WESLACO, Texas - Okay so generally speaking all the economic development groups in the Rio Grande Valley have bought into the RGV Partnership’s new mantra, One Region, Once Voice.
But what comes next?
Rene Alcalá, director of business development for Killam Development, says he knows what should come next: One economic data set that everyone in the Valley can acknowledge and work with.
Alcalá was a panelist at a Rio Grande Valley Partnership event held at Weslaco City Hall on Monday, Feb. 12. The event was staged to review a recent retail trade convention held in Dallas, known as @ICSC Red River.
Alcalá was on the panel with Weslaco Economic Development Corporation Executive Director Steve Valdez, Pharr Economic Development Corporation President Victor Perez, and Elsa Economic Development Corporation Executive Director Daniel Rivera. The event was emceed by RGVP President Daniel Silva. All five attended @ICSC Red River.
In his remarks, Alcalá praised the Partnership for hosting a large booth at @ICSC Red River. He said it was great to see the different EDCs promoting the Valley, not just their own cities.
“We need to work together at bringing these companies here, work as a unit because the growth of Mission also helps Weslaco, and vice versa,” Alcalá said.
“I have seen this change from the shows in the past. I think this Red River was great.”
Alcalá said he previously worked for Mexico’s marketing arm, Pro Mexico. He said this group would have one big booth at a big trade show that all the states in Mexico could use. He said the same thing is starting to happen with the Partnership. Namely, the Partnership has the main booth and the various Valley cities work out of that.
“We want to have that booth, we want to have that regional presence, because as a developer we are making the calls to the stores that we want in our development. But their question is always, well where are you at?” Alcalá said.
“Well, we are in Mission, and we are in McAllen. Our development straddles both cities. Well, how many people does McAllen have? About 180,000. Oh no, we’re not even going to look at that. Wait, wait, wait. The region is one million-plus.
“Well, what data do you have? So, I take out the Mission data and I take out McAllen’s data. But then the EDC has different data, and the Partnership has different data. It is very important now that we are working as a region to have that data set that we have all agreed on.”
After the panel discussion ended the Rio Grande Guardian International News Service sought an interview with Alcalá in hopes of getting him to elaborate. He did.
Who could collate one data set for the Valley that everybody could get behind and utilize? Alcalá suggested the Partnership or COSTEP. Or, the Guardian suggested, it could be the local university.
Whoever does it, it is urgently needed, Alcalá said. Here is the interview:
https://youtu.be/ix4LAGwHqHo
