TEXAS CITY, Texas: Texas City, better known for petrochemical landscapes than landscaped subdivisions, is poised for an unprecedented growth spurt as the region’s residential boom continues its southward advance.
The Houston Chronicle reports the transformation of a vast expanse of interstate-fronting prairie into a mixed-use commercial hub began with a fancy outlet mall and a sprawling Buc-ee’s. It continues with the 3,300-acre Lago Mar subdivision, now in the early stages, that eventually will add up to 7,000 homes on the edge of the Galveston Bayside town. To top it off, construction of an adjacent amusement park is now underway.
Texas City officials predict that by the time Lago Mar is filled up, an estimated 15 years from now, the development will have added as many as 12,000 residents to the city’s current population of about 48,000. By comparison, the city added about 7,000 people between 1990 and 2017.
“It’s hard to compare any previous growth with this,” said Jenny Senter, vice president of the Texas City-La Marque Chamber of Commerce. “It’s like the Super Bowl compared with Friday night football.”
The expansion in Texas City comes as brokers and industry experts in the region report a continued migration of investment toward the southeast, away from the northwest, where a rapid proliferation of new residences during the shale boom left the housing market over-supplied once drillers and oil field service providers cut back.
The oil slump didn’t put a damper on the petroleum industry around the Port of Houston and Galveston Bay, however. Companies there deal in downstream products like refined fuels or plastics and can maintain healthy profit margins even when oil prices tank.
“Everything on the east side of Houston, pretty much from Baytown south, has benefited” from low oil prices, said Bruce McClenny, president of Apartment Data Services.
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