Port Aransas Conference Center Plans in the Making

PORT ARANSAS, TX—For years, city officials have been lamenting that Port Aransas on Mustang Island along the Texas Gulf Coast needs a facility to attract conventions that would boost the economy year-round, especially before and after the summer crowds. As of now, no hotels within the city limits have the winning combination of abundant rooms, a good-sized convention space, a full-service kitchen and other hospitality amenities.

That is, until the city council recently voted to award a new conference center and hotel project to Sea Oats Group. The other developer contender was Harry Adams at Palmilla Beach.

The city is now working with Sea Oats Group to flesh out plans for the project and the public will have input in the process as well. The project plans must then get approval from the state comptroller’s office, which will take a few more months.

Sea Oats Group will get a rebate on sales taxes and hotel occupancy taxes generated specifically from the project as an incentive toward construction of the hotel and conference center. The city must enter into a development agreement by September 1 in order to comply with legislation that would allow the tax breaks.

Plans call for the hotel-conference center to be part of a new subdivision Cinnamon Shore recently began developing on State Highway 361, just north of the La Mirage condominiums, said Jeff Lamkin, CEO of the Sea Oats Group, the developer of Cinnamon Shore.

“We are moving forward full steam ahead on the hotel and conference center. We have submitted all documents to the state for approval of the legislated tax rebates, which is a key element of the project.  We expect to hear back on this in the fall, which is when we will be able to tighten up the capital stack to make it real,” Lamkin tells GlobeSt.com.

Cinnamon Shore is a pedestrian-friendly master-planned community nestled behind the protective dunes on Mustang Island. It is the first new urbanism development for Sea Oats Group. The developer’s vision is one of a traditional seaside village with a wide array of amenities and recreational facilities intertwined with beach cottages, villas and town centers along with work places, retail amenities, parks and recreational facilities. The land planner is Mark Schnell LLC of Santa Rosa Beach, FL and engineering work is provided by Jim Urban, Urban Engineering of Corpus Christi, TX.

Sea Oats first project, Cinnamon Shore North, reported more than $250 million in sales and is nearly sold out. Sea Oats Group began developing the 63-acre Cinnamon Shore North phase I in 2007. This buildout includes homes sales on approximately 200 lots and 75 multifamily residences, with a median price of $1 million. Single-family homes are priced from the mid $600s and beachfront homes start at $2.5 million.

Its current project, Cinnamon Shore South, the $1.3 billion approximately 300-acre expansion of Cinnamon Shore, broke ground last fall. The first 28 home sites of Cinnamon Shore South, representing more than $25 million in homes to break ground in the next six months, were released during the groundbreaking weekend.

The beachfront development of Cinnamon Shore South will include luxury homes, community pools and plans for a boutique hotel with 15 rooms, detached cottages, a spa, and Town Center shops and condominiums.  The long-term master plan will more than quadruple the size of the existing community in years to come.

“This is tremendous in that no other project on the Texas Coast, not even Cinnamon Shore North has ever achieved this volume of presales prior to being fully built out,” Lamkin tells GlobeSt.com. “We are seeing great demand and are happy to know that we have built what Texas beach lovers are seeking.”

The first stage of the beachfront 150-acre phase II expansion will encompass Cinnamon Shore South, a $200 million investment, and Cinnamon Shore Bayside, projected to be a $500 million buildout. Lamkin said Sea Oats Group envisions four primary pillars of distinction for phase II: home craftsmanship and an unrivaled Gulf Coast lifestyle, a dining district with dozens of restaurants, destination retail, and a health and wellness center.

Cinnamon Shore South’s 150-acre beachfront mixed-use development will include 3,300-foot wide beachfront access that is maintained daily, almost three times the size of the beach at Cinnamon Shore North. Beach access is via two golf cart-accessible dune crossovers.

Eventually, the development will lie on both sides of State Highway 361, about a mile south of Cinnamon Shore North, with a golf cart bridge enabling residents to easily access amenities on both sides of the highway. Cinnamon Shore South beachfront plans feature multiple swimming pools and an approximately 7-acre lake, one of the largest on the Gulf Coast that will be encircled by a mile-long boardwalk.

The Cinnamon Shore project was modeled after the strip of Florida Gulf Coast in Seaside, FL known as 30A (South Walton), says Jodi Peters, broker of Cinnamon Shore Realty.

“30A has a watercolor seaside flavor that we wanted to emulate here,” Peters tells GlobeSt.com. “It has walkability and rocking chair front porches. With that in mind, we want to make people feel like they should be here (the Cinnamon Shore development). It’s a great place for families on vacation, a safe place for kids on bikes and you can drive rather than take a plane to get here.”

With regard to driving visitors, Peters says the majority of Cinnamon Shore investors are within the state. Its largest market is Austin, but San Antonio, Dallas, Houston and Lubbock also generate buyer interest.

Mustang Island is 30 minutes from Corpus Christi and 40 minutes from its international airport.

Even in this age of technology, 1.9 million meetings were held in cities across the nation in 2016. This impacted more than 250 million participants which equated to 10% growth compared to the meetings industry in 2012. Also, in 2016, there was $330 billion in direct spending nationwide produced by meetings and conventions, up from $280 billion in 2012, according to the US Travel and Tourism Association.