Invested Interest: Investment interest in Freeport exploding

FREEPORT - The city’s areas needing renovation and rebirth are obvious as people drive through Freeport. What is not immediately apparent to those not looking for it is the city’s promise, Building Official Kasey Roman said.

From behind the wheel of her SUV, the Brazoria County native pointed out the slew of new businesses and the locations of other properties with plans on the drawing boards. Her oft-repeated mantra is that the levee system protects Freeport but also obscures its inviting opportunities for waterfront views.

Roman came to Freeport about a year ago after stints in the Alvin and Lake Jackson building departments and is quick to share her excitement about the city. It’s not just the potential projects that have her enthused about its burgeoning business growth, but the number that have recently opened or are in the process of getting there.

“Everybody wants to develop Freeport,” she said. “It’s encouraging. It’s kind of exciting.”

BREWING INTEREST

One of the main catalysts, she said, is the announcement a new Starbucks would be built from the ground up near the high-profile intersection of Brazosport and Gulf boulevards. An excavator had arrived to take down the former Western Auto building, and workers were taking measurements before putting the demolition into action, but all the permits are in place, Roman said.

After news of Starbucks’ plans became public, “I immediately saw a flood. You know we have pre-development meetings … and I have had so many of those since that’s gotten in the newspaper. If one-tenth of comes to fruition, we’re on the edge of a huge boon here.

And I see why because there are certain businesses that just pull traffic. They know the traffic is coming and they want to be part of the business around it.”

Within eyesight of the new Starbucks will be several other new businesses: Mom’s Liquor opened a few weeks back, and a food trailer, MoonCheese, operated by the family behind The Fill Station and Bodega, is getting ready for its windows to open. The former Church’s Fried Chicken restaurant shuttered because of issues with its franchisee soon will house a 7Pie, a pizza restaurant owned by the president of Shoney’s restaurants.

Further up the road near Hopper Field, Drini Italian Grill is serving while it puts some finishing touches on the restaurant, while across the street, the delayed Freeport Dialysis center is accepting patients.

MOVING FORWARD

No anticipated project in Freeport has been as delayed as those promised by Skymark Development and owner Clinton Wong, but over the weekend, even it had a promising new sign — an actual sign announcing Brazos Cove. The housing development between the Brazosport High School baseball field and Brazos Landing subdivision has all the approvals needed to get started, Roman said.

To help with the project, the city approved a Municipal Utility District to pay for its infrastructure, and Wong hopes to receive approval to have a private boat dock on the Old Brazos River at the end of the neighborhood’s road, though that would require approval from the Texas General Land Office.

Skymark also owns the former Urban Renewal Zone, for which it paid $1.2 million for the property, $100,000 more than its appraised value after the city had finished its 50-year journey to collect all the slivers of property in the zone. The purchase agreement was finalized in January 2013, and the city approved an economic incentive package in June 2014 as the final piece toward making something happen.

Since then, however, the site has been home to crickets, as little activity has been seen there. Roman believes that is about to change, with plans calling for it to be developed fully for light industrial uses having floated about.

That will require council to approve zoning changes, she said, since the site is zoned residential.

GOING DOWNTOWN

Further down Second Street, disconnected from most of Freeport’s commercial area, is the historic downtown, which Roman sees as having especially untapped potential. Some of it is already being tapped, which could create a domino of redevelopment, she said.

Under construction at the corner of Park Street is Chickadees, which will have an art studio inside and already has an eye-catching mural on its exterior. Directly across next to Barcadia, a new boutique.

“You’re seeing kind of a domino effect,” Roman said. “You’re seeing one store and then another, and that’s one of the things the EDC is doing. They’re promoting, when businesses come in, we show them our quaint little downtown, and they’re trying to draw traffic down this way.”

