MISSION, Texas – Upon returning from ICSC@Red River earlier in the month, land developer Rene Alcala made a proposal to every city and economic development group in the Rio Grande Valley.
Killam Development’s business development director said now that the Valley has largely embraced the idea of ”one region, one voice,” it’s time to have one central data bank.
Alcala said when he and others are trying to market the Valley as a region, it makes sense to look for some key data from McAllen and other key data from Mission and elsewhere. He said there was no.
In an exclusive interview with Rio Grande Guardian International News ServiceAlcala hopes regional organizations such as the Rio Grande Valley Partnership (RGVP) and the Council for Economic Progress of South Texas (COSTEP) will collate all available data and compile it into one large databank. He said there was.
That way, he said, everyone in the Valley would be singing from the same hymn sheet.
Proceed with COSTEP. Following Alcala’s remarks in the Guardian, COSTEP posted a statement on social media, saying it already has a centralized databank up and running.
“COSTEP, the South Texas Economic Development Council, is providing local economic development organizations (EDOs) and all community stakeholders with access to GIS Webtech Guru platform,” the statement said.
“At any given time, the platform has more than 1,000 properties listed from the seven-county region served by COSTEP. Properties are updated regularly and added to or removed from the list based on availability. The tool also has the ability for authorized users to add properties that are not listed in the real estate database, as is the case with owner-represented properties.
“The aim is to have a centralized data platform that the entire region can use to promote its industrial and commercial attractions.”
The seven counties in which COSTEP operates are Cameron, Willacy, Hidalgo, Starr, Zapata, Jim Hogg, and Webb. It also supports the border municipalities of Nuevo Laredo, Guerrero, Mier, Miguel Aleman, Camargo, Gustavo Díaz Ordaz, Reynosa, Rio Bravo, Valle Hermosa, and Matamoros in Mexico.
In an interview with guardianRick Carrera, COSTEP’s director of economic development, said his group uses the highly acclaimed ESRI software for data management.
“I know there has been talk about introducing a central databank, but we have been doing it for quite some time. The data has been available on the COSTEP website for some time. “What we did was we made it more prominent on our website,” Carrera said.
“Click on the Data tab and from there you can find data sets ranging from workforce, population, and demographics. Find data related to a specific property or a specific geographic area that you can pinpoint on a map. That’s why we’re so thorough.”
Carrera said ESRI is so good that the Lower Rio Grande Valley Development Council uses it for 9-1-1 communications.
When asked how much effort COSTEP staff puts into keeping the data up-to-date, Carrera said: So for us, it’s a turnkey thing. Just click to use. And it is constantly being updated.
“There are data tools as well as mapping tools. You can get specific properties. You can add facilities, buildings, drive hours, employee availability, and heat maps within a specific geographic area. It’s all there.”
Carrera said the Valley’s smaller economic development organizations are likely to gain the most value from COSTEP’s databank.
“Smaller EDCs and smaller provinces are probably the biggest beneficiaries because they don’t have access to as much data on their own,” he said.
