by the Rio Grande Valley Partnership.
“We’re in the final stages, the final stages of a 15,000 square foot standalone emergency clinic that will kind of kick off phase one of the Main Street project,” said Michael Pacheco, an associate with Coldwell Banker Commercial-Rio Grande Valley.
Coldwell Banker Commercial are developing the project for the City of Palmview.
“This is a national medical group that we are bringing in. It is not fly by night. Nothing wrong with mom and pop but this is a national medical group,” said Daniel Galvan, principal broker at Coldwell Banker Commercial.
The Main Street project is being built on eight acres of property, land that used to house the old Greg’s Ballroom. Palmview City Manager Michael Leo said there has been a lot of interest from potential tenants for the Main Street project.
“We contracted with Coldwell Banker, with Daniel and Michael Pacheco, to help. They’re familiar with the area. We could have picked anybody better, I think,” Leo said.
Under the project, the emergency center and a couple of retail stores or restaurants will be adjacent to the Interstate 2 frontage road, on the north side of the expressway.
Leo pointed out that the City of Palmview provides its own ambulance service and said the service could make use of new emergency care clinic.
“Currently, when our ambulance our EMS services pick up patients, they take them to the nearest hospital, which is in Mission. With an urgent care facility, an emergency center right here, we can leave them (the patients) here and get the ambulances back to work,” Leo said.
“The hospital group was interested in that data. They said give us your data on your ambulance trips and your calls. And we have high call numbers. Sometimes we’ve got to call a backup provider and utilize them.”
The local school district, long with the City of Palmview, may also want to contract with the emergency clinic, Leo explained. “This group is willing to provide its services for school district employees, for city employees,” he said.
Another attraction, Leo said, is that workers at the emergency clinic, along with its patients, will likely want to eat out and so having restaurants nearby, as part of the Main Street project, will be beneficial.
Wrapping up his remarks about the new medical facility, said that the west side of Hidalgo County, as defined by everything west of Mission, has lacked a high level medical center. “There really isn’t a top medical facility right now,” he said. “So we’re excited about this. We are going to open with the anchor, let them kick this off and open up the rest.”
Commercial corridor
During his presentation, Leo spoke about a key transportation project that will make his city more attractive to investors.
“We have a major project going on here. Partnering with Hidalgo County and the MPO, with state funds, we have a five lane expansion that is going to continue from La Homa up to Abram Road. This should be a commercial corridor. We expect it to be a commercial corridor,” Leo said.
MPO stands for Metropolitan Planning Organization. The RGV MPO is the main conduit for state and federal transportation funds coming into the Valley.
Why Palmview?
The audience listening to Leo make his pitch for moving to Palmview were mostly realtors. During his presentation, Leo made the case for his fast-growing city.
Leo acknowledged that a lack of infrastructure held Palmview back in the past. However, thanks to a major water and sewer project undertaken by Agua SUD, those impediments are now a thing of the past.
“We do not have our own water and sewer. We rely on Agua SUD services. They undertook a big project about five years ago to provide sewer in this area because unfortunately we were behind the times. When developers would come in and big developers would come in, they would ask, what do you have for infrastructure, what do you have for water and sewer. That was always a challenge,” Leo said.
“That project, I am proud to say, is almost 98 percent complete. A lot of houses are already hooking up. Businesses are starting to hook up.”
Coinciding with the infrastructure investment came interest from potential investors, Leo pointed out.
“The interest has been revitalized, tremendously. I am not exaggerating. I am not trying to toot our own horn. It is exciting to see the interest, the inquiries we are getting from franchises, from big corporations, from big developers. We were at one of the retail conferences and we were talking to Mike Pacheco and Coldwell Banker, and he tells me he is hearing a lot of the same buzz as well.”
Pacheco confirmed that the level of interest in Palmview is growing.
“We are attracting a lot of interest from different groups. We have been able to finalize deals with Circle K on La Homa and the expressway, we will be breaking ground soon, and another deal just across the street with Buffalo Wild Wings. We also have another deal with Blue Wave Car Wash, just on Goodwin Road, just across from HEB. All within the past 18 months. So, with the City of Palmview, there are a lot of good things happening and they are going to continue to happen.”
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