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The McAllen/Mission MSA, located in Hidalgo County
approximately 75 miles upstream from the mouth of the Rio Grande
River, is the fourth-fastest growing metro area in the United
States with a current estimated population of 614,000. Located
along the US/Mexico border, this community enjoyed this amazing
growth due to NAFTA and a very strong relationship with the
cities Northern Mexico. Monterrey, Mexico is only two hours away
and many Mexican consumers travel to the McAllen area for
shopping and other tourism activities.
Where much of the United States has suffered an economic
downturn, the McAllen area and other border communities continue
to grow in terms of job creation, population, and other economic
indicators. The retail sector of the economic is sustained by
the local population and spurred by Mexican shoppers and “Winter
Texans”.
In the office market, the driving forces in the creation of new
space have been medical facilities, call centers, and
government. Rio Grande Regional Hospital recently added a
five-story patient tower. Driscoll Children's Hospital, Texas A&
M School for Rural Public Health and South Texas Community
College has completed construction of new facilities. Over
350,000 square feet of medical office space is either currently
under construction or in the final planning stages. Call center
such as Converges, Hotels.com and T-Mobile have continued to
expand.
In the industrial market, over 2.6 million square feet of Class
A building were constructed since 1998 on both build to suit and
speculative basis. Symbol Technologies, Frito-Lays, Jabal Global
Services, Black and Decker, Sharp Electronics, RC Coils and
others have established new operations or expanded. Because of
the continued growth and relocation of manufacturing companies
into Reynosa, including a new 300,000 square foot Maytag
production facility, the McAllen-Mission market can expect
continued growth from suppliers locating on the US-side of the
border. An additional 750,000 square feet of industrial space is
slated to completed construction in 2004.
The Retail market experienced robust growth in McAllen–Mission
area as well. New retailers into the market including Barnes &
Noble, Bed Bath & Beyond, an additional Targets store in North
McAllen, a Michael's expansion, Shoe Carnival, an Academy
Sporting Goods expansion and more. Simon Properties' La Plaza
Mall, with anchors such as Foley's, Dillard's, JC Penny's and
Sears has continued to post higher than average per square foot
sales. The growing population and increased earnings bode well
for the retail market in this area. And Starbuck are popping up
all over.