ATTORNEY DENNIS SANCHEZ AND COUNTY JUDGE EDDIE TREVINO, PRIME MOVERS BEHIND THE REJECTED CONVENTION CENTER PROJECT

Attorney Dennis Sanchez

Madeira Properties Ltd., co-managed by Mayor Trey Mendez' friend Dennis Sanchez, was all set to develop 1,300 acres near the intersection of Hwy 100 and I-69 until the proposition to approve a 10,500 seat arena on the site was nixed by the voters November 2.

In August 2019 Mayor Trey Mendez personally recommended Dennis Sanchez appointment to the GBIC board, possibly to give the mayor a finger in the pie.  

It can't be overlooked that Mr. Sanchez was also one of the largest contributors to Trey's mayoral campaign.

As early as December 2020 the Brownsville City Commission had been laying the groundwork to create a Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone or TIRZ for that area.  

That timeline may also demonstrate that Trey Mendez and his cronies, Ramiro, Dennis, et al, may have viewed the mayorship very early on as a vehicle to swing lucrative property deals, nothing illegal, mind you, just opportunistic.

But first, the City of Brownsville had to annex 684.52 acres of the area to supplement the 646.28 acres already part of the city.

The TIRZ would have a 10 member Board of Directors, 7 appointed by the City Commission, 3 appointed by the Cameron County Commissioners Court.

Cameron County and the City of Brownsville agreed to share the cost of infrastructure with the county's contribution capped at $57 million or 35.5%.  

Brownsville taxpayers share would be at least twice that amount.

An anonymous commenter to Juan Montoya's El Rrun Rrun blog had this to say:

The article states that Brownsville has to provide utilities, water, wastewater, and electricity to the annexed property in question.

That equates to tens of millions of dollars. Eddie Treviño states that the building of the arena would not affect the tax-payer. Who does Eddie Treviño think is going to pick up the cost of running the utilities to the proposed arena site? THE TAX-PAYER! 

Why did this article not come out earlier? Why is one of the owners, Denis Sanchez, an ex partner of Mayor Mendez involved again in a scheme where he profits from the Mayor’s vote. 

This was an attempt to keep the voters blind and then profit from their scheme. Do you see now why voters do not trust you Eddie Treviño? 

You wanted to double your salary, you played God passing out vaccines in exchange for votes. Do you see why they don’t trust you Eddie? The truth shall set you free.

November 4, 2021 at 12:33 PM

All of the commenter's concerns may now be mute, as, without a convention center, there will likely be no retail or industrial development of significance.

The project may go the way of an ill-fated proposal by Mike Hernandez III for a tiny convention center, "national franchise" hotel, and a minuscule dual education center.

It's of note that, while the Hwy 100 project seemed to have been in the planning stages for some time, the purported financing for the project was not well thought out or explained.

County Judge Eddie Trevino casually mentioned the possible financing of 1/3 of the project, but his projections were suspect and the voting public was obviously not sold.

The project, while labeled a "Brownsville" endeavor, was actually equidistant to the city centers of Brownsville or Harlingen, making it a bit too "far out" for many voters.

Self-Serving P.U.B. CEO  John Bruciak

Brownsville taxpayers still remember the $21 million total waste of their tax dollars on the  "Bridge to Nowhere" boondoggle and the huge P.U.B. utility rate increase for the Tenaska Power Plant that was never built.

Eddie Trevino, many voters remember, lobbied hard for that Tenaska rate increase, that P.U.B. ratepayers are still paying for without explanation or justification from cheerleader Trevino or the arrogant P.U.B. CEO John Bruciak.

Brownsville voters, who've been bruised time and again by projects pushed by crooked politicos, have seemingly learned their lesson and are voting "no" when in doubt. 

Addendum:  Our source for much of the above information was Adolfo Pesquera,  a veteran news journalist whose worked for Hearst Corp., American Lawyer Media, News Corp and Freedom Communications. 

His work has been published in newspapers and magazines across the country and is a journalism graduate of UT-RGV who also writes, edits and creates digital pages for VBX.