EDINBURG, Texas – Edinburg leaders need to ramp up the news that their city is growing fast.
This is the view of Veronica Gonzales, secretary of Edinburg Economic Development Corporation.
“I would ask anyone who is watching this tonight, or anybody in our audience to please help spread the word about the growth that is occurring here in Edinburg,” Gonzales said, at a recent EEDC board meeting.
Gonzales said Edinburg has huge potential with its airport, its industrial park, and development along U.S. I-69 Central. The city has 18 miles of frontage along I-69C.
“And Edinburg has room to grow, which I know a lot of cities wished they had,” Gonzales said, as she thanked the EEDC staff for its work.
“I thank Blanca and Brian and all your team. Thank you for the work you are doing in spreading the word, not only across the country but locally to get the word out that we are growing and we are open to business.”
The “Blanca” Gonzales was referencing was Blanca Davila, director of economic development for the City of Edinburg. The “Brian” Gonzales was referencing was Brian Kelsey, Edinburg’s assistant city manager.
According to the Census Bureau, the city of Edinburg is the 5th fastest-growing large city in Texas. A large city is defined as having a population of more than 100,000. New information from the bureau shows Edinburg growing by an average of about seven people per day. And it ranks in the top 20 fastest-growing large cities in the United States with a population of 100,000 residents.
Edinburg’s population grew by 30.01 percent between Census 2010 and Census 2020, just hitting the 100,000 mark. The new estimate is 102,483.
Like Gonzales, Dan Diaz is a member of EEDC. After the recent board meeting he gave an interview to the Rio Grande Guardian International News Service.
“We do not need to exaggerate. We are the fifth fastest growing city in the state and we should promote this,” Diaz said, noting his agreement with Gonzales’ remarks.
Diaz said further growth looks to be on the cards due to the success achieved at the ICSC 2022 conference in Las Vegas. ICSC stands for Innovating Commerce, Serving Communities. The conference, held annually allows communities to make their pitch to the retail industry.
“We had a very productive trip to Las Vegas. We took three different teams, including realtors from our city. We canvassed the entire Las Vegas conference center and we had a very, very, successful booth,” Diaz said.
“In fact, we had a lot of compliments about our presentation, with our booth becoming was actually a destination spot. We were hitting home that we are the fifth fastest growing city in the state, that we have 68 neighborhoods going up at this time, which means another 4,500 homes.”
Diaz said retailer franchise operators and developers were impressed with the amount of land Edinburg has to offer, along with the city’s great living conditions.
“It is not very expensive to live here. A lot of people had heard about our area. We made several contacts with several different businesses that we do not have in the Valley that are very interested in coming here. We are in negotiations right now for locations, so it was a very productive meeting.”
Davila, the City of Edinburg’s economic development director, agreed that ICSC 2022 was a success.
“The Rio Grande Valley Partnership hosted a reception for all the cities that attended ICSC. We were able to network and catch up with different cities and EDCs on the day before the conference started on the Monday. It was very successful,” Davila said.
“We did have a booth and we had meetings set up with different realtors, different developers that are looking at Edinburg. We were sharing different stats with them on the level of growth we have been seeing in Edinburg.”
Davila said it was fascinating to witness just how many people knew about Edinburg.
“Something interesting that we noticed was that people from the outside of our region and our city are familiar with Edinburg. They know where it is. Restaurants, retailers, well-known brands are looking at our city, which is exciting.”
Davila said she agreed with EEDC board member Gonzales that news about Edinburg’s growth needs to be amplified.
“We are the fastest growing city in the RGV. When we went to ICSC we had 68 new neighborhoods going up. That is over 4,000 new homes. We now have a population of 100,200-plus and we have a lot of land available for more growth to the north.”
Editor’s Note: The main image accompanying the above news story shows a recent groundbreaking ceremony hosted by Siddons-Martin Emergency Group. The group is building 12,000 square foot building on Edinburg’s North Industrial Park.
Quality journalism takes time, effort and…. Money!
Producing quality journalism is not cheap. The coronavirus has resulted in falling revenues across the newsrooms of the United States. However, The Rio Grande Guardian International News Service is committed to producing quality news reporting on the issues that matter to border residents. The support of our members is vital in ensuring our mission gets fulfilled.
Can we count on your support? If so, click HERE. Thank you!
