Rio Bank

Rio Bank Brownsville is a new 3,000 sq ft bank facility at 5309 Sleepy Hollow Road in Brownsville, Texas. The project involves new construction and site improvements to provide retail banking services with drive-through access. The estimated cost for this development is $2,500,000, which calculates to $833 per square foot. TDLR completed plan review in June 2026, and the project is scheduled to finish in August 2027, with work starting August 2026.

The project is privately funded on private land for private use. Rio Bank, the owner of record, has six other TDLR-registered projects totaling $10,567,400, including branches in Edinburg, McAllen, and Elsa. The design firm of record is BRW Architects, which has worked on six other projects totaling $41,982,150, including facilities in Killeen, Huffman, and Dallas.

According to TDLR filings, this project’s cost is in the top quarter compared to the county median of $500,000 for similar new construction. The scheduled build window of 371 days is longer than the county median of 249 days. The cost per square foot of $833 is above the county median of $97. These figures are computed from 1,442 TDLR-registered new construction filings in Cameron County.

Local Context and Market Data

The ZIP code 78526 has a population of about 59,719 and a median household income of $68,143, according to U.S. Census ACS 2023 five-year estimates. The median owner-occupied home value is $158,300, with housing mostly owner-occupied. The Cameron County unemployment rate was 7.3 percent in June 2026, higher than a year earlier, according to FRED data.

Third-party listings indicate Rio Bank has an existing presence in Brownsville. A Facebook post by fb-answers described Rio Bank’s Brownsville presence and merger expansion. Bank Branch Locator states the Brownsville branch is located at 3401 Old Hwy. 77 and has served Cameron County for over 20 years. A Nextdoor post describes a full-service community bank branch with personal and commercial banking services.