Shovel-ready building sites offer quick road to development

The industrial park north of town was little more than empty land crawling with ants and snakes when Gerardo “Jerry” Nuñez set up shop there five years ago.

Nuñez, owner of Nu-Co Tool, a toolmaker for 35 categories of manufacturers, rented out his old building and moved into the park off U.S. 281 and Orange Avenue because he saw a chance to grow his business on the open land.

“The space was there and the opportunity of the unknown gets to me,” Nuñez said inside the 23,000-square-foot warehouse he built on the 8-acre plot of empty land he bought from the Edinburg Economic Development Corp. “I wanted to develop it from nothing.”

But in a fast-paced business world where time is money, Nuñez’s willingness to go it alone in an undeveloped area was a rarity.

Economic development officials in the Rio Grande Valley want to ensure they have everything already in place at a few select spots where they hope to land large employers.

By the end of this year, Hidalgo and Cameron counties will have four shovel-ready mega-sites, locations generally reserved for companies that plan to employ 500 or more people.

The designations are an effort by the Rio South Texas Economic Council, a group formed last year to market the region, to make the Valley appealing to large companies looking to set up shop here.

A Sharyland Plantation site for which McAllen and Mission economic development officials are seeking shovel-ready status is near the site the cities have talked about as a possible location for an auto manufacturer.

Hidalgo County’s other site is in the same park that is home to Nuñez’s Nu-Co Tool, next to where Brazilian denim manufacturer Santana Textiles plans to start construction next year.

Securing the shovel-ready designation requires extensive work to produce a thick binder filled with documents that show the site is ready for development, said Ramiro Garza, the executive director of Edinburg’s development corporation. To lure projects the size of Santana, which plans to employ 800 people by 2014, the old plan of building a sales pitch around an empty plot of land is no longer enough.

“When companies are looking for property, they want readily available sites,” Garza said. “They don’t want to wait for everything to be in place.”

SHOVEL-READY

When Austin Consulting certifies the Valley’s sites as shovel-ready, the firm says the locations will be the first in the state to receive the designation.

Most states — including Texas — have not adopted official criteria to designate a site as shovel-ready.

Instead, site location consultants that traditionally helped companies find a place to build provide the certification, placing their own stamp of approval on an area, said Frank Spano, a director with Austin Consulting, the firm hired by the economic council to review the Valley’s sites.

The shovel-ready designation grew out of a desire by companies that wanted to expand and governmental entities looking to land them as a way to speed the process along.

From start to finish, most companies spend nine months deciding where to expand or relocate their operations, Spano said. Having a site ready to go, with the property on the market, utilities extended and the permits in place, gives the company a better picture of what the site offers and how long until it can start operations there.

But getting the designation — since the companies that give them out put their own reputations on the line — isn’t easy.

To receive Austin’s shovel-ready designation, sites start with a comprehensive, 10-page form filled with questions, Spano said. By the time they complete the form’s requirements, the paperwork fills a 3-inch binder — the documents include everything from ownership information, aerial photographs and maps of the location, soil tests and environmental details, right-of way-plans and more.

But Spano said the designation makes the site appealing to companies looking to fast-track the development process.

“Shovel-ready sites are important because companies want to make a decision faster,” Spano said. “They want to have that information on hand. It certainly gives you a leg up on the other site.”

VALLEY SPOTS

The Valley’s failed attempt to attract a Kia Motors Corp. manufacturing plant in 2006 provided the impetus for it to work toward the shovel-ready tags.

Automaker officials who looked at the area wanted to know why the Valley’s prospective site wasn’t certified by a South Carolina-consulting company with extensive experience in automotive site selection, said Pat Townsend, president of the Mission Economic Development Authority.

Kia eventually decided to put the plant in West Point, Ga., but the brief flirtation with the company showed local economic development officials the turnaround that the industry and others like it need.

Townsend said having the information ready is key even if there aren’t immediate prospects for the three subdivided plots off Shary Road that the economic council is designating as shovel-ready.

“We’re doing it with no immediate prospect identified,” he said. “The benefit is if we actually have a prospect identify it as a suitable location, we’re way down the road to answering what the company actually requires.”

The learning experience on what’s needed for the designation also gives local officials a better feel for what they need to compete for a major project, said Keith Patridge, president of the McAllen Economic Development Corp. With all the specific details on the site available, the companies can spend more time learning about the region, the labor force and other key factors in a decision.

Although the economic council is starting with four shovel-ready sites, the plan is to develop a revolving portfolio of sites to attract companies that create 500 jobs or more, Patridge said. The jury is still out on whether the shovel-ready sites help the Valley bring in companies but, with the rather exclusive nature of the process, “it can’t hurt,” Patridge said.

“It’s like another arrow in our quiver we have available to target manufacturers,” Patridge said. “It puts us in a great position to compete.”

FULL PARK

Nuñez is still alone in the industrial park he moved into four years ago.

But with roads and utilities in place in the 160-acre site, it likely won’t be long before he sees a flurry of development around him.

Santana Textiles and two other manufacturers are under contract to build on 70 acres in the park — work the city expects to start next year. And the 25 acres left in the park will soon be designated as shovel-ready.

Nuñez, who builds tools primarily for the automotive industry, said he’s looking to expand on the plot he already owns.

“Five years from now, we’ll see this park full,” he said. “It’s got everything in place to take off.”

Jared Janes covers Hidalgo County government, Edinburg and general assignments for The Monitor. He can be reached at (956) 683-4424.