Redeveloping downtown is benefiting from Freeport recently rejoining the Main Street Texas program, which connected the city with other communities of similar size and demographics. Among them is Uvalde, whose development officials provided a lot of valuable guidance, including its use of an ordinance that would allow the city to make emergency repairs to structures to make them more sellable, Roman said.

Making the area more attractive is another way Freeport officials are bringing in potential businesses and customers.

“One of the things the EDC has been doing a lot with is, like the mural, they offer grants to all our business owners — matching grants — and they’ve done so much,” she said.

A proposal to create an Airbnb-type building downtown is under discussion, with City Council recently talking about changing ordinances to allow such a business.

An emphasis of the Freeport Economic Development Corp. is to try to consolidate businesses along the same blocks to make it a more walkable district, Roman said.

“Everybody loves to park and shop,” Roman said. “I can park somewhere and walk the whole block and shop and eat and do, and that’s really what their dream is for this whole two-block area. They call it the town center.”

NO VACANCIES

Port Freeport’s purchases of properties in the East End are about to transform from clearing sites to building on them as it now owns all the land up to Division Street, Roman said.

“There’s been a lot of preliminary drawings and sketches and ideas,” she said. “I know there is a proposed Dole plant, which I think is 90,000 square feet.”

The former Showboat Theater and Dollar General site has been an empty slab since the buildings were bulldozed after part of the old movie house’s facade gave way and fell onto the neighboring discount store in March 2016, is about to be sold, she said.

Vacant land owned by the EDC adjacent to the marina is projected to be developed into shops and restaurants. The roughly 7 acres available hint at a Kemah-style development, she said.

The EDC owns a slew of properties, some on vacant sites and others with buildings on them. The goal with the recent hiring of Robert P. Johnson is to get those properties onto the tax rolls with businesses moving in and foundations being poured.

REVVING UP

Closer to the coast, the growth of the port and the arrival of the Volkswagen-Porsche complex are bringing attention.

The Gulf Food Mart convenience store owners at the end of East Fifth Street across from Port Freeport plan to expand to better serve rigs entering and exiting from the port.

“They have bought the land behind it, and this will be a truck stop, which is actually a great need for our port people,” Roman said. “Basically, this entire city block will be a truck stop.”

The automaker’s complex, which will cover 125 acres and accommodate 5,000 cars, will remake the section off Highway 36. Essentially, people exiting Velasco Boulevard will be looking straight into the entrance of the main part of the VW site, she said.

The Port Ministry next to Port Freeport’s headquarters is working on expanding its relationship with the city, Roman said.

ELEVATING CHANGE

While cities to the north are boasting hundreds and thousands of new rooftops coming in, Freeport is seeing significant changes from buildings buying just one of two lots and putting new homes on them, Roman said. The result often is those new homes elevate the entire neighborhood as existing residents upgrade their own properties to meet the bar set by the new construction.

“There’s a lot of house builders that come through that build one or two or three houses,” she said. “So that’s been really encouraging. All throughout these little older neighborhoods, there will be a brand-new house pop up. When one new house goes up, you can see all the neighbors around it — I think it’s a pride thing. ‘Oh, I better paint my house now.’ And then everybody else will paint.”

Freeport does have larger development being presented, she said. Among them is a proposed 140-home project on which incentive programs are in the works.

THE CHALLENGES

The city’s reputation for being rundown and not conducive to new, non-industrial development — a label spread by people who often don’t take the time to visit and explore it — has been an obstacle at times, Roman said.

“So much potential here and people forget,” Roman said. “Because throughout the year Freeport got a bad name, it got a bad reputation. Now it’s not really deserved.”

So, too, is property owners hanging on to properties that could be developed.

“I think that’s the greatest challenge we have here in Freeport is owners that just let the property sit,” she said. “They don’t want to invest the money to attract new businesses, but they don’t want to see it either. They’re waiting for the boom.

“So I’m really hoping this is the boom they’re waiting for, and people will start to develop and sell. I’m starting to see a lot of that.”