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NAI RGV Reintroduces Itself to the Market

Thursday, September 2nd, 2010


Mike Blum, NAI-Rio Grande Valley managing Partner

By Roberto Hugo Gonzalez

Texas Border Business

BIG STORY

 

They find that the valley sold $1.1 billion in the food, beverage and hospitality industryin 2009 alone

In 2004 Mike Blum approached Charles Mueller owner of Synergies LLC, a multi-faceted Rio Grande Valley based company, with the idea of creating a real estate division. Mueller agreed and Synergis Realty Group was created.

“Almost at the same time of that creation the then NAI Global affiliate which was known as NAI RIOCO decided to give up its NAI flag,” Blum stated. Blum, who had been with NAI RIOCO since 1997, knew the unique opportunity and the numerous benefits that come with acquiring the NAI flag. Immediately, Mueller and Mike approached the NAI Global Corporation about becoming the NAI affiliate in the Rio Grande Valley.

“So in 2005 the deal was made and we became NAI Rio Grande Valley with over $100 million worth of listings that came over to our table,” Blum stated. With this affiliation, NAI Rio Grande Valley became the NAI Global Rio Grande Valley affiliate. NAI Global is the largest managed, network of commercial real estate professionals with over 5,000 professionals, 325 offices in 55 countries. This makes it possible for NAI Rio Grande Valley to help its clients around the corner and around the world. “We are no longer affiliated with NAI RIOCO, in fact, NAI RIOCO does not exist.”

Blum is the managing partner for the company. He is well known as someone who loves to study and understand the markets. He believes this is important because knowledge is power and markets are in a constant state of evolution. “We are a dynamic, growing community; the population has grown 30 to 40 percent during the last decade.” Blum continued, “Because there has been a significant change in the market it’s time to re-introduce us to everyone to reacquaint them with the uniqueness of our organization and the talent and skill of the people who make us up.”

NAI Rio Grande Valley has offices in Brownsville, Harlingen and McAllen with a team of commercial brokers who focus primarily on commercial real estate. Laura Little and Eric Ziehe manage the Brownsville and Harlingen offices respectively, Roger Stolley, Carlos Molina and Laura Liza Paz office in McAllen. “Whether it is an industrial, land, office or retail sale or lease we have the resources and the expertise to assist buyers and sellers and to handle their real estate portfolio,” Blum stated.

He pointed out that other large commercial real estate companies outside of the Valley who have clients looking for a site in the Rio Grande Valley call NAI RGV.

“The reason they call us is because we look like them, not only are we local but we have a global affiliation. National firms look at us as a source of support when they come to the Valley because of our local expert knowledge and our breadth of resources from being a part of NAI Global.”

NAI RGV is also serving the Mexican businesspeople that are relocating to the United States. “We recently added Laura Liza Paz, who has 16 years experience. She joined us in January of this year. Laura Liza has given us a whole new dimension in our ability to better conduct business with the Mexico market,” he said enthusiastically.

Blum explained they have lots of commercial real estate opportunities for sale, some with ongoing businesses ideal for Mexican nationals who have a desire to start immediately. “There are other Mexican businesspeople that are moving their businesses to the US, like Cabrito El Pastor,” he said, and we helped bring that transaction to fruition.

$1.1 billion in sales, 25% of sales attributed to McAllen

Blum loves to study demographic and economic data. Through his analysis of numbers he is able to understand how the economy is flourishing and why. Through these same numbers he has been able to find business opportunities that are more inflation proof and ones that are driving our economy. For example, “the food and beverage industry continues to prosper against all odds,” he continues to explain “that part of the reason is that the demographics are out of the ordinary and unusual compared to other places in Texas.” He said that last year there were $1.1 billion dollars in retail sales in the food and beverage industry in the Rio Grande Valley. Twenty-five percent of that were sales made in McAllen alone.

Blum also discovered that the population demographic of the Valley has some extraordinary numbers that don’t make sense when compared to the average household income. McAllen’s actual retail sales per household in 2009 were 24% greater than the reported average household income. That means that retail dollars spent in McAllen were 24% greater than the reported average income generated by each household. One of the reasons the numbers are out of sync with what is considered normal, is that retail sales are being generated by our hospitality demographic in addition to resident demographic.

“If you take all the hotels in the Rio Grande Valley and you put somebody in a room every night for 365 days that is a lot of population that are here (hospitality demographic), but they are not calculated as part of the population (resident demographic) because they are just a night spender,” he stated.

Blum explained that of the 3,400 hotel rooms in McAllen if they are only occupied 50% of the time, it is the equivalent to three quarters of a million people staying here for one night over the course of the year. Of these numbers an estimated 35-40% of our retail sales are generated by Mexican Nationals.

Blum said it is important to attract more hotels because they attract people and together they impact the food and beverage industry. “People eat out three times a day. These are verifiable numbers we use to bring people here because that triggers a sale or a lease,” he said.

The healthcare industry is also contributing to the region’s economy as well as education, via South Texas College and UT Pan American. “These are all growth areas that seem to be inflation proof because they happen in spite of any economic adversity.”

Blum stated that customers can count on NAI RGV to use its knowledge, expertise and resources to help turn real estate investment opportunities into profitable realities. To learn more about NAI RGV, visit their website www.nairgv.com TBB

Mike Blum is Managing partner for NAI Rio Grande Valley. Photo by Roberto Hugo Gonzalez

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