WESLACO, Texas - Gilberto Salinas, president and CEO of the Greater Brownsville Economic Development Corporation, has given an update on SpaceX.
He spoke in-depth about rocket launching activity at Starbase and some of the other big projects his group is connected to when addressing economic development leaders from across the Rio Grande Valley.
The event was hosted by Hidalgo County’s economic development department and held at UT-Rio Grande Valley’s Center for Innovation & Commercialization in Weslaco.
“They (SpaceX) are currently at 4,200 employees. By the end of year, or, for sure, in the next 18 months, they are planning to be at about 8,000 employees. Talk about being on steroids and just growing. They're there. And these obviously are very good, high value-add jobs,” Salinas said.
The great thing, Salinas said, is that SpaceX’s headquarters has moved to the Valley.
“Let’s remember that their headquarters is in Brownsville. It is at Starbase. It is in Cameron County. It is in the Rio Grande Valley. Our first official headquarters of a major firm is now… their home is here,” Salinas said, pointing to a slide in his power-point presentation. “There's the economic output,” he said, pointing to the slide. “Thirteen billion dollars in economic output and growing.”
Salinas said a massive building is going up at Starbase. “It's called the Giga Bay, and that is being built to house 24 Starship rockets. That is the biggest rocket in the history of the planet. So, this facility is going to house 24 and they have been approved for 25 launches per year down where we're at.”
Salinas said manufacture of the rockets is going to reach one every two days.
“Now that doesn't mean that they're going to be launching all of those out there. These rockets are for export. So, you know true definition of economic development, right? Using your local resources, your local workforce and your talent base to export a product. Somebody’s paying you from the outside to develop something.
"That's when money is being imported, and that's how you grow your GDP, and that's how you grow your local economic base, and, at the end of the day, that's how you put money into people's pockets, which is disposable income. And that disposable income coming in is what drives small businesses in Main Street, USA.”
Salinas said SpaceX is pumping $650 million in capital investment for that particular project.
“Hundreds if not thousands of welders, facility technicians, engineers across the board. And it's interesting, because they hire a lot of mechanical and electrical engineers. So, we speak to high school students, college students. A lot of them are enamored with aerospace and (we tell them) you want to work at a SpaceX? They’re hiring a lot of mechanical and electrical engineers. That's what you need to be looking at.”
Salinas said 83 percent of the workers SpaceX is hiring are local. Just a few miles away, at the LNG export terminals at the Port of Brownsville, the local hires represent 70 percent.
“With SpaceX, I cannot speak on their behalf, but if they could, they would hire 100% local. But they're at 83% and they're very proud of that, very proud,” Salinas said.
“They’re doing business with 500 local businesses, and again, that's Brownsville to McAllen. And they are promoting, they're getting people to move into the Valley, and we're in partnership with them with different programs.”
In addition to the Giga Bay, there is going to be a Tesla Diner at Starbase, Salinas revealed. Like SpaceX, Tesla is owned by Elon Musk.
“There is going to be a Tesla diner, the second one in the United States. The first one is in LA, think it's supposed to have, like a Jetsons kind of feel to it. It's going to be open to the community. So that's a great way for people in the Valley to go and have a nice experience out there.”
And more rocket launches mean more tourists, Salinas pointed out. He said SpaceX has warned him that, after a while, local residents will become blasé about the rocket launches. Because there will be so many.
“Twenty-four thousand rocket watchers; whenever there's a launch, you get all these people coming in. And you can tell, because, if you’re in Brownsville, you see them in the restaurants. You'll see them at the little Mexican food places, at taquerias. That's cool. That is people coming into our city and into our community.”
