RANCHO VIEJO, Texas - John Beckham, the incoming managing director of the North American Development Bank, is visiting the Rio Grande Valley this week for a series of meetings with elected officials and key stakeholders.
One of the meetings took place at Rancho Viejo Country Club on Wednesday, with a luncheon hosted by Estrada Hinojosa & Co.
Among the Valley leaders at the event were Cameron County Judge Eddie Treviño, Jr., Willacy County Judge Aurelio Guerra, Texas Transportation Commissioner Alejandro ‘Alex’ Meade, Cameron County Commissioners David Garza, Sofia Benavides and Joey Lopez, Raymondville Mayor Gilbert Gonzales, Brownsville City Manager Helen Ramirez, San Benito City Manager Fred Sandoval, and Greater Brownsville Incentives Corporation CEO Bret Gardella.
Other NADBank officials present were Kari D. Bergman, associate director for environmental infrastructure finance, Carlos Acevedo, who works in the grants department and is primarily focused on projects in South Texas, and Jesse Hereford who leads the bank’s strategic partnerships division.
In his remarks, Beckham, who is currently deputy managing director, spoke about the work of NADBank. It was setup as part of the NAFTA negotiations of the early 1990s and is headquartered in San Antonio.
"The bank is a bi-national infrastructure development bank that is equally owned and operated by the US and Mexican federal governments. Our mandate is to develop and finance environmental infrastructure along the US-Mexico border that improves the quality of life for border residents,” Beckham said.
NADBank can finance projects up to 62 miles north into the US and 196 miles south into Mexico for public or private sector entities.
“Just as our border continues to grow and transition to a greener and more sustainable region, so is NADBank,” Beckham said. “I like to say we are now NADBank 2.0, with a greater focus on investing to support the boardroom region's evolution.”
The eligible sectors that NADBank can invest in include water, solid waste, air quality, clean energy, sustainable cities, and sustainable manufacturing. Of these, water is NADBank’s priority sector. Beckham said NADBank has helped financed a water project for Laguna Madre Water District, along with several water and wastewater projects in colonias throughout the Valley.
As for solid waste, Backhand said NADBank has helped with landfill and landfill expansion projects in Starr County. He said the bank had provided funding for a trash compactor to improve operations of the county’s landfill.
With regard to the air quality sector, Beckham said mobility and ensuring adequate lanes at international bridges would fall under this category. “These are very important to reduce pollution, improve air quality, and increase economic opportunities for border communities,” Beckham said.
By way of an example, Beckham said NADBank had helped finance an expansion of Anzalduas International Bridge in Mission. Another examples he said, was helping to fund improvements at the historic Roma suspension bridge.
As for the clean energy sector, Beckham said this would include energy generation, storage, and transmission. “This sector makes up the largest portion of our lending portfolio,” Beckham said. By way of example he listed the coastal wind farms that have been built in Cameron and Willacy counties and a just-approved battery energy storage system project in Hidalgo County.
With regard to sustainable cities and sustainable manufacturing, NADBank invests in LEED-certified buildings, sustainable industrial parks, and the manufacturing of green products, Beckham explained.
“Our focus here is to work with both the public and private sector on constructing energy efficient manufacturing buildings. Our entire development strategy is to fight climate change through mitigation and adaption,” Beckham said.
Beckham also touched upon near-shoring.
“With near-shoring as a real opportunity for economic growth, NADBank is now better positioned to help your communities and your sister cities on the Mexican side,” he said.
Today, Beckham said, NADBank has three “intersecting themes” to both focus on and organize its priorities around: a green economy, water and energy.
“These three opportunities will lay a good foundation for the integration and shared prosperity of the border region and more broadly North America,” Beckham said.
Beckham then explained how all these projects are financed
“We have loans, as well as limited grant and technical assistance funds,” he said. “Our loans are tailor-made to complement other public or private sources of financing,” Beckham said. “On the grant side, we administer the Border Environmental Infrastructure Fund on behalf of the EPA, which provides grant funding for water and wastewater projects.”
Beckham said that for smaller communities that can't take on debt, NADBank offers a community assistance program that is funded by its own retained earnings. These earnings are used to provide grants, with priority given to drinking water, wastewater, water conservation, and solid waste infrastructure,” Beckham said.
“The Bank also has a limited technical assistance program that is used to help move projects from development to construction. This program funds design, studies and other documentation needed to complete the planning for a project.”
Beckham said NADBank can show proven results.
“To date NADBank has financed 300 environmental infrastructure projects, with a total infrastructure investment of more than $11 billion,” Beckham said.
“More than two thirds of these projects are in the water sector. While we recognize that water is extremely important for the growth of our region, we're also looking at how other sectors like construction and manufacturing can be more water efficient.”
NADBank is also aware of water availability projects, such as the desalination project underway in Brownsville, as water reuse.
“I know that everything in Texas has to be bigger. So let me say that we have financed more projects in Texas than any other border state,” Beckham said. “And along the Texas Mexico border we have invested more than $920 million for environmental infrastructure projects.”
“As for the financing of projects in South Texas, more than half of all Texas projects are right here in the Rio Grande Valley. Forty-three of the 81 projects, to be precise,” Beckham said.
“However, while we have done a lot in your region, I know there's a lot more we can do together.”
At the conclusion of his remarks, Beckham and his colleagues listened to the infrastructure needs of stakeholders and elected officials from Cameron and Willacy counties.
