Everything James W. Collins said at the "CEOs Unite - Let's Get Uncomfortable" summit
MCALLEN, Texas - Businessman and developer James W. Collins was one of the panelists at the “CEOs Unite - Let’s Get Uncomfortable” summit.
The event was hosted by Hidalgo County Prosperity Task Force and Futuro RGV.
Collins, who moved to the Rio Grande Valley from Amarillo in 1980, is chairman of Rioco Partners, Ltd., a real estate investor-developer and private equity investment company. He is also associated with Mayfair Private Trust Company and their family investment office. And he is current chairman of Vantage Bank.
According to its website, Rioco is “dedicated to the development of South Texas.”
The website states: “Rioco prides itself on selecting, acquiring, and developing the prime real estate sites that best fit the needs of clients in one of the fastest-growing metropolitan areas of the country. Combining an understanding of the region’s unique economics, close proximity to the U.S./Mexico border, and long-established ties to the Mexico business community, Rioco is able to provide services to local, regional and national clients looking to invest in Texas while tapping into the tremendous potential of the Mexico market.”
In his remarks at the summit, Collins spoke a lot about the retail market in the Valley.
“I want to tell a story about retail a little bit. We develop a number of shopping centers in the Valley. We’d go to International Council of Chopping Centers’ meetings and we tried to talk to the directors of real estate at various companies. But… we didn't get very far as an individual company trying to push our one shopping center.
“What really made the difference was the director of real estate for Walmart left Walmart and went to Target. And he he knew these sales that Walmart was creating (in the RGV). And so Target came in with a little bit different (of a) flavor, a little bit higher target market for their customer, and they've succeeded.
“I'm not trying to say that will appeal to the highest per capita people are the highest income earners. But we sure do hit…I think our retailers here know their market, they are discounters, they masters at their art, Ross, the Burlingtons. The discounters are really hitting the market and they really are very successful here.
“I never thought Donna, Texas, would have as many cars in the parking lot in front of Burlington and Ross and DD’s, it's amazing. It's very successful. And that's been repeated up and down, throughout the Valley. So, I think we just need to get the message out of the success. I'm taking one industry, the retail industry. Well, it took word of mouth between real estate directors to really get that where everybody understood.
“I was a doubter of Starbucks. I thought our region was so hot in the summer that who would want to drink coffee in the afternoons. Well look at how many Starbucks… I can tell you that one of the stores I have, they're doing over two and a half million dollars. I mean, it's phenomenal.
“Luby's, I mean time and time, many of the stores, their top stores are along the border.”
Collins also said the Valley deserves better public relations.
“I just want to end on saying we all have to change our public relations, our publicity for the Valley. We need to… for every drug cartel news story, or fentanyl death, or immigration issue, we need to at least have a positive economic fact getting out about how great the Rio Grande Valley is.”
Collins added: “the foundation has been laid and the hard work has been done bringing in the educational institutions.”
Here are the remarks Collins made at the summit.
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