Roughly 70% of the produce entering the United States from across the Rio Grande comes through the Pharr-Reynosa International Bridge, according to a FreightWaves report on the bridge's port-of-entry expansion. Whatever the exact share in any given year, the point stands: a large amount of fresh fruit and vegetables lands in Pharr by truck, and much of it is going to be cut, washed, packed, cooled or processed before it goes north. That is the opening for food and beverage processing buildings.
These buildings are not warehouses with sinks. Everything in them is designed around cleaning. Floors slope to drains, walls are smooth and sealed, equipment is raised off the floor, and air moves from clean areas to less clean ones. The regulator, the buyer's auditor and the owner's quality team all inspect the result, and a detail that cannot be cleaned is a defect.
We build processing and packing facilities in the Valley, where produce growing, border trade and cold chain meet. Here is how the work goes.
Sanitary design drives the shell. Wall panels are smooth and washable, with coved corners where wall meets floor, sealed penetrations and no ledges that collect dust. Ceilings are cleanable or enclosed. Doors and frames are stainless or coated for washdown. Lighting is shatter-resistant. A processing room is also one of the few places where we think about which direction air flows, because cleaner zones are kept at positive pressure relative to dirtier ones.
Zoning matters. Raw product, ready-to-eat product, packaging and employee areas are laid out so that people and material never cross from dirty to clean. We review the process flow with the owner's food safety lead before drawings are finished, since a layout that causes cross-traffic cannot be fixed with paint. For the related envelope work in cold rooms, see cold storage facilities.
Floors in a wet plant do the hardest work. The slab is sloped, usually a fraction of an inch per foot, toward trench drains and floor drains, and surfaced with a seamless, chemical-resistant topping that stands up to wash water, sanitizer and hot cleaning. Poor slope leaves puddles, and puddles are an inspection problem. The topping needs to bond to a properly prepared slab, with control joints carried through and sealed with a flexible material.
We coordinate drainage and floor finish with the process equipment, because pits, sumps and trenches are set before the pour. Mistakes here are costly to fix. Our commercial concrete floors work includes the slab, the slopes and the topping as one scope, and our manufacturing plant experience applies to the equipment foundations that sit within the same floor.
Water in, water out. A packing or processing plant uses a lot of water for washing and cooling, and sends wastewater out that may need pretreatment before it reaches the city sewer. Utility capacity must be checked before a site is bought: the water main, the sewer line, the treatment plant's acceptance of the discharge and the electric service. Waste handling is part of the plan too, because produce trimmings and packaging add up.
The setting calls for care. The EPA's profile of the Donna Canal and Reservoir describes a 400-acre area southwest of Donna where high levels of PCBs were found in fish and a fish possession ban took effect in 1994. That concerns fish in a particular water body, not produce, and we do not suggest any link between that site and any processing facility. We cite it as a reminder to ask where process water comes from and where it goes. See site development and utilities for how we handle the underground work.
Alamo is described in public references as being in the irrigated area of southern Hidalgo County, an area of vegetable farming and citrus groves, with a 2020 census population of 19,493. Weslaco hosts a Texas A&M agricultural research center. Those two facts frame the supply side: crops grown nearby, research done nearby, and a processing industry that can draw on both. A plant in Alamo or Weslaco sits closer to the fields; a plant in Pharr sits closer to the bridge.
Which is better depends on the product. A grower-packer wants to be near the harvest. A processor handling imported product wants to be near the crossing. We help owners compare sites using truck-turn times, utility availability and land prices, and we lay out buildings that can handle either flow.
San Juan's South Stewart Road is home to refrigerated warehouses listed with the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation, including a 58,500 square foot first phase of Pro Fresh Warehouse at an estimated $12,600,000, registered in April 2025 with construction running June 2025 to July 2026. The Pharr Economic Development Corporation's blog also notes a groundbreaking by Greenway for a new cold storage facility in Pharr Produce Park in July 2024. Processing often sits beside cold storage, and a plant that adds cutting, washing or packing to a cold building is a common step.
That arrangement shows up in how we plan. Processing rooms, chill rooms and docks share walls, doors and refrigeration. We coordinate mechanical systems so heat from process equipment does not load the cold rooms, and we place docks so raw and finished product leave through different doors. See logistics and distribution for the shipping side.
Plan review for a food plant involves the building department, the fire marshal and often state or federal food regulators, depending on the product. Texas Local Government Code Section 214.216 sets the 2012 International Building Code as the municipal floor, with later editions adopted locally, so we confirm the edition with each city. Projects costing $50,000 or more also need accessibility review with the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation.
Commissioning in a food plant includes cleaning validation, temperature mapping and equipment testing, and the owner's quality team signs off before production. Our commissioning and closeout process schedules that sign-off. Cost drivers include finishes, drainage, refrigeration, wastewater handling and equipment. Because the finishes cost more than ordinary ones, we price them line by line so the owner can choose where to spend.
Send us the product, the volumes and the wash cycle. We will build the layout and the budget around them.
The finishes, the drainage, the refrigeration and the utilities. Every surface must be cleanable, floors must slope and seal, and wastewater must be handled. The building shell is only part of the cost.
Depending on your product, state or federal food regulators may review plans or inspect the plant. We ask the owner's food safety lead to identify the requirements early so the layout does not need changes later.
It depends on the product. Near the fields if you are packing local crops, near the bridge if you are handling imported produce. Utilities, labor and truck access matter as much as distance.
We raise the floor above the surrounding grade, keep critical electrical and refrigeration equipment above flood levels, and design the site to drain away from the building. Standing water of up to several feet was reported in parts of the Valley after Hurricane Hanna.
Often a year or more, because of equipment lead times, utilities and commissioning. State records for refrigerated warehouses in San Juan show roughly thirteen to fourteen months of construction for buildings of 58,500 to 105,000 square feet.
Every project starts with the site, the schedule and the approvals it needs. Request a project review and we will walk through yours.
Tell us about the property, the building, the schedule and the approvals you expect. We will review the scope and follow up with next steps.
