Development coming to Galveston’s West End
Green East Realty announced it will build 172 residential lots
For years, Manny Mehos, a Galveston native who built a home on the island in the 1980s, had driven past a large stretch of empty beachfront land and wondered why it hadn’t been developed.
The founder of Houstonbased Green East Realty said the land along FM 3005 on Galveston’s West End had captured his imagination.
“I had not seen a piece of land like that, particularly that well-located,” Mehos said. “Then I got more interested, because it was just one of those things that sits there that everybody drives by, takes for granted that someone’s getting ready to do something big on it.”
He bought the land, about 86 acres, from a Chicago-area developer and its partners in November, and plans to develop a residential community with as many as 172 lots, including 22 with beach access. The development, Roseate Beach, is expected to begin construction this fall and complete in late 2024, Mehos said. Mehos is selling the lots and buyers will have to arrange for construction of the homes.
Mehos, who sits on Veritex Community Bank’s board, said he’d seen many developers buy land in Galveston, put down infrastructure and sell lots, without community amenities to help persuade people to spend more time on the island. As a result, he said, the development — roughly between a county park on 11 Mile Road and Pabst Road — will be centered around amenities.
Roseate Beach will include a pool, clubhouse, pickleball courts, fitness facility, and reserveable office space, according to a news release. The de
velopment will also have a network of trails and greenways.
“My vision was to develop something that was a step beyond that,” Mehos said. “Take the baton from those developers and create something new.”
Mehos declined to disclose the price of land, but he estimates the cost of land plus its development will cost $12 to $15 million. It also will include cutting through red tape, since the beach access and wetlands come with specific environmental regulations, Mehos said.
Mehos said he was inspired by the increase in tourism he’s seen over the years and the improvement of Galveston’s narrow beaches through the Galveston Island Beach Nourishment Project. Growing up on the island, he said, the Strand was undeveloped and traffic was usually concentrated on Sunday afternoon rather than across the weekend.
“At the end of the day, the combination of me growing up in a completely different town, completely different beaches, having houses on those beaches and bays, and then the transformation that has occurred over the last 10 years in Galveston, inspired me to do this,” Mehos said.
Mehos intends to develop a second phase across Pabst Road with smaller, lower-priced lots.
Louisiana-based CARBO Landscape Architecture will design the property around native plants, including a large wetland in the middle of the property, Mehos said.
“The first thing they saw when they came to Galveston to do this land plan,” Mehos said, “is that the native plants in West Galveston can actually be very beautiful if used correctly for this kind of setting.”