The North American Development Bank approved two new Texas project loans totaling $128.7 million, which could result in big economic gains, according to the mayor of McAllen, Texas.
In last week's semi-annual meeting, the board of directors of NADBank signed off on the two Texas projects — a $63 million loan to the city of McAllen for its Anzalduas Land Port of Entry Expansion Project and $65.7 million for a 160-megawatt solar park and 40 MW, a two-hour battery energy storage system that will be built six miles west of Brackettville in Kinney County.
The McAllen project will build commercial vehicle inspection facilities to process loaded southbound and northbound vehicles at the port of entry in Mission. This will help relieve congestion at other area ports that are facing delays and reduce greenhouse gas emissions and commercial traffic pollution.
"We expect that investing in improved mobility at ports of entry ... will reduce wait times and improve air quality in communities that host them," Beckham said.
McAllen Mayor Javier Villalobos said that the McAllen expansion will improve trade for not only the U.S. as a whole, but boost Texas and McAllen's economies as well.
"International trade from Mexico into the United states is of vital importance to the state of Texas, and no one understands this better than the Rio Grande Valley Texas legislative delegation," he said.
Last week, NADBank's board also approved a $15.4 million loan for a project in Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, that will replace four outdated sewer mains in the northwest part of the city, and established a $300 million green loan program designed to finance environmentally sustainable projects for small, rural borrowers and other borrowers along the border who may lack access to other types of financing.
NADBank Managing Director Calixto Mateos Hanel said that over the past few years, NADBank has had a focus on sustainable investments in the border region that combat climate change alongside public and private sector sponsors, regardless of the size of the project.
“Our new Green Loan Program will help build a new market for the Bank, where access to financing for small-scale green projects is more challenging," he said.
Other recent NADBank initiatives have included a partnership with Siemens to provide a $78.2 million loan for energy storage projects — which the bank believes to be the first reported project financing of a fully merchant battery storage project in the United States — $200,000 for wastewater projects on the border in late February and the financing of new wastewater projects near El Paso in late January.
The North American Development Bank was established in 1994 during North American Free Trade Agreement negotiations. Its aim is to develop and finance environmental infrastructure on the U.S.-Mexico border. The bank was reauthorized as part of the negotiation of the trade deal in 2018.
