Freeze-damaged apartments in Galveston forced to shut down
Residents lament loss of aging complex with unobstructed views of the Gulf
GALVESTON — In the waning daylight of a radiant spring afternoon, Betty Loth sat on a high Adirondack chair outside her second-floor apartment, soaking in her cherished view of the Gulf of Mexico.
It was the final moments of her nearly four-year stint as a resident at the Fort Crockett apartments, which suffered irreparable damage after a fourday February freeze swept over Texas, and Loth, 72, was overcome with wistfulness.
“It’s been so sad seeing so many people, especially elderly people here, to see them have to pack up and leave when we all thought this would be our last destination, last place to live,” Loth said. “These have been awesome apartments. We all just loved to live here.”
Many property and business owners and renters in the Houston-Galveston region continue to struggle with burst pipes more than a month after the February cold snap. Some estimates peg insured losses around $18 billion for the winter weather, and the Insurance Council of Texas said it expects hundreds of thousands of claims from vehicles, homes, businesses and renters. But the fate of Galveston’s Fort Crockett Apartments stands out as a case of an entire complex of 140 market-rate apartments rendered “totally uninhabitable” due to
damage from the brutally cold weather.
The owner in this case is Houston-based Landry’s Inc., the hospitality and entertainment company owned by billionaire Tilman Fertitta, which bought the complex in 2005 and ultimately made the decision to terminate the leases of residents rather than invest in what it deemed to be costly infrastructure upgrades.
Given the complex’s prime location, speculation has focused on the site becoming a luxury hotel or tourist amenity of some kind. However the site is developed, the loss of the units has already added to the shortage of affordable housing on the island, where hundreds of apartments wiped out by Hurricane Ike in 2008 have yet to be replaced. Galveston’s new mayor, Craig Brown, lamented the city’s housing crisis during his 2020 campaign, noting that the island’s blue-collar workforce is being squeezed by soaring real estate prices.
Landry’s representatives contend that they had little choice but to shutter the residential community.
“After a thorough examination of our property damages, we have learned that the freeze has caused a major systemwide failure of the entire water piping system,” said Jeff Cantwell, executive vice president of development for Landry’s Inc. “Worse yet, the water piping is over 50 years old, meaning there is no simple or quick fix given the size and scale of the failure. Our staff has worked tirelessly, meeting with multiple contractors and plumbers, to understand every solution possible, and all have concluded that there is no feasible solution to repair the problem and reopen the buildings.”
‘Crème de la crème’
Built in the 1960s on Seawall Boulevard directly facing the Gulf, the buildings of the Fort Crockett Apartments are notable for their drab and dated aesthetic. A two-story brown building with a covered parking lot out front, the apartments are mostly one- and twobedroom units with beige carpeting, some with exposed stone walls. Each unit has balcony or patio access overlooking landscaped courtyards with magnolia trees shading a small swimming pool.
Walking through her empty second-floor apartment, Loth marveled at her view of the courtyard, with branches from a magnolia tree draped over her balcony.
“There’d be sometimes 80 magnolia flowers up there, it was just beautiful,” Loth said. “That was my mom’s favorite flower. It was like it was meant to be for me to be right here.”
Fort Crockett was also one of a dwindling number of affordable residences on a resort island that increasingly caters to the hospitality industry and vacationers. Many of the units were discounted for seniors, veterans, students and employees of the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston.
Seawall Boulevard is dotted with hotels, chain restaurants and vacation rentals. That the Fort Crockett Apartments endured for decades amid the island’s rampant development is doubly impressive given its unobstructed view of the Gulf and plot of vacant, grassy land in front of the buildings, features that would undoubtedly capture the imagination of real estate speculators.
“It was the crème de la crème of the city,” said Don Mafrige, the former owner and manager of the property, whose father developed the apartment complex.
The tract where the apartments now sit was once part of the sprawling Fort Crockett military complex — 125 acres purchased by the federal government in the late 19th century. Named for Davy Crockett, the famous American pioneer, the fort housed as many as 3,000 troops during World War I, according to historical records. During World War II, Fort Crockett became a prisoner-of-war camp, holding a total of 650 POWs until it was deactivated in 1946.
