Timothy Chapman
08/28/2023
The Quinta Mazatlan World Birding Center located in McAllen Texas will soon undergo a massive expansion project after being awarded $51.9 million through various sponsorships.
Executive Director Collen Hook said Quinta Mazatlan has always been a demonstration site that has evolved from a house, to an urban sanctuary and is now doubling in size to build projects, such as a children’s learning center, an amphitheater and a center for urban ecology in partnership with UTRGV.
“The expansion is on, basically, land that is 75% cleared at this point,” Hook said. “It has a few invasive grasses, but there is no habitat. It’s really more of a restoration project. We’re bringing in 24,000 new native plants; then it is a building project. The building is about less than 3% of the footprint of the expansion.”
She said UTRGV professors will be conducting real hands-on research in the new Center for Urban Ecology.
“So, we have, I believe, over 25 professors who all want to room here, so we’re already too small,” Hook said. “They all want to do sustainable food gardens, water research [and] insects. Ecology is broad; it covers every field.”
Joe Vera, assistant city manager for the City of McAllen, said this project will not just help bring tourism, but it will also help bring businesses.
“Businesses want to relocate to communities that are doing something for the environment, that are doing something for the children,” Vera said.
Quinta Mazatlan receives about 50,000 visitors every year, according to Vera, and, with all these new projects set to be implemented, that number could multiply two to three times in size.
“We really hope that this center will continue to grow,” he said. “ And that we will have visitors from outside of Texas and even from other countries come here and be able to do research here and be able to stay here while being enrolled and working with the university. So, there’s really a lot of great opportunities there.”
According to the City of McAllen and Quinta Mazatlan, construction for the new projects are expected to begin this fall and be completed by 2025.
For more information on Quinta Mazatlan, visit theworldbirdingcenter.com.
