One "No", Three Maybes For East End Flats

Galveston County Daily News, August 27, 2007,
by Laura Elder

GALVESTON — To the victor … : Three groups, including one local developer, have responded to the city’s request for proposals to develop the East End Flats, 600 acres long used as a silt and sand disposal site.

The island’s Sullivan family, developer of the 93-acre residential and retail project Evia, 99th and Schaper Drive, has submitted a proposal to the city. So has Trend Investments, which brought Galveston the 75-unit condominium time-share resort Escapes, FM 3005 at 9 Mile Road. Finally, Arcadis, which is in the business of reclamation of “brown fields,” or derelict industrial areas.

Buh-bye Dubai: In the meantime, a Dubai-based investment group, which some island residents were bandying about town as a potential candidate, has politely refrained from responding to the city’s request.

John Samuels, a principal of Translux Ltd., told some island residents via e-mail that “the technical, environmental and political aspects of the project are very complex and cannot be dealt with in a cursory manner, otherwise I fear Galveston will be left with a plan and proposal that becomes either fiscally and/or politically untenable …”

Samuels also suggested the island hire itself a “real estate czar” to devote full-time efforts on what promises to be a pricey undertaking.

… goes the spoils: City officials are hoping to transform the former dumping ground, behind apartment complexes on Ferry Road and the levee bordering the north side of Seawall Boulevard, into a master-planned, mixed-use community.

Although an ideal water-front site, expensive obstacles include stabilizing the ground and finding site for the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers to deposit dredge spoils.

Jeff Sjostrom, president of the Galveston’s Economic Development Partnership, has said it could cost as much as $25 million just to ready the first 93-acre phase of the project ready for construction. Stay tuned.