Redesign coming for boardwalk in Katy
Officials say the revised renderings will highlight nature aspects of the project
The city of Katy’s planned Boardwalk District has been substantially redesigned from its original blueprint as planners seek to better incorporate the boardwalk and a nature area into the layout for the complex.
The more than $150 million project will include a 2.5-mile boardwalk, a hotel, a 55,000-square-foot convention center and a plaza/shopping area on 22 acres near Katy Mills mall. It will also include an 89-acre nature park.
For some months, the city and its project partners, Kerry R. Gilbert & Associates and Sueba USA Corp., have been working to change the design after the original plan showed buildings blocking the view of the boardwalk and a pond.
Planners have shifted location of planned buildings to change that and to make a nature trail more prominent in the development, City Administrator Byron Hebert said.
Details of the redesign will not be known until a new rendering is released, which Hebert said will be soon.
“We want to have a feel and presence of the pond and nature out there,” Hebert said.
The goal is to position elements of the development so
the view of the pond isn’t obstructed from the street, he said.
“In our first design, (the view) was all blocked,” he said. “The design will look a lot different. We’re getting close.”
A rendering of the project made in 2015 showed the hotel, convention center and plaza with the nature trail and boardwalk in the background. In February, the development experienced a delay as planners looked to realign buildings to create an opening between the boardwalk and plaza area.
Those talks expanded as the partners began brainstorming ways to better incorporate the nature aspect of the project into the plaza, Hebert said.
He added that he still hopes to have construction for the nature park begin by year’s end, though these delays will likely push the first phase of development into 2017, with the entire project taking several years to complete.
Planning for the development has been underway for more than two years, prompting questions of why the issue was not previously addressed. When asked, Hebert and other project leaders have said they would rather take more time to “get it right” than to rush construction.
Costs will be divided between the city, Sueba and an eventual hotel developer. Costs will be divided between the city, Sueba and an eventual hotel developer. Katy will pay its share using hotel occupancy tax revenue generated at the city’s five hotels, as well as portions of salestax revenue received from mall sales. The project is directed by the Katy Development Authority, which the city formed to promote economic development through public and private partnerships.
The development will become one of the most recognized parts of Katy, said Chris Tanea, marketing manager at the Katy Area Economic Development Council.
“The city is going to reap huge benefits because of it,” Tanea said. “But it extends beyond that. Katy has really began to brand itself as a regional destination for this area.”