Galveston - Shopping Center Proposed at 5400 Broadway

[ChannelTwoNews]

https://www.galvnews.com/news/shopping-center-developer-buys-10-acres-on-broadway-in-galveston/article_9c3f62ae-7c7a-53e6-8e58-e337866ad496.html

"County commissioners on Monday approved the sale of about 10 public acres along Broadway to a shopping center developer for $4.5 million.

The vote to approve a letter of intent with Shopping Center Interests LLC for the land at 5400 Broadway in front of the Criminal Justice Center was unanimous."

[Urbannizer]

The land has been vacant for decades. Was anything there at one point? I remember a Lowe’s being proposed here years ago.

[Naviguessor]

There used to be some very old concrete cotton warehouses which backed up right against Broadway.  

[strickn]

It would make more sense to have the same site plan now and treat Broadway like an important part of Galveston with the parking tucked behind, not just a feeder to the Gulf Freeway.

Obviously this developer sees that as too much of an obstacle despite their willingness to work in Galveston in the first place.

[strickn]

Galveston is what most of the inner loop wants to become and yet look at almost every suburban developer making Galveston less so with their development ideas.

[Amlaham]

14 hours ago, strickn said:

Galveston is what most of the inner loop wants to become and yet look at almost every suburban developer making Galveston less so with their development ideas.

I know its impossible..... but I wish Galveston would become like Rosemary beach, FL 😅 even something like Virginia beach would be nice.

[strickn]

IMHO Galveston is already cooler than Rosemary Beach and Seaside will ever be.  But if you take a Floridian or two to the Strand, Post Office Street Historic District, and some of the cool old neighborhoods off of Broadway, they generally don’t see it unless they’re already versed in traditional urban design.  They’re more impressed with superficially nice, higher-property-value but lower-economic-catalysis-value groups of assets like Allen Parkway, Heights Boulevard, and the like.

And your average Houston investor is apt to look at this in much the same way, without thinking of it as herd mentality at all.

[k5jri radio]

Not having visited either Rosemary Beach or Seaside, I have no basis to form an opinion regarding how they compare (coolness or otherwise) to Galveston. As a layman, my guess is traditional urban design is part of the curriculum taught to architecture students. Nevertheless, when visiting Galveston, I always enjoy visiting "the Strand, Post Office Street, and cool old neighborhoods off Broadway."

Although not part of traditional urban design, the Galveston Seawall and the accompanying rip rap is, from my perspective, a must see that sets Galveston apart from other cities or towns adjacent to a salt water beach. One of the key features of the seawall is its curved construction facing the water that, instead of trying to stop the storm water outright, it redirects the water upward, letting gravity slow, and eventually stop the now-vertical flow of the storm water.    

[k5jri radio]

The sidewalk adjacent to the Galveston Seawall is, at 10.3 miles long, the longest continuous sidewalk in the United States. The Bayshore Boulevard Greenway paralleling Tampa Bay (FL) is, at 4.5 miles long, the second longest continuous sidewalk in the United States.