generic Ramirez named GBIC head; Will continue in deputy city manager role
Feb. 25—Mario Lozoya is out as executive director of the Greater Brownsville Incentives Corporation and Brownsville Deputy City Manager Helen Ramirez is in.
The GBIC board appointed Ramirez to the job on Feb. 12, and action coming on the heels of the Brownsville City Commission's decision on Dec. 1 to remove all seven GBIC board members. City commissioners voted to appoint themselves as GBIC's interim board, according to John Cowen Jr., At-Large "A" Brownsville city commissioner and interim GBIC board chairman.
"Obviously GBIC is an important economic driver for the city and I think in evaluating the organization, the commission felt that it was time to make some drastic changes," he said. "We weren't very happy with the performance of the board in terms of ... making sure that we were in line with the commission's strategic vision.
"It's sitting on $13 million in the bank and we're not really getting a return on our investment. We were kind of spinning our wheels over there and it kind of needed to be refreshed, and I think we're all very excited with Helen at the helm. She's proven herself at the city to be a very effective economic developer and I think we'll see some quick wins in the short term."
Cowen said a new GBIC board should be installed "sometime this year."
GBIC and the city commission earlier this month signed off on a separation agreement with Lozoya, who in 2018 was hired as GBIC's executive director over the objections of Cowen, then serving as GBIC board member before being elected to the city commission, and Nurith Galonsky, then GBIC board member and today District 1 city commissioner. Their objections centered on Lozoya's lack of traditional economic development and contract terms they viewed as not favorable to GBIC and the city.
Cowen said Ramirez's appointment as GBIC head is "an opportunity to streamline this thing so we get some results and a good use of taxpayer money."
"I think that's what everyone wants," he said. "They want for these organizations to be effective and to be accountable to the public."
Ramirez, who will also continue serving as deputy city manager, said the GBIC position is a logical segue from what she's already been doing for the city.
"I was here as deputy city manager because I had experience with economic development," she said. "I feel very comfortable being executive director and having both roles, because I could honestly say we were doing it anyway."
Key projects Ramirez has been working on include redevelopment of the shuttered Sears building at Sunrise Mall. It will be home to a TruFit Athletic Club and additional tenants to be named. Another effort has involved getting the North Brownsville Industrial Park into commerce after sitting empty since its founding several years ago, while a separate push concerns development of an adjacent commercial area where GBIC owns land.
The North Brownsville park's first building is under construction, the 30,000 square foot new home of Exel Bobbins & Plastic Components, Ramirez said, adding that a possible second building is in the works for another tenant. Developing the "new space" economy locally has been and will continue to be a priority, she said. Scheduled to go live in March is the Space Ventures financial-technology online platform, aimed at helping grow a local space and tech ecosystem to complement what SpaceX is already doing at Boca Chica.
GBIC has already been involved in supporting that project, which is a portal for investors and "pre-seed" companies to invest in such ventures, Ramirez said.
"I would say it's crowd funding, but crowd funding for a specific niche sector, which is space," she said.
Besides trying to recruit new business, among Ramirez's first acts as GBIC chief will be to gauge the needs of companies already here in terms of employee retention, production and the like, she said.
"I need to check the pulse of our existing industry partners to see how they're doing," Ramirez said. "I don't want to lose sight of that. That's why we're here, that's why we exist."
She said she also wants to make a priority of strengthening relationships between GBIC and the city, and with schools and colleges and workforce development entities, and to take those relationships "to a different level."
"I think with the pandemic and our economy has shown us, partnerships and collaboration between multiple parties, whether it's public or private, or with other entities, is very important," Ramirez said. "That's how you really get traction and get things going. One entity can't do it all, but you can really be successful with the collaboration of other community partners."
