PHARR – Crates of onions, tomatoes, squash and limes served as the backdrop for a groundbreaking Wednesday morning for the Pharr Produce District.

The 90 acres of dirt near Military Highway and Cage Boulevard will soon hold subdivided lots ripe for distributors after an $11 million city investment. The development is a strategy to get produce distributors to put down roots in Pharr before a federal permit allows the competing Anzalduas International Bridge to begin crossing truck traffic in 2015.

“Finally it is here,” Mayor Leo “Polo” Palacios told the crowd at the groundbreaking. “This is going to become one of the biggest things we have ever done as far as bringing people from Mexico.”

Engineering and subdividing the land has been slowly under way for more than a year, but now that actual construction is beginning the project is expected to be finished within five to eight months. It involves putting in streets, utilities and drainage for 31 lots where distributors will build their own cold storage areas.

The project also involves a partnership with neighboring Bebo Distributing – the family business of Commissioner Jimmy Garza – which first brought the idea of developing the land to the city more than a decade ago, City Manager Fred Sandoval said.

Bebo donated just under 9 acres of land to the city to provide an easement and drainage ditch for the park and will be able to tap into the infrastructure there. The company also indicated plans to be one of its first builders.

“Where we’re at right now, we need some floor space, so instead of adding on to our building we’ll come over here,” said President Aquiles Jaime Garza, the commissioner’s father. “We think if we move over here it’ll create more interest.”

The younger Garza, who serves as Bebo’s director of operations, has abstained from voting on the produce park contracts, as required by law.

It’s too soon to tell whether the city will fully recoup its investment, but leaders said that wasn’t the primary consideration.

“Our goal is to recover 100 percent of the cost of this project within five years,” Finance Director Juan Guerra said. “But if the crossings increase then the city wins in the long run, whether the cost is recovered or not.”

Sandoval referred to the project as “pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps” and said he had seen early interest from several companies in the space.

“We’re using taxpayer money to buy the land, we’re using taxpayer money to develop the land and we have a responsibility to sell these lots,” he said.