Texas Rising February 2010

Regional Approach Pays Off

Both sides of Rio Grande offer prospects for Eagle Pass

by Gerard MacCrossan

The International Bridge connecting Eagle Pass and the larger Mexican city of Piedras Negras joins communities that, despite their dividing border, cannot ignore their closest neighbors and expect economic development success.

Economic Development and Analysis

A Region Divided

Mayor Chad Foster, who operates a real estate business with offices in Eagle Pass and across the Rio Grande in Piedras Negras, says successful economic development means that children raised in Eagle Pass can return home to work after college – and not just for ranch and agriculture-related jobs, the region’s traditionally strong industries.

Chad Foster

He sees positive economic growth in his city of more than 25,000 that is adding population at a rate of 3 to 4 percent annually. Foster says opportunities for the young “gifted and educated” have increased since the passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement.

“We have five young pharmacists who are home-grown and young attorneys, too,” he says.

The Eagle Pass-Piedras Negras relationship is different from other border cities in a positive way. Relationships are longstanding, he says.

Eagle Pass has had a policy for granting economic incentives since 1994, but has never implemented it.

Eagle Pass map

“We don’t do tax abatements for retailers,” Foster says. The city’s attitude to stores that want incentives to open up in Eagle Pass is: “If we aren’t pretty enough to kiss, come back when we are,” he says. “If there was a manufacturer coming in who’d generate some employment numbers, we’d look at that in a different light.”

On the U.S. side, Maverick County Development Corporation (MCDC), which includes city, county and chamber of commerce leaders on its board, is leading the charge for investors on both sides of the border to locate in the Eagle Pass area. The nonprofit organization’s board of directors includes the Eagle Pass mayor, Maverick County judge, and the Eagle Pass Chamber of Commerce president, an indication of the community’s attitude to the value of partnering for economic development success.

“There’s a mutual understanding. We work together,” says Sandra Martinez, chamber executive director since 1992.

MCDC Executive Director Raul Perez, an Eagle Pass High School graduate who until August 2009 was economic development director for Piedras Negras (his city of birth), says MCDC’s business and industry recruitment efforts focus on working with importers and exporters, warehouse, distribution and manufacturing operations. The Eagle Pass Chamber of Commerce works closely with MCDC, but focuses on other aspects of economic development.

“Our main focus has become business recruitment and retention, retail, hotels, tourism and related business,” says Martinez. “We have a contract with the city of Eagle Pass to function to a degree as a convention and visitors bureau.”

Perez and Martinez concur that Eagle Pass and Piedras Negras, which lies in the Mexican state of Coahuila, are complementary communities that don’t compete directly for many investments.

One company successfully recruited to Eagle Pass is Maverick Arms, which produces O.F. Mossberg & Sons shotguns and hunting rifles in a manufacturing plant that doubled in size to 85,000 square feet in 2007. But most of the region’s manufacturing employment is located west of the Rio Grande in Coahuila.

“We know the majority of employment from manufacturers goes to the Mexican side,” Perez says. “But the high-paying jobs, like the plant managers, stay on the U.S. side. Once the facility is installed, we get another line of business, warehousing, distribution and logistics.

“I’m trying to implement economic development for the region with very good relationships,” he says. “If you look at McAllen and El Paso, they work hand in hand with Reynosa and Juarez. The intent is to have more working relationships between the city governments. I’m taking a page out of what I’ve seen.”

“There’s a mutual understanding.
We work together.”

Sandra Martinez, chamber executive director for Eagle Pass

By spring, Grupo Modelo will open Mexico’s largest brewery in Nava, 14 miles from Eagle Pass. Perez says an estimated 200 railroad cars will move through Eagle Pass daily headed for the Port of San Antonio when the plant reaches full production. The border city has an opportunity to attract more business at its crossing, he says, because it isn’t as busy as the larger entry points at El Paso, Laredo or in the Rio Grande Valley.

Eagle Pass at a Glance

Eagle Pass
Maverick Co, Texas		 Population: 26,668*
Piedras Negras
Coahuila, Mexico		Population: 175,049*

* Census city population estimate

Sources: U.S. Census, July 1, 2008; Promociones Turisticas A.C. De Piedras Negras Coahuila, 2009.


“One of the things the MCDC board already has agreed to is that next year we are going to host a Business Encounter at the IT center in Eagle Pass,” Perez says.

He says that he wants officials from customs, Texas Department of Transportation and Union Pacific to come together to gain an overview of the numbers of new plants in development and the new investments and start planning how to improve operations through the city’s port of entry for importing and exporting.

“All of these government entities are working together and have a plan in place,” Perez says. “The Business Encounter will be a forum for each organization to let everybody know about the investments and improvements it is undertaking to bring more business to our community.” TR

Find out more about economic development opportunities in Eagle Pass from Maverick County Development Corporation, and the Eagle Pass Chamber of Commerce.

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