Newport project to grow at Port A

Arnold Palmer to design resort's first golf course

By Amanda Nelson Caller-Times
November 16, 2004

Attention fifty somethings - a pair of developers are preparing to create what could be the largest planned resort development Mustang and Padre islands have seen with the boomer generation in mind.

Retired Florida real estate executive Craig Millard and Sunny Castor, who has developed on Mustang Island since 1959, have teamed up to build a massive resort town called Newport on the south end of Port Aransas.

At completion, the 1,400-acre, planned community will feature four or five hotels, a marina and two golf courses, the first of which will be designed by golfer Arnold Palmer.

The Town Center Marina will be at the heart of the project, housing the majority of commercial space including restaurants and cafes. Four residential villages, designed with the idea of limiting vehicular traffic and size so residents can share village amenities, will surround the town center.

The whole community will contain 4,000 to 6,000 homes and condominiums. It still won't be wall-to-wall buildings. The area will have a lot of water, beautiful canals and open spaces.

"It's a lower density for that development, and that's very positive to the island," said Port Aransas Mayor Georgia Neblett.

While Castor and Millard, who are partners in Texas Gulf & Harbor Ltd., expect the average condo or homebuyer in Newport to be between 45 and 55 years of age with kids in high school, they're also hoping to court some other crowds.

"I also think we'll be very attractive to the professional singles market," Millard said.

Whoever moves in will have to be able to afford the price tag. Condominiums will range in price from $350,000 to $750,000 and homes will be priced from $350,000 up to $2 million.

"This is going to be a resort property that will have high values," said Jim Urban, whose Corpus Christi company Urban Engineering is working on the Newport project.

Millard said they have not yet decided on a building style, but there will be design guidelines.

"We want it to look like a real town," Millard said.

The overall design and planned use for the land was created by Duany Plater-Zyberk & Company, a Miami-based architectural firm, whose credits include Seaside, a well-known 80-acre planned community, and Rosemary Beach I and II, both located in Walton County, Fla.

Architects for the project are San Antonio-based Overland Partners Architects, which designed the

Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Research Center in Austin, and David Schwarz, a Washington, D.C.-based architect whose design credits include the American Airlines Center in Dallas.

The choice of design firms and their past achievements echo how Castor, Millard and some of the other developers involved on Mustang and Padre islands feel about recent developments in places such as Florida, and how they can impact the Texas coast.

"If you just take a look at the success of projects in South Florida, the panhandle, it's very clear what architecture people like and value," Millard said.

"What's beautiful about what we have here is we have the opportunity to make it much nicer because we've learned from their experiences. Mustang Island is so virgin, and we think it has the opportunity to be a real gem."

The Port Aransas City Council approved the planned development in 2002, and the city worked closely with the developers during its creation.

"We've been fortunate to attract developers who are putting in the money and the effort to retain the island feeling and are sensitive to the density of barrier islands and our environmental issues that are associated with a barrier island and dunes," Neblett said.

Castor and Millard will operate as master developers, doing a large portion of the building within the community themselves.

"We're actually planning on building all of the horizontal improvements, including the golf course, golf clubhouse, beach clubhouse, and the tennis center," Millard said.

They are also in the process of selecting other regional and national developers who will be working with them on the development.

They are currently courting three national companies, Millard said, to develop the marina. Construction on the marina could begin within six months of the phase one groundbreaking.

"There could be conceivably be a Ritz Carlton at Newport Beach and Golf," Millard said, but added they are not currently under contract with any national hotel.

The first phase of the Newport project, the 350-acre Newport Beach & Golf Village, will cost about $450 million to build. Construction on phase one, which is on the Gulf side of the island, is scheduled to begin within the next six months.

Contact Amanda Nelson at 886-3678 or nelsona@caller.com

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