By Juan Montoya
As early as 2008 – 10 years ago – F.W. Bert Wheeler, listed as owner and trustee of the 262-acre tract of land off Old Alice Road adjacent to the 300-acre property owned by the Greater Brownsville Incentives Corporation, tried to unload it to the Brownsville Community Improvements Corp.
Now, his new customer is the Community Development Corporation of Brownsville.
In 2008, the going price was $3.2 million. At the time, news reports indicated that City officials had hoped to use it for the future expansion of the 170-acre Sports Park. Also considered were a community center, police substation or commercial development.
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But just as the BCIC was getting ready to close the deal, they said that the seller backed out. City officials at the time said that once other interested buyers heard of the impending sale, the seller had been "inundated" with higher bids, some as high as $5 million.
The intended purchase, publicized by then-city commission Charlie Atkinson, apparently caught the attention of other prospective buyers. Atkinson had envisioned BCIC selling it for up to $8 million.
"It could have been a great opportunity," Atkinson said, adding, "there will be others."
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That was back in 2008.
Two years later, in 2010, the Greater Brownsville Incentives Corporation (GBIC), the BCIC's sister development entity who each get a 1/4 cent share annually from the city's sales taxes for close to $5 million, bought a 350-acre tract adjacent to the Wheeler property and designated it as property to develop an industrial corridor.
Bordering both properties to the south is the main switching yard of the Union Pacific Railroad. On the north, PUB owns 82 acres and the Rucker-Carrizales Detention Center and the Border Patrol Station are nearby. (Click on bottom graphic to enlarge.)
Wheeler, who did not sell the property to anyone in the nine years after after turning the BCIC down, apparently found a willing buyer in the CDCB in November 2017. The selling price has not been disclosed, but it would be fair to say that it could be as much as twice or three times the $3.2 million the BCIC was going to borrow from the city to buy the same land.
On August 7, the CDCB proposed a development for affordable rental housing of 120 units that would be located near the Southeast portion of Sports Park Boulevard and Old Alice Road. Although a portion of the housing was to be affordable, a larger percentage would require tenants to pay rentals higher than a someone with a "disadvantaged" classification could pay.
Accordingly, the CDCB submitted an application to the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs for 2018 Housing Tax Credits for the development, called Casitas Palo Alto. Then-GBIC Interim Director Gilbert Salinas, Interim City Manager Michael Lopez and city planners knew about it an did not object. Even Mayor Tony Martinez was OK with it.
There was only one hitch. Nobody – not Salinas, not Lopez, not the planners, and not the mayor – let the chairs (first commissioner Jessica Tetreau and then commissioner Cesar de Leon) of the GBIC know what was planned for the site in the planned industrial corridor.
The residential development that the CDCB wanted did not fit the plans that the GBIC had for an industrial corridor there for heavy and light manufacturing. And a prospective tenant of the corridor – a steel plant – told the GBIC it would reconsider its plans to move there if a residential development was approved. They simply did not need the potential liability.
Additionally, representatives of the Union Pacific railroad, sounded the alarm that the proposed residential development would be directly upwind from its switching yards, a huge liability to the company in case of an accidental chemical spill or other mishap involving hazardous materials.
Back in 2008, Salinas was the spokesman for the Brownsville Economic Development Council, and said he was not surprised that the seller backed out.
"The Sports Park is an extremely attractive property," Salinas said, noting that the expansion of Merryman Road on its northern fringe that runs into Old Alice Road where the Wheeler property is located would only add to that. "It makes it very attractive for other investors."
There was also another sticking point. In order for the CDBC's plans to build the residential development, it had to rezone the properties from Dwelling "Z" to Dwelling "G." The zoning change passed on first reading during the August 7 city commission meeting.
But new GBIC CEO Mario Lozoya – whose contract was also approved at the same meeting – discovered that the rezoning would cast a cold towel on the industrial corridor plans GBIC had for their property next door. Approval of the rezoning would to residential development would result in a "devaluation" of the industrial corridor since major industry would likely not use the industrial corridor due to impending residential development, he warned.
In the next meeting where the second and final reading of the rezoning was to be considered, De Leon asked that the item be tabled. A unanimous city commission approved his motion. And that's where matters stand now.
Although Wheeler is listed as the trustee in the tax-office records, they do not state who he is trustee for or who owns the properties. When CDCB officials have been asked who they are, they refuse to say, raising suspicions that something questionable might be afoot with the real-estate transaction.
These and other questions – GBIC board members and administrators insist – must be answered before any action to approve the rezoning can even be considered.
