Texas Border Business
By Roberto Hugo Gonzalez
PHARR, Texas – Not even three years have passed since this project was the subject of only conversation by Joaquin Spamer, President, and founder of Commodities Integrated Logistics (CIL), and Victor Perez, President/CEO of the Pharr Economic Development Corp.
The tract of land is strategic; it is close to the Pharr International Bridge and large enough to accommodate this facility. On July 18, 2022, Spamer celebrated the groundbreaking ceremony at Queenstown Park. He was joined by distinguished friends and guests. Mayor Dr. Ambrosio Hernandez, and commissioners: Dr. Ramiro Caballero and Eleazar Guajardo, and City Manager Harvey Andy were also present.
“This is a great project,” said Spamer. “I got together with a couple of friends, Gabriel Villaseñor, the former APEAM President, and Jorge De Coss, and bought these thirty acres. We divided the land, they have the south side, and we have the corner.” He continued. “I got together with Jimmy Santos, who is known in the industry,”
Spamer said that they are building a facility of approximately 150,600 sq. ft. “It will be a refrigerated Cross Dock and a state-of-the-art building. Mexican trucks will unload on one side of the facility with U.S. trucks loading on the other side.” Spamer guaranteed that there would be no lines of trucks blocking the road waiting to enter the facility. “We have 120 positions to keep the entire team on the property. This will not happen,” he said.
Mayor Hernandez said, “We back our investors substantially because we believe in them. One of the reasons we do that is because we look for partnerships. We look for people like Joaquin. We look for people who believe in people and their employees, that empower them and make sure that they know what they need to do for your clients, that they get served well, that they come across as being with integrity.”
CIL currently has over 1,150,000 sq. ft. of warehouse space and will be expanding its cold storage facility capacity by 10% via the construction of this new 150,600 sq. ft. state-of-the-art facility.
The facility will include 124,200 sq. ft. of cold space and 24,000 sq. ft. of office space. Queenstown Park will provide processing, storage, and distribution services, and fits into several tenets of the prospective Pharr community plan, including creating jobs and advancing local economic goals. The construction of this new facility will result in the employment of approximately 100 full-time employees.
Joaquin Spamer, President and founder of Commodities Integrated Logistics (CiL). Queenstown Park’s cold storage facility comes at a strategic time. The international crossing of perishables has dramatically increased. Courtesy – Rendering of how the facility will look once built. Pictured above is an aerial rendering of the Queenstown Park building featuring cross dock for the convenience of both of the border clients. Courtesy- image.
