SAN JUAN, Texas – San Juan City Manager Ben Arjona says his city will be catapulted to the next level thanks to a number of exciting new retail and commercial developments.
Arjona spoke about the fast growth of San Juan during a recent webinar hosted by the Rio Grande Valley Partnership.
The San Juan EDC Commercial & Investment Virtual Tour allowed those on the webinar to learn about San Juan’s key strategic assets as well as business opportunities and properties available.
“We have a lot of real estate out by the frontage. There is over, maybe, 80 or 100 acres by the frontage,” Arjona said, referring to land adjacent to I-2.
“At one point it used to be called the golden corridor. San Juan is known for the luxury dealerships. We have the Mercedes Benz, we have the Land Rover, Audi, Acura, Lexus. Those are sitting at the corridor so there is a lot of development.”
Arjona is also executive director of San Juan EDC. He said he is not at liberty to disclose at this time some of the major commercial and retail projects that are in the works.
“There are actually two big developments coming to San Juan in the next few months. It is just unfortunate I cannot disclose any at that at this point but just stay tuned. There are one, two, three, four, five, about seven of them that are coming to the city of San Juan. We are very excited about that,” Arjona said.
“We are working with the developer currently and it is something that is going to catapult our city to the next level, by bringing in these businesses, commercial, big retail business and two restaurants, good sized restaurants. So, we are very excited about that.”
RGV Partnership President Sergio Contreras said he was blown away by the news that 20 new residential subdivisions are being built in San Juan. Arjona said San Juan’s current population of 38,000 will likely shoot up to 42,000 or 43,000 when the next census figures are issued. However, he said the true number is even greater.
“We have not stopped growing,” he said. “We have never seen so many rooftops being developed. The number of subdivisions are at an all-time high.”
The big tourist draw for San Juan is the Basilica of Our Lady of San Juan del Valle National Shrine. It pulls in a million visitors a year. Arjona said the Basilica will be augmented by a cultural attraction soon – the Gelman Stained Glass Museum, which is slated to open later this year.
“It will be by far the biggest stained glass museum in the U.S., with over 140 stained glass exhibits on display,” Arjona said. “It is pretty much ready. It is a beautiful building. A lot of people thought it was a church, because of the way it was built but it is actually a museum. It will compliment, go hand in hand with the Basilica.”
Arjona said the City of San Juan has invested $6 million in street and drainage infrastructure improvements. Being known as Pot Hole City is a thing of the past, Arjona said.
Arjona said the city is also planning a $7.3 million, 30,000 square foot, city hall which will act as a “one-step shop” because it will also house the city’s engineering and utilities departments and economic development corporation. “We will go out to bid in August,” Arjona said.
San Juan has also upgraded its water treatment facility, thanks to an $11 million investment, Arjona said. “We are very proud to say that we are able to produce 8.5 million gallons of water a day, compared to what we had before, which was 3.5 million gallons per day.”
Reiterating that San Juan is ready for new investment from the private sector, Arjona said: “We go above and beyond in making the process as simple as possible. If anyone wants to relocate to San Juan, we are here. There are a lot of homes, a lot of businesses. I think San Juan is the place to be.”
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