Galveston Entertainment Destination is in the Works
The Galveston-Clear Lake corridor is booming and resort amenities such as a public access lagoon, along with housing and retail, will attract residents and visitors to this area north of Galveston.
TEXAS CITY, TX—The Galveston-Clear Lake corridor is booming and resort amenities are increasingly being added to developments with the goal of attracting residents and visitors to the area. One of those developments is Lago Mar, a Land Tejas master-planned 2,033-acre community, located along Interstate 45, 14 miles north of Galveston. More than 4,000 homes are planned for the community (pricing starts in the $200,000s) and current retail offerings include Tanger Outlets and Buc-ee’s Travel Center.
Adding to the resident appeal is a 70-acre mixed-used entertainment destination, which is in the works in the community, according to Land Tejas Development. The resort complex will feature a 12-acre Crystal Clear Lagoon, the largest in Texas.
With white sand beaches and a tropical landscape, the lagoon is scheduled to begin construction this month with projected completion of phase one in early 2020. The Lago Mar lagoon will be up to 10 feet deep.
Future phases of development around the 12-acre lagoon are planned to include multiple beaches, a large cabana pool featuring a heated pool and beach-front cabanas, a kid’s beach with water features, and multiple floating docks that can accommodate kayaks, paddleboards and small sailboats. Also planned are a beach club, a two-story swim-up bar, a beachfront event lawn for weddings and concerts, a welcome center, clubhouse and an event building. A hotel is planned to be a prominent feature with restaurants and shops that will line a waterfront boardwalk promenade. Condominiums and townhomes are also planned for the 70-acre resort complex. Approximately 250,000 square feet of restaurant and retail space will be available.
“This project has amazing potential to create a totally new type of lifestyle for residents of Lago Mar and for Houston-area families looking to enjoy a fun, outdoor lifestyle,” said Al Brende, founder of Land Tejas.
In addition to Crystal Lagoons Corp., Land Tejas is working with Heidt Design LLC from Tampa, Houston-based KGA/Deforest Design LLC, Kimley-Horn planning and design engineering consultants, Iowa-based event management company VenuWorks and Jones Carter of The Woodlands for development of the lagoon plans. Trez Capital’s Dallas office is financing construction of the lagoon.
“Crystal Lagoons amenities are quickly becoming a popular attraction for new developments throughout the state of Texas,” John Hutchinson, president of Trez Capital, tells GlobeSt.com. “After seeing the success of the Balmoral lagoon, which was financed through Trez Capital and recently opened, we expect Lago Mar to be a magnet for both residents of the community and families on vacation.”
Texas City mayor Matt Doyle says the development will not only enhance the city but provide a destination for visitors.
“The Lago Mar lagoon will completely change the entrance into our city, giving our citizens and tourists around the country an exciting destination for relaxation and entertainment,” Doyle said. “I could not be happier. Our mission was to make our section of I-45 something special. The Lago Mar lagoon is beyond our wildest dreams.”
Like the Balmoral lagoon, which is the first to open in Texas and built by Land Tejas, the Lago Mar amenity will employ Crystal Lagoons’ patented environmentally friendly technology. The high-tech process allows lagoons to maintain turquoise waters with 100 times fewer chemicals and 50 times less energy than a traditional pool. In addition, it consumes only 2% of the energy needed by conventional swimming pool filtration systems. It enables low water consumption, using up to 30 times less water than a golf course and 50% less water than is required by a park of the same size, GlobeSt.com learns.
There are currently more than 50 million man-made water bodies around the world, such as artificial lakes, lagoons on golf courses and reservoirs. Because of the algae proliferation and accumulation of sediment in the bottom, those bodies of water don’t have the transparency of swimming pools or tropical seas.
For years, different water treatment technologies have been applied in large bodies of water, with the objective of achieving good quality, such as the use of ozone, aeration and movement of water, enzymes, biological equilibrium and fish. However, none of these methods have managed to create large bodies of crystalline water with high transparency and microbiological quality.
For this reason, Fernando Fischmann, founder of Crystal Lagoons and biochemist by profession, created a sustainable technology method and system that allowed him to build and maintain large crystalline lagoons with excellent water quality at very low costs. The technology fully complies with the most stringent international physicochemical and microbiological water quality standards.