Development corporation focusing on Eagle Pass, international industry

November 14, 2006
By Bill Sontag
Feature Writer

“I think of this as the new Eagle Pass,” exclaimed Judy Canales, executive director of the Maverick County Development Corporation (MCDC), Thursday (Oct. 26).

“With the Fort Duncan Medical Center, the Sul Ross University, the new C.C. Winn High School, the International Center for Trade, a new medical building, and the Texas Department of Public Safety offices now, all on the east side, we’re showing amazing growth,” said Canales.

But her challenge revolves around the Eagle Pass industrial park, south of downtown and west of El Indio Highway, where land is dotted with product distribution centers and warehouses. The MCDC board of 15 directors wants to see available space targeted to manufacturing and industry, both of which will increase revenues and diversify the scope of the corporation’s holdings there.

“The purpose of the industrial park is to serve as an incentive to companies – like Maverick Arms – to settle in Eagle Pass and Maverick County,” Canales said. She describes the corporation as a “non-profit organization founded 50 years ago by community-minded business leaders.”

“We’re trying to develop a plan for the sale of properties in the industrial district,” said Canales, adding that bids are now being accepted for the plan to guide future development there. Until the plan is completed, what Canales describes as a “soft” moratorium on land sales for warehousing and distribution centers has been emplaced by the board of directors.

But Canales believes demography is the underpinning for such planning, too. “To encourage investment on the border, we need to know and think about who we are in this county,” Canales said, then rattling off a breakdown of employment she believes is a picture of the workforce. Canales estimates that 25 percent of workers are in trades or transportation, another 25 percent in education and health service industries, 35 percent in local, state and federal government jobs, and 15 percent employed in retail trade, banking, lending and manufacturing.

And Canales is unenthusiastic about counterproductive competition between Eagle Pass and Del Rio, indicating that both cities have gone beyond the once-heralded Highway 277 rivalries of Friday night football. “I think Del Rio has great potential, and so do we. I’m just not really into the Eagle Pass versus Del Rio thing.”

To say that Canales brings impressive credentials to her MCDC position is understatement. A native of Uvalde, her early academics included an Associate’s degree in pre-journalism at Southwest Texas Junior College, followed by training in print media and a Bachelor of Journalism degree at the University of Texas. Next she received a Master of Arts degree at in urban studies at Trinity University, and finally a Master of Public Administration from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard.

Canales worked in housing administration in San Antonio for Mayor Henry Cisneros, then for the City of Phoenix, Ariz., and three stints in Washington D.C., including work in legislative services for New York Mayor David Dinkins and a two-year tenure as a housing lobbyist for National Council of La Raza.

Canales moved to Eagle Pass in 2001, taking the position of the city’s assistant city manager, then ran for public office – and lost – against Timoteo Garza, former state representative, now disgraced as one of the “Kickapoo Seven,” with a conviction for tax evasion in connection with the Kickapoo Indian Reservation’s Lucky Eagle Casino.

Three years before Canales arrived in Eagle Pass, the Maverick County Development Corporation received $496,800 from a United States Department of Agriculture Rural Development Grant. The money was earmarked for infrastructure improvements in the industrial district, including roads, overhead and security lighting, water/wastewater delivery systems, and utility upgrades.

Canales now wants to capitalize the potential of another USDA grant received by MCDC for $468,592. It is designed to institutionalize the corporation’s ability to offer financial incentives as a “carrot” to attract business investors in Eagle Pass. Canales will form a revolving loan fund to that end.

“A business person can seek a loan from us at rates competitive with local lending institutions. As such loans are paid back, the money goes again into the revolving loan fund to be used again and again,” Canales explained.

Examples of industry investments Canales aspires to attract include automotive parts manufacturers, transportation-related firms and medical products manufacturers. “Small business and entrepreneurship have great potential here. It’s going to give us a huge boost when this fund gets going,” Canales said.

For more information, see the Maverick County Development Corporation Web site at www.eaglepassmcdc.com .