MCALLEN, Texas - Keith Patridge, the president and CEO of McAllen Economic Development Corporation, has stressed the importance of regionalism.
Patridge gave an exclusive interview to the Rio Grande Guardian International News Service following a groundbreaking ceremony for the McAllen Nearshoring Industrial Park.
The park is being developed by CIL Group. Its president and founder, Joaquin Spamer, spoke about the importance of regionalism in his speech at the ceremony. He said the region has to work together to take advantage of near-shoring.
Patridge said it is important that the message is coming from Spamer because the private sector has to take the lead.
“Joaquin is a member and supporter of COSTEP and he knows what we're doing. Everything has got to be focused on region. We’ve got to start pushing the regional aspect and getting away from that Saturday night football mentality,” Patridge said.
COSTEP stands for the Council for South Texas Economic Progress.
It was put to Patridge that he has been pushing for the Valley’s economic development corporations to work together for years. Asked if his message is slowly getting through, Patridge said:
“The thing that I'm concerned about, Steve, is that where we are at right now, it's kind of like, we’re just hanging on. And we’ve got to get our whole arm around the limb, you know, because if we backslide, it won't happen for a generation.
“So, we've got to make it work. We’ve got a lot of people focusing on regionalization, everybody's wanting to be a part, but we have got to coordinate. If we start stepping on one another's feet, it will fail. And we can’t let it fail. We can’t.”
Asked if Spamer’s speech was right on point, Patridge said: “Yes, it was very good. What is important is that it is from the private sector.”
Patridge continued: “We need your (the Rio Grande Guardian’s) support in pushing this, but also stress that we can’t compete with one another, we’ve got to figure out how to coordinate our efforts so that we truly are one region.”
The Guardian then brought up a conversation it had some time ago with former Greater Brownsville Incentives Corporation Executive Director Mario Lozoya. Lozoya said that during his time as a leader at Toyota in San Antonio, city council members would fight over which part of the city would get economic development projects. Lozoya said that issue was resolved when the city commission put a team of CEOs in charge, to take politics out of the equation.
The Guardian put it to Patridge that this could not happen in the Valley because there were not enough Fortune 500 companies in the region to run it. Asked to respond, Patridge said: “Well, that is not necessarily true. There's a lot of money in the Valley. It’s just getting people to invest in the betterment of the community, for the greater whole.”
Patridge said wealthy people in the Valley do contribute millions of dollars to the UT System and the Texas A&M System. “Don't get me wrong, that is important but it is not (furthering economic development).”
Editor’s Note: Joaquin Spamer doubled down on his message about the Valley working as a region on economic development issues when he spoke at Hidalgo County Prosperity Task Force’s “CEOs Unite - Let’s Get Uncomfortable” summit. We will bring coverage of Spamer’s remarks in an upcoming edition.
