Interactive Op-Ed · February 2026
Building on Trade
Laredo's Billion-Dollar Industrial Moment
Daniel Covarrubias, Ph.D.
Director, Texas Center for Border Economic & Enterprise Development
Texas A&M International University
invested
industrial parks
trucks daily
The Transformation
Between 2018 and 2026, Laredo's industrial footprint grew by nearly 70% — and the city's tax base grew with it.
Industrial Footprint
City Tax Levy
Mile Marker 13
Mile Marker 13
The FM 1472 and I-35 corridor in North Laredo accounts for approximately 36% of the city's total industrial inventory across four major parks.
square feet
of total Laredo market
Square area proportional to built SF
North Laredo Industrial Park
NLIPOne of the largest development platforms in the Mile Marker 13 corridor, with 1,386 acres and the corridor's most active construction pipeline.
Total portfolio
Acres
Under construction
Broader NW Corridor
Five additional parks along I-35 and FM 1472 complement the MM13 core zone.
Mile Marker 13 — Core Zone Composition
National developers, family offices, and institutional joint ventures have committed over $1 billion across the corridor.
under construction citywide
pipeline increase since mid-2024
Where Laredo Sits in the Market Cycle
Post-construction vacancy is a normal phase in fast-growing industrial markets. Peer logistics markets across the Sun Belt are experiencing similar absorption cycles after record construction waves.
Laredo's current vacancy reflects a market absorbing new supply. The Inland Empire, which hit record-low vacancy during the pandemic boom, has since normalized to the 7–8% range as new supply entered the market — a pattern Laredo is now following. Much of the available inventory consists of 300,000–400,000+ SF buildings designed for institutional tenants.
Vacancy data from CoStar, Cushman & Wakefield, and CBRE market reports, Q3–Q4 2025.
of all U.S.–Mexico trade flows through this corridor
daily commercial truck crossings
inland port by container-equivalent throughput
The First-Touch Advantage
Current Model
stops
distance
timeline
First-Touch Model
stops
distance
timeline
The infrastructure that private capital has built makes a different logistics model operationally possible.
What the market needs now
Workforce Development
Training programs aligned with institutional logistics operations, warehousing technology, and supply chain management.
Multimodal Connectivity
Rail, highway, and port-of-entry investments that support the volume and velocity of modern supply chains.
Permitting & Regulatory Environment
Streamlined processes that attract institutional tenants and enable rapid deployment of new logistics operations.
Santa Teresa, NM
Executing a coordinated public-private strategy pairing state highway and port-of-entry investment with a $2B mixed-use project. Its industrial footprint is a fraction of Laredo's, but its coordinated approach illustrates how aligning public infrastructure with private investment can accelerate development in emerging logistics markets.
The private sector built the foundation.
The opportunity now belongs to the entire community.
