Hotel Galvez under contract to sell after first deal falls apart
Historic beachfront Hotel Galvez is under contract to sell — again — this time to hotelier Mark Wyant, owner of Dallas-based Seawall Hospitality.
Mitchell Historic Properties, the Galveston real estate business of the late energy baron and real estate developer George P. Mitchell and his wife, Cynthia, is selling the property in a deal scheduled to close May 12. The property was previously under contract to SRH Hospitality Holdings in January 2020, before the pandemic hit and devastated the hospitality industry. Terms of the latest transaction were not disclosed.
Mitchell made his money in oil and was among the first to use hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling, tapping oil and gas in the Barnett Shale of North Texas years before the technology transformed the energy industry. He also developed The Woodlands.
The Mitchells bought the Galvez, a 1911-era Spanish Missionstyle structure, in 1993 and rehabilitated the property, restoring the main entrance and removing additions made between the 1950s and 1980s. The 224-room property at 2024 Seawall Blvd. has 13,000 square feet of meeting space, a spa, full-service restaurant and pool with a swim-up bar. It is appraised at $25 million, according to the Galveston Central Appraisal District.
Wyant has developed two properties in Galveston, he said in a press release, the Holiday Inn Express on Seawall in 1999 and the Holiday Inn Sunspree Resort, later selling both properties. Wyant plans to renovate the hotel and add entertainment venues, he said.
“I recognize and will respect the hotel’s beautiful architecture design while at the same time bring a renewed energy to Hotel Galvez.”
While SRH did not close on the purchase of Hotel Galvez, it did buy the Tremont House, another landmark Galveston hotel. It recently closed on that property, according to a March news release, after announcing plans to buy both properties in January 2020.
It’s likely the market value for a flagship hotel like the Galvez is higher than the appraised value, said Ryan Istre, audit director for the advisory firm Pannell Kerr Forster of Texas. While the pandemic may have affected the premium that buyers were willing to pay, he called the Galvez an exceptional property and said the industry is bouncing back.
“It was dire straights for some time, but it’s finally starting to pick back up,” he said.
Mitchell Properties plans to give the majority of the proceeds to the Cynthia and George Mitchell Foundation, which supports environmental protection, social equity and economic initiatives.