𝘼𝙁𝙏𝙀𝙍 𝙔𝙀𝘼𝙍𝙎 𝙇𝙔𝙄𝙉𝙂 𝙄𝘿𝙇𝙀, 𝙏𝙃𝙀 𝙊𝙇𝘿 𝘾𝘼𝙎𝘼 𝘿𝙀𝙇 𝙉𝙔𝙇𝙊𝙉 𝘽𝙐𝙄𝙇𝘿𝙄𝙉𝙂 𝙄𝙎 𝙏𝙍𝘼𝙉𝙎𝙁𝙊𝙍𝙈𝙀𝘿 𝙄𝙉𝙏𝙊 𝘼𝙉 𝙀𝙉𝙏𝙍𝙀𝙋𝙍𝙀𝙉𝙀𝙐𝙍𝙄𝘼𝙇 𝘾𝙀𝙉𝙏𝙀𝙍

Jesus Maroquin, Roberta Waters under La Casa del Nylon awning

Back in 2012, La Casa Del Nylon at 1304 E. Adams Street was one of 13 downtown buildings purchased under the direction of Mayor Tony Martinez in a misguided effort to secure space for Juliet V. Garcia's dream of a University of the Americas as part of the University of Texas system.

If any university does not need a handout from impoverished Brownsville, it's UT with only one of its funding sources, the PUF, now worth a whopping $30B from oil revenue on 2,000,000 acres of Texas land, making it the richest public university in the country by far.

La Casa del Nylon

La Casa del Nylon was the most expensive of Tony Martinez's purchases after his law partner, Horacio Barrera, craftily "negotiated" a purchase price of $2.3M, roughly triple its appraised value of $635,000.

Certainly, Abraham Galonsky, the seller of the building, had to be pleased with the windfall after having the property on the market for ten years. 

Yet, for several years La Casa del Nylon lay idle and in decay while no longer generating property taxes for the city with its only occupants Jesus Marroquin, Roberta Waters and their dog Milo spending every night sleeping at the building's entrance.  

After a few years, Roberta and Milo passed away and Jesus was joined under the sagging awning by another woman and dog.

The problem was that the city had no actual use planned for the building once it became clear the UT system had no need for old, downtown structures.

Briefly, there was talk of creating a fire department training session in the building, but that concept never came to fruition.

Finally, after an extensive remodel, the eBridge Center for Business & Commercialization, designed for startup businesses and entrepreneurs, opened March 23, 2023.  

Wednesday, I took a self tour.  After all these years, the remodel is stunning with substantial natural light, beautiful flooring and elegant furnishings. 

At a meeting sponsored by the Brownsville Community Improvement Corporation, two local entrepreneurs gave 6 minute talks about their new businesses followed by a question and answer session. 

So, 11 years after the initial purchase, the City of Brownsville gets some usage of the property purchased in 2012.