Gilberto Salinas, president of the Greater Brownsville Economic Development Corporation, said Brownsville and the Lower Rio Grande Valley are seeing about $64 billion in capital investment. He spoke at the "State of the Regional Workforce" conference on South Padre Island, co-hosted by Workforce Solutions Lower Rio Grande Valley and Workforce Solutions Cameron. Salinas said the projects include existing work such as LNG and SpaceX, along with newer ones.
Salinas said the region's labor market is moving away from a long-standing "brain drain" toward net growth. He cited U-Haul moving data that ranked the Brownsville metro area among the top 10 migration destinations in the United States. He said three people are moving into Brownsville for every one leaving.
Salinas highlighted "Project Hercules," a facility by Saronic, a maker of AI-driven autonomous surface vessels for defense. The project broke ground at the Port of Brownsville and represents a $3.2 to $3.4 billion investment, according to Salinas. It is projected to create 10,000 direct jobs over the next decade and 9,400 indirect and induced jobs. He said about 3,000 of the direct positions will be engineering roles.
Salinas also said SpaceX's Starbase site in Cameron County now includes $6 billion in total capital expenditure and 2 million square feet of manufacturing space.