City Council backs plans to convert Sea Gulf Villa into loft-style downtown units
Kathryn CargoThe Sea Gulf Villa apartments in downtown Corpus Christi will soon have a new future.
They're going to be renovated into about 100 market-value loft style apartment units. First, the current residents will have to be relocated.
The City Council on Tuesday awarded $500,000 for a project aimed at building new Section 8 apartments for residents who currently live in the aging downtown complex.
City staff members backed the project. The award is contingent upon the new complex's completion by December 2021.
Sea Gulf Villa apartments, a Section 8 housing complex on North Chaparral Street, was bought in July by Austin-based companies FishPond Development and GVA Management.
The companies plan to build a new complex called FishPond at Corpus Christi at 1002 Sixth Street, between Buford Street and Hancock Avenue.
Sea Gulf Villa residents would be relocated to FishPond, and their rents won't increase. The relocation is awaiting approval from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
The funding
The award comes from the unreserved fund balance in the city's Business/Job Development Fund, which is supported by sales tax revenue.
The cost to develop FishPond at Corpus Christi will be about $18 million, according to city documents.
Funding for the project includes a $5 million bank loan, a $4 million Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs loan, $6.2 million in tax credit equity and another $300,000 grant from the city. City documents say the $300,000 was still pending.
The TDHCA loan requires a local match of 5 percent. The extra $500,000 from the city's sales tax revenue helps fill a funding gap for the project and meets the required match.
Construction of FishPond at Corpus Christi is slated to start in the spring and last 12 to 14 months.
City staff members say that few affordable housing projects will have the impact of this project, according to city documents.
The project
Sea Gulf Villa, a 111-unit complex, was built as a hospital in 1928 and converted into apartments in 1979. Residents have said the complex is falling apart and also has problems with rats and roaches.
David Fournier, principal partner with FishPond Development, has said he was attracted to the Sea Gulf Villa building because of its location and all of the industry coming to Corpus Christi.
Fournier said after the companies bought the Sea Gulf Villa, they determined the complex was "functionally obsolete" for its current residents.
FishPond at Corpus Christi will have 112-units and be four stories over a podium designated for parking. All the units will be one-bedroom and about 700-square-feet, nearly 20 percent larger than most the units at Sea Gulf Villa.
The new development will have 70 on-site parking spaces — roughly double that of the Sea Gulf Villa, which uses an off-site parking lot nearly a block away.
FishPond at Corpus Christi will also have a modern heating, ventilation, and air conditioning system, along with other features like granite counter tops.
Kathryn Cargo follows business openings and developments while reporting on impacts of the city government’s decisions.See our subscription options and special offers at Caller.com/subscribe
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