Sergio Adame, founder of API Real Estate, wanted to create a little bit of buzz in the Harlingen business community. After realizing that some prospective businesses were having trouble starting up because of financial issues, he decided to offer office space in the Bank of America building that his firm owns. “I was thinking that if a start-up doesn’t have money, you give them a space for free or at half-price, so they can make money; then they can pay the rent. I could give them six months, and then reanalyze their business plan with them. You never know where local talent will come from.” But he didn’t want to offer the deal to just any enterprise. “It had to be a from-scratch corporation, where you’ve just received your articles of incorporation within the past two months. You also had to have a bank account.”
A little over a year later, the buzz hasn’t been dramatic, but one of the first four businesses to be incubated has moved on to bigger and better digs. Texas Scholars Magazine, which profiles the state’s school districts, now operates upstate. “They weren’t a large outfit, but they grew. The owner landed a big contract in Dallas or San Antonio, and moved up there. It was really nice to see them blossom and take off,” said Adame. Other tenants have included an engineer, a fresh-out-of-college CPA, and an insurance agency — appropriate fits in the intimate offices, whose size ranges from 700-1600 square feet. “It pretty much allows room for a desk and a chair.”
The community venture is the first type of start-up outreach that Adame’s done. He’d like to see it grow, although he understands he’s in a unique situation. “We know that not a lot of landlords are interested in something like this. They don’t have the privilege of having such a large space as we do here.” Indeed, although he has space for up to 15 start-ups, it’s negotiable. “If a solvent business comes in and wants office space — maybe they want to rent an entire floor, for example — the start-up will need to move elsewhere in the building. But we’ll help them move, including updating their business cards.”
Having started out green himself in the real estate field nearly 10 years ago, Adame knows well the challenges of establishing a business. He began by helping his family with some property acquisitions after following his parents’ advice to get a real estate license. “I never thought I’d be doing this kind of work. I remember watching a real estate agent trying to find my parents a home and thought to myself, ‘I hate selling. I’m never going to do this.’ But lo and behold, 10 years later, here I am running my own company with a couple of other agents.”
To read more of this story, read the May 2015 edition of VBR under the “Current & Past Issues” tab on this website, or pick up a copy on news stands.