Mid-Valley Airport holds groundbreaking ceremony for new customs facility
Currently, Mid-Valley Airport cannot receive corporate flights from abroad. Once the $750,000 new facility is complete next summer, customs officials will be able to come up from the Progreso port of entry and clear business passengers coming in from countries such as Mexico.
“Our niche business is corporations and business people coming to the Rio Grande Valley,” said Mid-Valley Airport Director George Garrett.
“As a former board member once told me, people who come to the Valley to invest money don’t come on the Greyhound bus. They come in corporate airplanes. And that is what we want to cater to. We want to reach across the border to our neighbors to the south and provide services to those folks that want to fly in and shop and invest. It is a new port of entry for new businesses.”
Garrett said when the new facility is built, private planes flying in from Mexico will be able to call in with their flight plan and tell customs officials when they will be landing. Customs officials will then drive up from the Progreso port of entry and clear the flight.
Garrett said the project had taken about eight or nine years to get to this point. He thanked consultants Vesta Rea and Associates of Houston for its help.
“This is a great day, a new beginning for new development in the Mid Valley and Weslaco area. People looking to invest in South Texas need to look to the Mid Valley,” Garrett said.
“We are not looking to compete with the McAllen, Harlingen or Brownsville air carrier business. We are here to deal with the corporate environment and provide the very best service we can to our corporate clients.”
Weslaco Economic Development Corporation Executive Director Hernan Gonzalez explained that the total investment in the new federal facility is coming from local funds, with no help from the state or federal government.
“This is another step for Weslaco and the Mid-Valley region to reinvent itself by investing in itself,” Gonzalez said.
“We are going to provide a tremendous airport that is congestion-free for the business community. And it is going to help the whole region because we are in the middle of the market,” he said, pointing out that Weslaco is 20 miles from Edinburg, 18 miles from McAllen and 18 miles from Harlingen.
Gonzalez pointed to two local companies that would benefit from the new facility. Executives with Woodcrafters Home Products LLC fly to Mexico a lot. At present they fly in and out of McAllen. Gran Café de Paroquia, of Veracruz, Mexico, is setting up a distribution center in Weslaco and its executives will be able to fly in and out of the city.
“As McAllen Airport gets more commercial it tends to push aside general aviation. General aviation is very important to Weslaco. We envision being the premiere general aviation airport in the Valley. We want the people who have planes and have businesses to run to come here,” Gonzalez said.
Mid-Valley Airport needed legislation at the state level in order to tap into Weslaco EDC funds for the new customs facility. That legislation, which allowed EDCs to put money into airport infrastructure within 100 miles of the border, was passed in the 79th Legislature by state Rep. Armando “Mando” Martinez, D-Weslaco.
“With hard work, dedication and vision, you can hit your goal, and Mid-Valley Airport has done that,” Martinez said. “This new customs facility will have a great economic impact on the Mid Valley region. You don’t have the traffic here that you have at other airports. You will attract more business from the international sector. Business leaders will be able to get inspected by customs quickly and be on their way to go and shop and see what the Valley has to offer.”
Salomon Torres, Valley district director for Congressman Rubén Hinojosa, D-Mercedes, and Martha Noell, president and CEO of the Weslaco Area Chamber of Commerce, also attended the groundbreaking ceremony.
Photo and Article By Rio Grande Guardian and Steve Taylor
