27 Million. Brownsville Cut the Ribbon. The Factory Floor Is in Mexico.
Those three facts tell you more about The Nearshore Company than the ribbon cutting did.
Brownsville Mayor John Cowen posted on Facebook this week that he had joined The Nearshore Company for its ribbon cutting. He called it exciting to celebrate businesses investing in Brownsville and building connections across the region. The photos show company staff and local officials posed in front of U.S., Texas and Mexican flags.
The post did not say what was opened, where it is, how much it cost, or how many people it will employ. The 956 Report looked into the company to answer those questions. Some answers are public. Some are not.
WHAT THE COMPANY DOES
The Nearshore Company, known as TNC, is not new to the Valley. It was founded in 1992 and is headquartered in Brownsville, according to Main Street Capital, a publicly traded investment firm that now holds a stake in it. It previously operated as International Assembly, or IAI Mexico, according to business directories.
TNC's core business is called a shelter service. A U.S. or foreign manufacturer supplies the machines, the raw materials and the production process. TNC acts as the legal operator in Mexico. It handles the workers, the payroll, the permits, the customs paperwork and the compliance with Mexican law.
Main Street Capital describes TNC as providing Mexico-based turnkey manufacturing facilities, employer-of-record and tenant-of-record services, and U.S.-based warehousing.
The company's own website lists manufacturing offices in Matamoros, San Luis Potosi and Nuevo Laredo. It lists warehouses in Brownsville and Monterrey. It also lists an office in The Woodlands, north of Houston. The company advertises cutting operating costs by up to 80 percent. That figure is the company's marketing claim and has not been independently verified.
The industries it says it serves include appliances, automotive, electrical, medical, aerospace and textiles.
A client testimonial on TNC's homepage shows how the model works in practice. A Florida precision manufacturer wrote that its Clearwater plant was running out of room and local labor had become hard to find. Its response, in its own words, was to shift significant sales volume to its Matamoros operation, which TNC staffs entirely and which is managed by a plant manager based in Brownsville.
That is the product. Production moves to Matamoros. Management, warehousing and paperwork stay on the Texas side.
THE MONEY
In November 2025, Main Street Capital announced a $27.2 million investment in TNC. The money was a combination of first-lien senior secured debt and a minority equity stake, according to Main Street's press release.
The purpose was to fund TNC's purchase of the Carmi Companies, a Laredo logistics firm founded in 1983. Carmi provides trucking coordination, customs brokerage and warehousing for cross-border freight. Benchmark International, the firm that brokered the deal, described the combination as an end-to-end platform for cross-border manufacturing and logistics.
The $27.2 million is corporate financing for an acquisition. It is not an investment figure for any building in Brownsville. No figure for the facility that was opened this week has been made public.
WHERE IS IT?
The mayor's post did not identify the location. Public records point to two possibilities.
The first is 7244 Industrial Circle in Brownsville. TNC's website lists that address as its U.S. office and its Brownsville warehouse. Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation records list a project at that address called "AYUSA Warehouse 1." It is a 103,300-square-foot warehouse with an estimated construction cost of $7 million, registered in February 2024. The owner of record on that filing is Grupo Ayusa, not TNC. If that is the building, TNC appears to be a tenant in a warehouse someone else paid to build.
The second is the Greater Brownsville Tech District, the 730-acre industrial park the Greater Brownsville Economic Development Corporation is developing off FM 511 and I-69E. A TNC executive, Jose Canel Winder, posted on LinkedIn that the company was happy to be part of the GBEDC Tech District project with a new warehouse and distribution center of more than 50,000 square feet. The post did not give a lot number, a cost, a timeline or a job count.
THE TECH DISTRICT CONNECTION
If TNC is in the Tech District, it is one of the first named companies behind a much larger promise.
In his 2026 State of the City address, Cowen said 19 of the Tech District's 24 lots were under letters of intent, according to the Rio Grande Guardian. He said those businesses would together create nearly 9,000 jobs. GBEDC has not publicly released the full list of companies holding those letters.
The district sits inside Foreign Trade Zone No. 62, which lets companies defer or reduce U.S. customs duties on goods stored or processed there. That is a natural fit for a warehouse serving factories in Mexico.
A warehouse and distribution center typically employs far fewer people than a manufacturing plant. How many jobs TNC's facility will bring to Brownsville has not been disclosed.
INCENTIVES
The 956 Report found no public record of a GBEDC performance agreement, a Cameron County tax abatement, or a City of Brownsville Chapter 380 agreement with TNC. That does not mean none exist. It means none have surfaced in public reporting or online records.
The question matters because GBEDC is funded by taxpayers. It was formerly called the Greater Brownsville Incentives Corporation. It runs on a quarter-cent city sales tax, and its board is appointed by the Brownsville City Commission. GBEDC owns the Tech District land. Any company building there has to buy or lease land from it, and the price and terms of that deal are a public matter.
HOW MANY JOBS?
Nobody has said. Business data services give wildly different employee counts for TNC, from 27 to roughly 165 to more than 1,000. The largest figure likely counts workers in Mexico. No Brownsville job commitment has been announced.
WHAT THIS MEANS FOR THE VALLEY
The following is analysis, not reported fact.
Brownsville is building itself into the U.S. back office for Matamoros factories. Warehouses, customs brokers, trucking yards and management offices on the Texas side. Assembly lines on the Mexico side. TNC is a clean example of that model, and it has been in Brownsville for more than three decades.
That model brings real jobs to Cameron County. Warehouse workers, forklift operators, customs and logistics staff, office administrators. It also brings truck traffic and demand for industrial land.
It does not bring manufacturing jobs to Brownsville. By the company's own description, its service is helping U.S. manufacturers run production in Mexico. In the testimonial on its homepage, the production that moved came from Florida.
Residents can weigh both sides. The warehouse jobs are local. The factory jobs are across the river. When public officials celebrate projects like this one, the public deserves to know the numbers: how many jobs, at what pay, and what, if anything, taxpayers put in.
SOURCES
Mayor John Cowen, public Facebook and LinkedIn posts on The Nearshore Company ribbon cutting.
Main Street Capital Corporation, press release, Nov. 19, 2025, and TNC portfolio company page.
Benchmark International, announcement of the Carmi Companies and The Nearshore Company transaction.
The Nearshore Company website, thenearshorecompany.com, including office listings and client testimonials.
Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation, project TABS2024011687, AYUSA Warehouse 1.
Jose Canel Winder, public LinkedIn post on TNC's Tech District warehouse.
Rio Grande Guardian, report on Cowen's 2026 State of the City and Tech District letters of intent.
The Brownsville Herald, report on the Greater Brownsville Tech District groundbreaking.
City of Brownsville, Greater Brownsville Incentives Corporation information page.
PitchBook, LeadIQ and other business directories, for employee estimates.
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