By 1953, the fort was declared surplus by the Eisenhower administration and released to the General Services Administration for disposal. The land was parceled out into different pieces and put up for public auction, with Mafrige’s father winning a bid for 10 acres of seafront property. The Fort Crockett apartment complex was completed in the late 1960s.
“This property had a long waiting list, a lot of the better-known, influential people in the city of Galveston — judges, attorneys,” Mafrige said. “Over time, other properties began development with more whistles and bells, (and) it became an aging property.”
The February cold snap, which burst pipes and caused massive power outages across the region as temperatures dipped below freezing, dealt the final blow.
‘Never wanted to move’
Walking through the nearly abandoned apartment complex on a recent weekday, signs of wear and tear were ubiquitous. Water lines from leaks snaked across ceilings of apartment units. Light fixtures on the walkways of secondfloor apartments were missing. Mold formed in neglected corners of the buildings.
And yet, every resident beamed with nostalgia when recounting their time spent there. Lucille Busenhart, 99, who lived in a firstfloor apartment for 17 years, fondly recalled games of bingo and dominoes in the game room and gatherings by the swimming pools.
“I miss the Gulf view from my front door,” Busenhart said. “I loved my big rooms and I never wanted to move.”
Patricia Moon spent her last several days at Fort Crockett loading boxes of belongings from her firstfloor apartment into her car. A Fort Crockett resident for more than 10 years, Moon was known for festively decorating her patio for holidays — Christmas, Halloween, Easter. A purple, gold and green Mardi Gras flag still hung proudly from her back patio.
“The building’s old and it’s not up to date and we don’t have the fancy microwaves and all that crap,” Moon said. “But home is what you make it.”
Fertitta, a Galveston native, swept in to buy the property from Mafrige in 2005. Fertitta, who also owns the Houston Rockets and the Golden Nugget casino empire, owns several properties on Seawall Boulevard, including the Pleasure Pier and the San Luis Resort, which is adjacent to the Fort Crockett apartments.
Some Fort Crockett residents believe the economic outcome is preordained: Fertitta will raze the complex and develop it as a hotel or even a casino if the state legalizes gambling.
No plans have been made for the property, said Dancie Ware, a spokeswoman for Landry’s Inc.
“Bulldoze,” said Bill Morgan, a Fort Crockett resident, speculating on the complex’s fate. “But you have to understand, the management here is not the type of management that will come out and say, ‘This is what is going to happen.’ ”
Morgan believes Landry’s handled the news of the building’s closure in a “classy” way. Paul Schultz, a vice president of hospitality for Landry’s who also manages the San Luis Resort, went door to door to see each resident and explain the situation, Morgan said.
“Face to face. I respect that,” he said.
After giving notice to residents on Feb. 25 that the complex could not be saved, Landry’s provided residents with 38 days of rent-free housing and $1,000 in additional moving assistance.
Residents in need of temporary housing were provided a free guest room at the adjacent Holiday Inn, which Fertitta owns, until March 10, with an option to remain at the hotel until last Wednesday at a discounted rate. They were permitted to store their belongings at their unit rent-free until the end of last month, according to the letter.
Saying goodbye
But the lives of residents such as Betty Loth have been upended. For Loth, living at Fort Crockett was the culmination of a dream to live near the beach.
In 1972, she honeymooned in Galveston with her husband. Decades later, she visited the island again with her son and her family and fell in love with the unassuming apartment complex on Seawall Boulevard with picturesque Gulf vistas.
“I said, ‘I’ve got to live there. I just love it. That’s where I want to live,’ ” she said.
Sitting in her Adirondack chair, Loth became mistyeyed as she thought about her last day on her front porch. She looked over at the flagpole in the Fort Crockett parking lot, its American flag at half-staff as a nod to the complex’s untimely closure.
Loth was planning to move to a new apartment in Galveston, a third-floor unit with nice views but not as close to the water as she would like.
“It’s OK for now,” she said. “But I’m waiting for one that’s coming available right in the front. Right by the beach.”