FishBone
02-23-2006, 08:28 AM
FREEPORT — As Freeport continues mediation with a company that stands to lose land for a marina project to be built by a private developer, someone else has plans to put a $6 million marina in a neighboring city.
Money for a Surfside Beach marina project is in the bank, the 9-acre site has been purchased and, if all goes as planned, Surfside Interests plans to open its estimated 400-slip, dry dock marina with a restaurant, retail shops, showers and a laundry facility in 2007, Houston attorney Marc Grosz III said in the public comment part of Tuesday’s Freeport City Council meeting.
Catering to the sport fishing, yacht community, Grosz told city officials the Surfside marina would be on property formerly owned by Unocal, which is off the Highway 332 bridge entering Surfside. The site has 17-foot-deep waters, and it has two helipads.
“This area of the Gulf Coast of Brazoria County needs this dramatically,” Grosz said, noting the owner of a small Surfside marina has more demand than he can handle. “You don’t have to be an engineer, an investor or a developer to know. All you got to do is drive down 332 any weekend or the summer especially.”
Grosz, who owns a Surfside Beach home, said he didn’t want to wait any longer without letting Freeport know about the plans he and Houston investor David Finkelstein have for a marina he predicted would be finished before Walker Royall’s marina is complete in Freeport. The duo has been planning the marina, which also could have a motel and recreational vehicle park, for the last three or four years, Grosz said.
He apologized for not approaching Freeport city officials before the meeting.
The news appeared to take Freeport city officials by surprise.
“We have ongoing plans for a marina, which we intend to continue because it’s inside the guillotine gate,” Mayor Jim Phillips said. The Surfside marina is “not in our ballpark. … The fact that you’re building a marina is not significant to me at all because ours is in a totally different area,” Phillips said.
Grosz has not presented marina plans to Surfside Beach City Council, but he said he has spoken to the mayor.
“That’ll be great,” Surfside Beach Mayor Larry Davison said of the marina. “They want to do a dry dock storage. It seems to be a pretty successful type of operation.”
The proposed Surfside marina would be about two or three times the size of an existing marina in Surfside, Davison said. However, before the project moves forward, developers will have to get a specific use permit for a commercial zone and the village has to see how much water they plan to use, he said.
“There are a lot of variables,” Davison said. But “anything that brings in people is good for Surfside.”
Since Surfside Interests plans to target a slightly different market, Freeport Councilman John Smith III believes the development might not be a negative for Freeport.
“I think it may not be a bad deal,” Smith, also president of the city’s Economic Development Corp. board, said Wednesday. “We’re looking at two different markets. They’re sporting craft. We’re looking at the larger, high-end boats. … That was what I understand. There’s probably room for both.”
Freeport has plans for a marina to be built on the Old Brazos River by Royall, a Dallas developer, with a $6 million loan from the city. City leaders have said the marina can be the engine that revitalizes Freeport, leading to restaurants and hotels around the site that will create jobs and increase the city’s tax base.
However, the project has been clouded with controversy. An election referendum in November seeking to dissolve the city’s development corporation was defeated by 21 votes, and a movement by Wright Gore III of Houston is under way to prohibit the use of eminent domain for private business in Freeport, including its use to seize property deemed blighted.
Gore is the son of the president of Western Seafood. The company has been fighting the city and the EDC, which are trying to take the 330 feet of property the company says are vital to its business.
Western Seafood and Freeport are in a court-ordered mediation.
Tension continued at Tuesday’s meeting, when Gore questioned Phillips about the number of blighted homes in Freeport then asked the mayor to put an ordinance that essentially would prohibit eminent domain in the city, with a few exceptions, on the agenda.
“We’re in litigation with you. We’re not going to discuss the marina with you,” Phillips said. “So you can save my time and your time by having a seat.”
Gore, who requested the eminent domain ordinance be put on the agenda, said it had nothing to do with the marina. The mayor suggested Gore take a seat, or he would have him removed from council chambers.
Potential problems with elections, a development corporation and committees — “We don’t have any of that,” Grosz said Wednesday. “It’s private money.”
Within four to six weeks, Grosz said they would have final prints for the Surfside marina project in hopes of breaking ground within three to six months. The marina could be built in 10 to 12 months, he said. In the meantime, Finkelstein is lining up major fishing tournaments to be hosted at the marina, Grosz said.
