The next generation of retirees may pass up seasonal visits to stay and become Boomer Texans

Since they began coming here in the 1930s, Winter Texans have provided one of the Rio Grande Valley's greatest economic engines.

Retirees seeking refuge from icy Northern winters spend an average of four months of the year here, pumping as much as $600 million annually into the economy, according to studies by the University of Texas-Pan American.

But even as their numbers have declined somewhat in recent years, due to high fuel costs, uncertainty in the wake of 9/11, and the onset of the generation's passing, opportunity is knocking again as baby boomers - those born between 1946 and 1964 - begin reaching retirement age.

Many in the industry of serving winter visitors - as well as local business and government leaders - see the Valley sitting on top of a largely untapped "gold mine," as one retirement community manager put it. They envision an industry of retirees as permanent residents, not just winter Texans, as the Valley has known them during the past several decades, but seniors who move here to live year-round in permanent homes for the duration of their golden years.

"The word we should be getting out is that this is not a rest stop. This is a place you want to plant your stake in the ground for the rest of your life," said Roger Youngblood, manager of Cottonwood XXI, a gated retirement community in Harlingen.

A fellow retirement community manager has the same vision.

"I completely imagine that one day this Valley will be another Florida or another Arizona. It's a friendlier place and it's cheaper to come here," said Linda Van Ryn, manager of Llano Grande Lake Park, a retirement community in Mercedes.

Permanent retirees mean more jobs as well as more tax dollars to invest in the community, industry leaders say."They become property tax payers and their economic impact is year-round rather than seasonal," said Bill Martin, CEO of the Harlingen Economic Development Corporation.

Youngblood has another way of putting it. "What's the good part for the community? A cash-cow tax base forever, not this cyclical thing, whatever comes into the city for six months out of the year."

Danny Hoehne, who retired from the U.S. Park Police in Washington, D.C., three years ago, could represent that target audience many in the industry have in mind - a retiree looking for a permanent home in a warmer, calmer place.

Hoehne, 58, and his wife Susan, 46, have never been Winter Texans. But they knew about the Valley because Danny is an avid birder.
"Birding has always been a big part of my life, and I had always heard about birding here," he said.

His wife also worked for a sugar lobbyist in Washington and had several contacts in the Valley's sugarcane industry.

"She had done a lot of telephone communications with people down here and she really liked the people. They sounded like nice people," Hoehne said.

Winters in Washington and northern Virginia could be "brutal," he said. A former horse-mounted police officer, he says, "I spent a lot of cold winters on horseback."

And he adds, "We were sick and tired of the traffic and all the elements involved in a large urban area. And we were just struck by a lot of very positive things about the Valley."

Hoehne made an exploratory trip to Harlingen in June 2005 and by the next month he had signed a contract on a house in the Parkwood subdivision.

"I put in my retirement papers, she resigned from her job and we sold our house in three days," he said. "And we moved down here."
Hoehne is one of a new generation of retirees - the baby boomers. They are the third wave of seniors to discover the Valley.

The first arrived in the mid-1930s and spiked in numbers in the post World War II years of the 1940s. A second wave - those raised in the Depression era - began coming in the mid-1960s.

Baby boomers are different from their thrifty predecessors, who grew up in harsher economic times, observers say. They are younger and more active; they have more money to spend; and they are looking for cultural experiences as well as a variety of outdoor activities.

"What that means for us is, if we're just offering them RV parks, that might not be enough," said Martha Noell, president and CEO of the Weslaco Area Chamber of Commerce.

The Valley could capitalize on this market, however, if the region's leaders begin to rethink how they have done business in the past, some in the industry say.

For too long, Valley cities have focused on manufacturing industries, to the exclusion of other opportunities, some in the retirement industry have said. They point to Harlingen's experience with a Fruit of the Loom plant as an example.

The city lured the plant in the early 1990s in part with incentives that included bond issues for the construction of a $3.5 million water treatment facility that Fruit of the Loom needed for operations. When the plant closed in December 2003, the city was demanding payment of $2.5 million in reimbursement to the city.

"The city has been looking for an industrial base to come to Harlingen when they should have been looking for this growing senior population that's out there looking for a place to retire," Youngblood said.

He sees the industry and the opportunity those seniors represent in terms of an untapped "gold mine."

"They don't want to shovel snow; they don't want to buy heating oil; and they want to get out of a state that taxes the hell out of them," he said.

"You've got to get out and reach out to people that are looking for a place to live permanently."

Youngblood says Harlingen is now ahead of the curve. In April, the city was accepted in the Go Texan Certified Retirement Community Program. Administered by the Texas Department of Agriculture, the program markets state-certified cities to retirees around the country and the world.

"The city (of Harlingen) was smart enough to get designated as a certified retirement community. But now we've got to do something with that certification," Youngblood said.

Harlingen is "on the right track" in capturing the baby boomer retirement market, said Nydia Tapia-Gonzales, executive director of the Harlingen Convention and Visitors Bureau.

"The word out there has been it's a great place to go for the winter. Now that we have certification, we're focusing on those who want to move down here permanently; and we've just started," Tapia-Gonzales said.

"The industry has been around for awhile. It's the Winter Texan industry, the senior industry. Now we can do more to tap into that permanent senior industry."

Retirement communities have already noticed a trend toward more Winter Texans becoming permanent residents.

Patti Miller, 54, a Winter Texan from Michigan, now spends seven months of the year at Fun N Sun RV Resort in San Benito and has all but decided on making the Valley her year-round home.

"I think you're going to see more and more baby boomers wanting to retire in the Valley," Miller said. "I think as more and more baby boomers come and visit, it's going to snowball."

Bonnie Dominguez, Fun N Sun Resort manager, said close to half of the park's 1,400 sites are "permanent sites" with fixed housing. And about half of those are now occupied by retirees who stay year-round.

"They just decided that the Rio Grande Valley is where they've made their permanent home," Dominguez said. "This is home now.

"They're not Winter Texans anymore. They've become Texans."
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EDITOR'S NOTE: Millions of baby boomers are the next generation of retirees. They'll seek a warm, friendly place where their money will go far, and which will be a base from which they can live active lives. The Valley - particularly the Harlingen metro area - could be their perfect place to land. The first part of a five-day series appears today.

Today
Overview: An industry poised for change

Monday
History: When retirees discovered the Valley

Tuesday
The Next Generation: Baby boomers

Wednesday
Harlingen: State stamp of approval

Thursday
The Future: New needs, big potential