The $800 Billion Border

f you think border immigration issues at the Mexican border are impeding commercial activity, think again.

There’s a reason, after all, Chicago-based real estate investment firm Brennan Investment Group has created a new U.S. Border division that the firm says will make investments in the U.S. and across the entire U.S.-Mexico border, which covers 1,961 miles and includes 25 ports of entry.

“The nearshoring phenomenon, driven by geopolitics, labor cost differences and robotics, will be a significant part of our business for years to come,” said Troy MacMane, managing principal for Brennan’s Texas Region, at the March 2024 announcement of a new cross-dock facility on 24 acres at Pinnacle Business Park in Laredo.

“Mexico overtook China in late 2023 to become the number one exporter to the United States with the value of goods approaching $500 billion,” said Brennan Investment Group Chairman and Managing Principal Michael Brennan. “Of equal importance, Laredo has the number one port in North America. We are pleased with our strategic decision to invest here.”

Asked to characterize the level of global occupier interest in locations on both sides of the border, Moreno tells me 76% of Mexico foreign investment is going into state of Nuevo León (Monterrey). That amounted to 15 million sq. ft. of space absorbed in the state in 2023, approximately 5 million sq. ft. of that total occupied by Chinese companies. “Usually around 20-25% of the absorbed space in Monterrey reflects in Laredo,” he says, in terms of warehouse and third-party logistics activity.

Is it accurate to say that mutually beneficial economic development and commerce continue to grow along the border regardless of illegal immigration debates? Moreno says, “Yes, still very active with impressive absorption and buildings under construction in Laredo and El Paso.”

Moreno says his division also is looking to invest in the El Paso region and, in the mid-term, in the McAllen area.

Led by manufacturing, U.S. FDI in Mexico was $130.3 billion in 2022, a 7.6% increase from 2021, according to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative. Goods imports of $454.8 billion in 2022 were up nearly 19% from the year before and 64% from a decade earlier.

A flyer from the Pharr Bridge Board said there was $47 billion in global trade at the international bridge in 2022, with a growth rate of 3% monthly in 2023. A second span is on the way.
Photo courtesy of Pharr International Bridge

Movement on Goods Movement Infrastructure
A fact sheet from the U.S.-Mexico High-Level Economic Dialogue (HLED) Mid-Year Review in April 2024 said border accomplishments include “the modernization and expansion of the Otay Mesa Port of Entry (POE) in January 2024; completion of the enhanced feasibility study for the modernization and expansion of the Bridge of the Americas POE in November 2023; the completion of the Program Development Study on the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law-funded Brownsville Gateway project; and the start of southbound transit of empty commercial vehicles at the Donna POE.” Among other highlights:

• The United States signed a memorandum of understanding allowing project sponsors to move forward with the 30% design of the Otay Mesa East POE. Mexico’s Secretariat of National Defense (SEDENA) reports a progress of almost 60% on the Mexican side of the construction of the new border crossing at Otay Mesa II. It is expected to be completed by September 21, 2024.


• GSA expects to complete the Environmental Impact Statement regarding a new commercial crossing at the Douglas Agua Prieta POE where Arizona meets Sonora in May 2024, with the project design-build process starting this summer.


• Regarding Piedras Negras-Eagle Pass II between Maverick County, Texas, and Coahuila, Mexico, the Mexican Secretariat of National Defense (SEDENA) expected to complete works by early June 2024.


• Mexico’s Secretariat of Infrastructure, Communications, and Transportation (SICT) expects to conclude the construction on the Mexican side for the second span of the Nuevo Amanecer (Reynosa)-Pharr international bridge at the Texas-Tamaulipas border by October 2024. Pharr ranks third in the nation for trade with Mexico, behind only Laredo and El Paso.