As early as 2008 – 10 years ago – F.W. Bert Wheeler, listed as owner and trustee of the 262-acre tract of land off Old Alice Road adjacent to the 300-acre property owned by the Greater Brownsville Incentives Corporation, tried to unload it to the Brownsville Community Improvements Corp.
Now, his new customer is the Community Development Corporation of Brownsville.
In 2008, the going price was $3.2 million. At the time, news reports indicated that City officials had hoped to use it for the future expansion of the 170-acre Sports Park. Also considered were a community center, police substation or commercial development.
But just as the BCIC was getting ready to close the deal, they said that the seller backed out. City officials at the time said that once other interested buyers heard of the impending sale, the seller had been "inundated" with higher bids, some as high as $5 million.The intended purchase, publicized by then-city commission Charlie Atkinson, apparently caught the attention of other prospective buyers. Atkinson had envisioned BCIC selling it for up to $8 million.
"It could have been a great opportunity," Atkinson said, adding, "there will be others."
That was back in 2008.
Two years later, in 2010, the Greater Brownsville Incentives Corporation (GBIC), the BCIC's sister development entity who each get a 1/4 cent share annually from the city's sales taxes for close to $5 million, bought a 350-acre tract adjacent to the Wheeler property and designated it as property to develop an industrial corridor.
Bordering both properties to the south is the main switching yard of the Union Pacific Railroad. On the north, PUB owns 82 acres and the Rucker-Carrizales Detention Center and the Border Patrol Station are nearby. (Click on bottom graphic to enlarge.)
Wheeler, who did not sell the property to anyone in the nine years after after turning the BCIC down, apparently found a willing buyer in the CDCB in November 2017. The selling price has not been disclosed, but it would be fair to say that it could be as much as twice or three times the $3.2 million the BCIC was going to borrow from the city to buy the same land.
On August 7, the CDCB proposed a development for affordable rental housing of 120 units that would be located near the Southeast portion of Sports Park Boulevard and Old Alice Road. Although a portion of the housing was to be affordable, a larger percentage would require tenants to pay rentals higher than a someone with a "disadvantaged" classification could pay.
Accordingly, the CDCB submitted an application to the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs for 2018 Housing Tax Credits for the development, called Casitas Palo Alto. Then-GBIC Interim Director Gilbert Salinas, Interim City Manager Michael Lopez and city planners knew about it an did not object. Even Mayor Tony Martinez was OK with it.
There was only one hitch. Nobody – not Salinas, not Lopez, not the planners, and not the mayor – let the chairs (first commissioner Jessica Tetreau and then commissioner Cesar de Leon) of the GBIC know what was planned for the site in the planned industrial corridor.
The residential development that the CDCB wanted did not fit the plans that the GBIC had for an industrial corridor there for heavy and light manufacturing. And a prospective tenant of the corridor – a steel plant – told the GBIC it would reconsider its plans to move there if a residential development was approved. They simply did not need the potential liability.
Additionally, representatives of the Union Pacific railroad, sounded the alarm that the proposed residential development would be directly upwind from its switching yards, a huge liability to the company in case of an accidental chemical spill or other mishap involving hazardous materials.
Back in 2008, Salinas was the spokesman for the Brownsville Economic Development Council, and said he was not surprised that the seller backed out.
"The Sports Park is an extremely attractive property," Salinas said, noting that the expansion of Merryman Road on its northern fringe that runs into Old Alice Road where the Wheeler property is located would only add to that. "It makes it very attractive for other investors."
There was also another sticking point. In order for the CDBC's plans to build the residential development, it had to rezone the properties from Dwelling "Z" to Dwelling "G." The zoning change passed on first reading during the August 7 city commission meeting.
But new GBIC CEO Mario Lozoya – whose contract was also approved at the same meeting – discovered that the rezoning would cast a cold towel on the industrial corridor plans GBIC had for their property next door. Approval of the rezoning would to residential development would result in a "devaluation" of the industrial corridor since major industry would likely not use the industrial corridor due to impending residential development, he warned.
In the next meeting where the second and final reading of the rezoning was to be considered, De Leon asked that the item be tabled. A unanimous city commission approved his motion. And that's where matters stand now.
Although Wheeler is listed as the trustee in the tax-office records, they do not state who he is trustee for or who owns the properties. When CDCB officials have been asked who they are, they refuse to say, raising suspicions that something questionable might be afoot with the real-estate transaction.
These and other questions – GBIC board members and administrators insist – must be answered before any action to approve the rezoning can even be considered.