Consultant Details Preliminary Numbers for SPI Marina by R. Daniel Cavazos Greg Weykemp of Edgewater Resources is a consultant hired by the city of South Padre Island to formulate a feasibility study of building a marina at South Padre Island. (Island Matters Photo) The possibility of a South Padre Island marina is coming into view even as its supporters recognize the complexities of gaining the financing and permitting needed to construct such a project.
Greg Weykemp, a Michigan-based consultant, has spent recent months assessing the viability of a SPI marina after being hired by the city to form preliminary details. He shared those views during a recent visit to the Island at a chamber of commerce-sponsored event. Weykemp pointed to the plus-side benefits. An Island marina would boost tourism, enhance existing fishing tournaments, and create a new recreational facility for the residents living here year-around. A marina would also cost about $40 million. It would require public and private financing and need multiple environmental approvals from state and federal agencies. Weykemp is president of Edgewater Resources and has worked with communities around the country to construct and maintain marinas. He likened a marina here to ones found in coastal Florida communities.
“We have an opportunity to build much more than a marina,” he said in an interview after the presentation at Padre Island Brewing Co., which was hosted by the South Padre Island Chamber of Commerce. “It’s also a community park, a community resource that’s about habitat shoreline protection and getting everyone in the community out on the water.” Building a marina on the Island would be a multi-step process. A marina is a system, a network of connected parts rather than a single solid structure. A dredged channel would lead from an entrance with parking and a boater services building. The channel extends out to floating docks and slips for boats. Habitat breakwaters lay adjacent to the docks and boats.
From the air, a marina would look like a giant floating “T,” branching out into the Laguna Madre and within sight of the Queen Isabella Memorial Bridge. Greg Weykemp presents his findings and preliminary information of SPI marina feasibility study during a recent event sponsored by SPI Chamber of Commerce. (Island Matters Photo) Weykemp envisions a multi-use walking trail and green space by the marina’s entrance. He said a marina system values habitat and bolsters coastal resiliency in addition to the community sensibilities, making it “a big, complicated project.”
The SPI Economic Development Corporation is taking the lead in analyzing the project. One of its board members, Gayle Hood, is chairing the deep-water marina project. After Weykemp’s presentation, Hood said the project study will move forward to a final report, which she expects to be completed in the next month.
“The next step is, who is going to take the lead?” said Hood, a real estate agent, who formerly chaired the Port Isabel Chamber of Commerce and served as president of the SPI Board of Realtors. “We’re hoping South Padre, (city), takes the lead and that we make it happen here. It’s going to take a joint effort to put that all together.” Corpus Christi's municipal marina has fixed boat slip sizes, which a consultant said would not be the case at a SPI marina, which would feature flexibility in accommodating boats of all sizes. (Courtesy Visit Corpus Christi) Possible Marina Locations Weykemp’s first choice for an Island marina is a location between the causeway and Pier 19, a site that would be visible when crossing from Port Isabel to the Island.
One conceptual plan he presented at the chamber-sponsored event listed 15 marina elements with a total cost of nearly $39 million. The most expensive piece would be $13 million for breakwater islands that would front and protect the floating docks and slips for the marina’s boats. He projected that constructing the floating docks would cost $4.4 million.
Dredging costs would be $2.5 million, fixed docks per the plan have a $2.1 million cost, with the boater services building costing $2 million. Those are the most expensive elements of one plan Weykemp presented, which appeared to be along the general costs of the project. A second option he listed was expanding the Sea Ranch Marina. It’s just adjacent to the Pier 19 location, and in addition to a higher construction cost, Hood said it also involves dealing with county-owned land.
Wherever a SPI marina may be built, Weykemp said slip sizes for boats need to be flexible, not fixed. A marina here could accommodate the bigger boats during the big fishing tournaments, and then the smaller boats of local residents. Having a good transient/local boater mix is a key consideration, he said, in balancing revenue generation with community accessibility.
“If I build a marina today that’s fixated on a certain size, I might find myself in trouble 10 years down the road, so that’s why we design it to leave as much flexibility as possible,” he said. “You could have a 240-footer, (boat), one day, a 350 the next day, and they can use the same space.” Seeking Funding Weykemp listed a number of federal and state grants that the Island could pursue building a marina.
There are funding opportunities via infrastructure and pre-disaster mitigation grants from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Additional funding sources include grants from the National Marine Fisheries and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. There are also state funding possibilities from the Texas General Land Office, he said.
Boating in Texas is growing with 63,000 vessels in the state, making up a $7.7 billion industry, Weykemp said. In the 34th Congressional district, of which SPI is part of along with Corpus Christi and its marina, there are 10,600 boats. Weykemp predicted that building capacity here would lead to boats moving down the coast to SPI. He estimated an Island marina would create 29 total jobs, $5 million in industry sales revenues, and bring $3 million in added value to the SPI economy.
“I’m very hopeful,” said Hood, of the EDC board, regarding the marina project. Speaking from experience, Weykemp told those gathered at the Chamber event to imagine the new scenarios a marina would bring to the Island. “It’s an incredible experience to arrive in a city by boat,” he said.
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