Business View Magazine | July 2019

349 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE JULY 2019 ship channel. A lot of the ships that are being decommissioned from the navy are taken apart there. The steelworks handle steel products and liquid and dry bulk commodities. We have huge landholdings and that’s really an enticement for business; when they need shipping or any kind of manifestos, the Port of Brownsville works.” Taking to the skies, in the fourth quarter of 2020, Brownsville is expanding its airport with a modern, efficient terminal building to boost general aviation and commercial interest and help increase the number of flights. With increased tourism, and the excitement of SpaceX locating in Brownsville, plus any kind of port of entry business incubators, the airport will be able to handle the extra influx of people with the expanded capacity in a more efficient building. According to Bernal, “Brownsville is at a very interesting crossroads in terms of how history and culture are intersecting with the future. The city has natural assets that any other city would envy. We have the port, an international airport, we’re served by rail, and we have interstate highways that lead into major markets in Mexico and nationally, all the way to Canada. We’re at the epicenter of part of the NAFTA trade agreement between Canada, the U.S., and Mexico. Here at the border, there’s lots of activity on our three international bridges.” To this point, business growth has primarily been at the Port, but the city is experiencing a shift. Space exploration is becoming a billion dollar industry; one of the industry leaders being SpaceX. “We’re working on creating a cluster for that new space movement,” says Bernal. “In March, we officially opened StarGate, a partnership with the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, the Greater Brownsville Incentives Corporation (GBIC), and the State of Texas to incubate astrophysicists in R&D in the New Space market for the commercialization of space technologies. In July, a ceremony is being held at our original terminal building where a non-profit, Expanding Frontiers, will be leasing space from the city to attract businesses engaging in commercial space technologies. A $1 million fund has been BROWNSV I LLE , TEXAS