MYSTERIOUS "URBAN 8 PROPERTIES, L.L.C." (MAYOR TREY MENDEZ & RAMIRO GONZALEZ?) TO ASK THE BBIC FOR $200,000 TO UPGRADE THEIR NEWLY-ACQUIRED BUILDING

Thursday's special meeting of the Brownsville Community Improvement Corporation will not be held at the normal time or place for the 4B entity, entrusted with carefully dispersing monies from Brownsville's hardworking taxpayers for "Quality of Life" projects judged to be of great benefit to the community.

The meeting will be held at the meeting room of United Way of Southern Cameron County, 634 East Levee Street Thursday, September 30, at 12:00 PM.

Interestingly, the whole point of separating 4A "economic development" and 4B "quality of life" projects from the general fund, controlled by the City Commission, was to delineate and separate those ventures from politics.

Yet, politics rears its ugly head.

Coca Cola Building

One of the largest awards ever issued by the BCIC, $200,000, is said to be earmarked, reserved for Brownsville's top politician, Mayor Trey Mendez, to help the lad upgrade the historic Coca Cola Building, a magnificent Spanish-tiled structure standing directly behind the City Commission Building at 1018 East Washington Street.

The details are still being uncovered, but the 200 grand will be given to Urban 8 Properties, L.L.C., registered with the State of Texas this past June with two principals, Mayor Trey Mendez and recently resigned city official, Ramiro Gonzalez.

The monies will help Trey and Ramiro with the "exterior facade, interior capital and vertical activation improvements" on the newly acquired building.

It appears that a surrogate, Joe Quiroga, the president of Texas National Bank, may have been used to purchase the building from Carmen Peralta of San Antonio, for a price of $382,500 after satisfying a tax lien of $12,396.02.

Thursday's BCIC meeting will not take place at its usual location, the Young House at 500 East Saint Charles Street, but, instead, at the meeting room of the United Way of Southern Cameron County at 634 East Levee Street, ironic, because for many years, Fred Rusteberg, IBC Bank President, would walk across the street from his office at the IBC Bank to the United Way meeting room to chair meetings of United Brownsville, an unelected shadow government that, for many years, tried to control the industrial development of Brownsville and Cameron County.

This meeting of the BCIC, normally held the third Monday of each month, now takes place on the fifth Thursday, September 30.

Ramiro Gonzalez

Ramiro Gonzalez, Mayor Trey's apparent partner in the newly formed Urban 8 Properties, L.L.C., is said to have resigned from his job in the City Manager's office on Wednesday.  We confirmed that resignation with at least one City Commissioner.

Gonzalez spent nine years in the city's planning department, where he seems to have also been occupied in locating potential bargain purchases to enhance his own nest egg.

In 2014 Gonzalez approached the City Commission to request he be allowed to purchase a triangular-shaped tract along the city's heavily commercialed Central Boulevard.

The City Commission, under then Mayor Tony Martinez, allowed the purchase for an incredibly small pittance of $7,145, but, then, viewing Ramiro Gonzalez as a good soldier, added two additional tracts for free.  

That good fortune may have been the impetus for Ramiro to consider a future in real estate, now joining forces with Mayor Trey Mendez to profiteer and utilize their knowledge of the city and its money-allocating entities to enhance their property portfolio.