Money for a Surfside Beach marina project is in the bank, the 9-acre site has been purchased and, if all goes as planned, Surfside Interests plans to open its estimated 400-slip, dry dock marina with a restaurant, retail shops, showers and a laundry facility in 2007, Houston attorney Marc Grosz III said in the public comment part of Tuesday’s Freeport City Council meeting.
Catering to the sport fishing, yacht community, Grosz told city officials the Surfside marina would be on property formerly owned by Unocal, which is off the Highway 332 bridge entering Surfside. The site has 17-foot-deep waters, and it has two helipads.
“This area of the Gulf Coast of Brazoria County needs this dramatically,” Grosz said, noting the owner of a small Surfside marina has more demand than he can handle. “You don’t have to be an engineer, an investor or a developer to know. All you got to do is drive down 332 any weekend or the summer especially.”
Grosz, who owns a Surfside Beach home, said he didn’t want to wait any longer without letting Freeport know about the plans he and Houston investor David Finkelstein have for a marina he predicted would be finished before Walker Royall’s marina is complete in Freeport. The duo has been planning the marina, which also could have a motel and recreational vehicle park, for the last three or four years, Grosz said.
He apologized for not approaching Freeport city officials before the meeting.
The news appeared to take Freeport city officials by surprise.
“We have ongoing plans for a marina, which we intend to continue because it’s inside the guillotine gate,” Mayor Jim Phillips said. The Surfside marina is “not in our ballpark. … The fact that you’re building a marina is not significant to me at all because ours is in a totally different area,” Phillips said.
Grosz has not presented marina plans to Surfside Beach City Council, but he said he has spoken to the mayor.
“That’ll be great,” Surfside Beach Mayor Larry Davison said of the marina. “They want to do a dry dock storage. It seems to be a pretty successful type of operation.”
The proposed Surfside marina would be about two or three times the size of an existing marina in Surfside, Davison said. However, before the project moves forward, developers will have to get a specific use permit for a commercial zone and the village has to see how much water they plan to use, he said.
“There are a lot of variables,” Davison said. But “anything that brings in people is good for Surfside.”
Since Surfside Interests plans to target a slightly different market, Freeport Councilman John Smith III believes the development might not be a negative for Freeport.
“I think it may not be a bad deal,” Smith, also president of the city’s Economic Development Corp. board, said Wednesday. “We’re looking at two different markets. They’re sporting craft. We’re looking at the larger, high-end boats. … That was what I understand. There’s probably room for both.”
Freeport has plans for a marina to be built on the Old Brazos River by Royall, a Dallas developer, with a $6 million loan from the city. City leaders have said the marina can be the engine that revitalizes Freeport, leading to restaurants and hotels around the site that will create jobs and increase the city’s tax base.
However, the project has been clouded with controversy. An election referendum in November seeking to dissolve the city’s development corporation was defeated by 21 votes, and a movement by Wright Gore III of Houston is under way to prohibit the use of eminent domain for private business in Freeport, including its use to seize property deemed blighted.
Gore is the son of the president of Western Seafood. The company has been fighting the city and the EDC, which are trying to take the 330 feet of property the company says are vital to its business.
Western Seafood and Freeport are in a court-ordered mediation.
Tension continued at Tuesday’s meeting, when Gore questioned Phillips about the number of blighted homes in Freeport then asked the mayor to put an ordinance that essentially would prohibit eminent domain in the city, with a few exceptions, on the agenda.
“We’re in litigation with you. We’re not going to discuss the marina with you,” Phillips said. “So you can save my time and your time by having a seat.”
Gore, who requested the eminent domain ordinance be put on the agenda, said it had nothing to do with the marina. The mayor suggested Gore take a seat, or he would have him removed from council chambers.
Potential problems with elections, a development corporation and committees — “We don’t have any of that,” Grosz said Wednesday. “It’s private money.”
Within four to six weeks, Grosz said they would have final prints for the Surfside marina project in hopes of breaking ground within three to six months. The marina could be built in 10 to 12 months, he said. In the meantime, Finkelstein is lining up major fishing tournaments to be hosted at the marina, Grosz said.
