Press Release

U.S. Department of Commerce Invests to Support Advanced Manufacturing Businesses in Brownsville, Texas Opportunity Zone

WASHINGTON – Today, the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration (EDA) is awarding a $900,000 grant to the Brownsville Community Improvement Corporation of Brownsville, Texas, to establish a state-of-the-art center that will help nurture the growth of technology-based entrepreneurial ventures. The project, to be located in a Tax Cuts and Jobs Act designated Opportunity Zone, will be matched with $1.4 million in local funds.

“The Trump Administration is committed to supporting our nation’s innovators and entrepreneurs,” said U.S. Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Economic Development Dr. John Fleming. “The new eBridge Center for Business and Commercialization will nurture new advanced manufacturing businesses and the project’s location in a Tax Cuts and Jobs Act Opportunity Zone will provide additional tax incentives for business development.”

The project will renovate an approximately 18,000 sq. ft. portion of the second floor in the Casa del Nylon Building in Brownsville to house the eBridge Center for Business and Commercialization. This project was made possible by the regional planning efforts led by the Lower Rio Grande Valley Development Council (LRGVDC), an EDA Designated Economic Development District. EDA funds LRGVDC to bring together the public and private sectors to create an economic development roadmap to strengthen the regional economy, support private capital investment and create jobs.

The funding announced today goes to a designated Opportunity Zone, created by President Donald J. Trump’s Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 to spur economic development by giving tax incentives to investors in economically-distressed communities nationwide. In June 2019, EDA added Opportunity Zones as an Investment Priority, which increases the number of catalytic Opportunity Zone-related projects that EDA can fund to fuel greater public investment in these areas. To learn more about the Opportunity Zone program, see the Treasury Department resources page here. To learn more about the Commerce Department’s work in Opportunity Zones, please visit EDA’s Opportunity Zones webpage.

About the U.S. Economic Development Administration (www.eda.gov)
The mission of the U.S. Economic Development Administration (EDA) is to lead the federal economic development agenda by promoting competitiveness and preparing the nation's regions for growth and success in the worldwide economy. An agency within the U.S. Department of Commerce, EDA makes investments in economically distressed communities in order to create jobs for U.S. workers, promote American innovation, and accelerate long-term sustainable economic growth.