Contributed photo With most of the Gulf Coast already built up, including developments such as the Sandestin Golf and Beach Resort (shown) near Destin, Fla., parts of Padre and Mustang islands are among the last undeveloped tracts on the Gulf. Could the Islands look like this? Padre and Mustang development goes on, but won't swallow the area By Amanda Nelson Caller-Times November 14, 2004 Take a good look around next time you drive along the Gulf of Mexico in the Coastal Bend. Traveling down State Highway 361, from Port Aransas to Padre Island, you'll see endless miles of grassy dunes that shelter Mustang Island from the Gulf. When you get to Padre Island, take a left onto Park Road 22, and you'll see acres of open spaces and a mostly undeveloped, scenic route to Padre Island National Seashore. Fast-forward 20 years and you'll see retail shops, planned residential developments and restaurants. Development such as this is coming to the islands, making endless miles of virgin coastline a thing of the past. Part I of V Today Last Stronghold: There’s not much coast left to develop in the United States, and people are scrambling to get a piece of Padre and Mustang islands. Monday Waiting Game: The future of Padre and Mustang Islands rests in the hands of three large developers. Tuesday Newport, Texas: A 1,400-acre planned development hopes to lure baby boomers dreaming of a resort lifestyle with upscale housing, golf courses, restaurants and marinas. Wednesday Vista Del Mar: A Padre Island landowner works to get a federal label, which makes development difficult, removed from his property Thursday A Look Ahead: The demographics of those living on the islands will change along with development. John Michael, a civil engineer with Naismith Engineering who has done a lot of work on Padre Island, said development on the islands is the busiest he's seen it in the 23 years he's been in the Coastal Bend. Ralph Durden, whose influence on Corpus Christi includes developing Padre Island National Seashore in 1968 and building the first condominiums on Padre Island, said he remembers a time when Padre Island was just sand with little vegetation and almost no development. "We were the only bidder on the National Seashore; nobody wanted to go down there," Durden said because of a lack of infrastructure and difficulty getting materials in and out. Now it seems the islands have been discovered. "All these years we've sat down here in Corpus Christi and North Padre Island while other coastal parts of the United States were developing we were not," Michael said. "(The Texas Coast) is an untapped coastal resource; we're one of the last places that you can develop on the coast." In Texas, there are 367 miles of Gulf Coast beach from the Sabine to the Rio Grande rivers, according to the Texas General Land Office. Of that beachfront property, 150 miles are governed by the Coastal Barrier Resource Act, or CBRA. "That's a federal designation that means these locations are not eligible for federal or state subsidized insurance," said Texas Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson. "So technically, they can be developed, but economically it's very difficult." Another 143 miles are protected as part of a park or refuge. "That leaves 74 miles total of developable beach left in Texas," said Jim Suydam of the land office. However, the land office considers 56 of those miles already under development, leaving only 18 miles of Texas Gulf-front property left to develop. Jack Ponton, who has sold and developed property on Mustang Island for more than 30 years, said of those Gulf-front miles, about eight are on Mustang Island, 20 to 25 percent of which is developed. "The rest is undeveloped and held by private individuals," he said. developers buy in On North Padre Island, north of Padre Island National Seashore, there are around nine miles of Gulf front property. Of those nine miles, the Texas General Land Office owns more than five. Most of the remaining Gulf front property is owned by Laurence Jones Jr., a Kansas City developer, Asset Development Corporation, and Gulf Shores Joint Venture. Paul Schexnailder owns Asset Development Corporation and is a partner in Gulf Shores Venture. "Developers realize this is the last stronghold," Ponton said. For Irene Cochran, buying land on Mustang Island was a no-brainer. A Florida property owner and native of Massachusetts, Cochran came across an ad for a piece of land on Mustang Island while looking at a magazine in 1999. Cochran already owned a significant amount of property in Florida, but once she discovered Mustang Island she was ready to move on. "I'm selling off everything I have there (in Florida), and I'm buying everything I can on Mustang Island," said Cochran, who plans to eventually relocate to the Coastal Bend. "It's ripe for the development." Ponton said such developers are paying the rising costs of owning coastal property. Some have paid $100,000 above the asking price on a single-family residential lot, he said. Kevin Dean, a developer who was born in Corpus Christi but now lives in Maine, is in the process of buying three large tracts of land. Dean wouldn't disclose the amount he paid but said the price was good. "You can't find a piece of land this big on the coast of Maine anywhere," Dean said. "And if you did, it would be three times as expensive." Land still a bargain Sunny Castor, a developer who has worked on Mustang Island since 1959, said the value of property on the islands compared with other coastal property around the country still is a bargain. "You have to look at it like another commodity, like an ounce of gold," he said. "It's not worth less in Texas than it is in California or Florida, pricing is based on scarcity and demand." Ponton said prices on Gulf front property eventually would meet prices of coastal property in other areas of the country. "I don't know how long it's going to take us to catch up, but the prices are moving up fairly fast," Ponton said. Three years ago, Ponton said Terramar tracts, which are about 12 acres each, were listed for $300,000 to $350,000. Two years ago they were selling for about $600,000, he said. Today, Ponton has them under contract and closing for $1.8 million to $2 million. Despite rising prices, the land still sells quickly. In La Concha Estates, a Gulf-front three-phase residential development on Mustang Island, Ponton said waterfront lots didn't last a week after they went on sale in April. "From the day we put them on the market, we sold every single Gulf front in seven days," Ponton said. Most now bought up While developers on Mustang Island continue to buy property, most of the land on Padre Island already has been bought up and now sits in the hands of large developers. With the exception of land owned by Asset Development Corp., Gulf Shores Joint Venture and the Texas General Land Office, the rest of the Gulf frontage on Padre Island is part of the Padre Island National Seashore, has the federal CBRA distinction or is already developed. The fact that there are so many places like Padre Island National Seashore where development never will happen should help residents breathe a sigh of relief, Patterson said. "That allows us to focus on the remaining areas like Schexnailder's land and others, with a warm, fuzzy feeling that we're not starting something that will go from Sabine Pass to Boca Chica," he said. Patterson's office is encouraging developers to help Padre Island become a quality resort destination because of the benefit to the area economy. But that doesn't mean the island will be covered in wall-to-wall, high-rise condos. Patterson said there's 67 miles of national seashore, and Padre Island stretches roughly 100 miles from Corpus Christi to Brownsville. "We'll just have the long expanse of beach," he said. "The great asset you've got there in the Corpus Christi area is that no matter how much North Padre Island develops, if you don't like it, head south, where you go into Padre Island National Seashore and 67 miles of undeveloped island that's pretty much just like it was when Padre Balli was involved 200 years ago." Contact Amanda Nelson at 886-3678 or nelsona@caller.com Copyright 2005, Caller.com. All Rights Reserved.

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