Tortuga Dunes is Sponsoring the Sea Turtles
Saturday, October 18th marks the Tortuga Dunes-hosted hatching party for the Ridley Sea Turtles benefiting the Port Aransas Animal Rehabilitation Keep (ARK). We are proud to sponsor four of the rehabilitated turtles that will be released back into their natural habitat.
Please visit www.turtletrail.org for the full story of the Ridley Sea Turtle hatch and ARK.
$200-million development planned for The Island
Gated community along Zahn Road to be the first new beachfront construction on North Padre in two decades
A publicly-traded real estate development company has announced plans to build a 146-acre gated community on Zahn Road near the north Packery jetty with landscape work set to begin in early 2008, construction set to begin in the summer of 2008 and completion in the spring of 2009.
The project will be named Tortuga Dunes and will include 139 villa home sties and approximately 97 luxury townhomes and condos. It will also include a pool and clubhouse, 37,000 square feet of retail space, and a walkover to take residents from the development over the dunes to the beach.
The total acreage of the tract is 146 acres with development on only 30 acres. The remainder of the acreage will be preserved as a wetland area with conservation and education programs.
The development is being done by the Forestar Real Estate Group which is a Temple Inland Company. Temple Inland is a Fortune 400 company which specializes in forestry, banks and investments, and real estate development.
According to the company’s profile, Forestar spun off from Temple-Inland in 2006 and became one of the largest publicly-traded development companies in the country. It trades on the NYSE under the symbol FOR. According to the NYSE website the company’s stock has traded between $20-$25 for the past year.
Forestar currently has one-hundred development projects located in twelve markets spread across nine states. They currently have large holdings around Atlanta as well as projects in Austin and Houston.
Plans call for the architecture in the Tortuga Dunes project to feature a theme derived from Caribbean and West Indies designs. Roofs will be of hipped or gabled varieties with cantilevered balconies and enclosed side yards.
Streets will be designed to be pedestrian friendly with view corridors. There will also be parks embedded in the design. Lot sizes will vary between fifty and sixty feet in width.
The company estimates the development will bring more than $200 million in added tax base and infrastructure to the Island economy.
Once the development is complete and all the units are sold the estimated annual tax revenue to local entities is $4.5 million with the bulk of that, $10.6 million going to the Flour Bluff ISD, $5.6 to the city of Corpus Christi and $3.5 to Nueces County.
The development was done without tax incentives from any of the taxing entities involved and is not expected to effect vehicular passage along the beach.
According to documents supplied by Forestar the company picked North Padre for the development after looking at coastal property from Galveston to South Padre.
Other partners in the project include: Watermark Land from Houston, Environmental and Planning Associates of Austin, land planning by Bosse & Turner of Austin, engineering by Naismith Engineering of Corpus Christi, Landscaping by Keith Morrow at Wilson Miller of Naples, Florida, and sales by Kuper Sotheby’s of San Antonio.
The site is located across Zahn Road from the recently constructed boat ramp and the planned city park. A welcome center is currently located at the site.
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A Sizzling Market on America's 'Third Coast'
The Wall Street Journal
By Julie Bennett
October 10th 2007
Second-home buyers priced out of the East and West Coast housing markets are discovering an affordable "Third Coast," the 367-mile Texas coastline on the Gulf of Mexico.
The area is so hot that buyers are snapping up condos and single-family lots on the state's barrier islands and near it's fishing villages long before the units are built or the lots are available.
Dr. James Gaines, research economist at the Real Estate Center of Texas A&M University in College Station, says the state's evolving popularity reminds him of the Georgia and South Carolina coastlines in the 1970s, "when buying there was still affordable." Today, he says, you have to pay over $1 million for a seaside cottage there and $2 million to $3 million for oceanfront property in Florida or California. In Texas, you can still buy a lot or a condo on the water for around $300,000. If you can find them, that is.
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE / September 7, 2007
Upscale Mustang Island development preserves environment, brings Caribbean style to Texas coast
High elevation allows homes to be built on grade, not stilts
MUSTANG ISLAND, Texas – Forestar Real Estate Group is developing Tortuga Dunes, a 137-acre community just north of Mustang Island State Park. The gated, exclusive community will feature the casually elegant architecture of the Caribbean and West Indies as well as provide a natural Wetlands habitat for residents to enjoy.
Tortuga Dunes will feature 142 villa home sites, along with 97 condominium and townhome units and 37,000 square feet of retail space offering a variety of services. Home sites, which will range in price from the mid-$200,000s to the mid-$700,000s, will be individually contoured rather than relying on stilts to elevate the homes. Forestar is currently building residential amenities that include a swim club, boardwalks, a gated and secured entry plus several of the first homes.
“Tortuga Dunes will offer the look, feel and simple yet elegant lifestyle of a Caribbean resort, with the convenience of a major metropolitan area just minutes away,” said Wayne McDonald, senior vice president, Forestar Real Estate Group. “Nothing with this combination of prime location, luxury and amenities has ever been done on the Texas coast, and when compared to other first-class coastal communities around the country our pricing represents an amazing value.”
Located at State Highway 361 and Zahn Road, Tortuga Dunes will feature the best beachfront location on the Texas coast, at the southern tip of Mustang Island and just minutes from Corpus Christi. The site includes 1,000 feet of Gulf of Mexico frontage, offering stunning views of the Gulf and of Corpus Christi Bay.
Tropical trees lining the streets of Tortuga Dunes will cast shadows on the breezeways and villas which will welcome residents with old-world details like tall vertical windows, wooden awning-style shutters, gabled towers, balconies and pedestrian gates. Residents can escape to the relaxation of a cool, shaded wrap-around porch or linger among the palms and bougainvilleas of private courtyards. Streets will be fully paved, and all utilities will be underground.
With the Kennedy Causeway just two miles away, residents will have direct, highway access to Corpus Christi, with no need to catch a ferry to the mainland. A signature Arnold Palmer golf course now under construction on the island is also just a few minutes away.
The property, encompassing some of the tallest dunes on the island, is situated between public lands owned by the City of Corpus Christi on one side and Nueces County on the other. Within Tortuga Dunes’ 137 acres, more than half of the property – 71 acres – will be preserved for wetlands conservation and environmental education. Care will also be taken to direct lighting from the community away from the beachfront, to avoid interfering with the community’s namesake – the sea turtles that frequent Mustang Island.
“It’s important to us as a developer to preserve the natural landscape,” said McDonald. “We are building in the wildlife’s backyard. Finding the proper avenues to ensure that the wildlife is preserved and protected is a critical element in the design process.”
Forestar Real Estate Group, developer of the Tortuga Dunes property, adheres to the values and standards of land stewardship that are the benchmark of its parent company, Temple-Inland Inc., which has been recognized by the U.S. Department of the Interior and a number of other environmental groups for its land stewardship and wildlife management track record. To create Tortuga Dunes, Forestar is partnering with Watermark Land L.P., which is committed to developing the project into a high-quality, eco-friendly community and wildlife preserve. Kuper Sotheby's International Realty is marketing the community.
“Waterfront real estate on other coastlines has gotten incredibly expensive over the last several years,” said Charlie Kuper of Kuper Sotheby’s International Realty. “Mustang Island offers some of the last reasonably priced oceanfront property in the U.S., and it happens to be convenient to Corpus Christi, San Antonio, Austin, Houston, Laredo and Monterrey. And since Tortuga Dunes will reflect Caribbean architecture, it will be unlike any other Texas coastal community.”
For sales information, contact Cissy Beasley, Sales Director for Tortuga Dunes, at 361.876.3626 or visit www.tortugadunes.com
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Corpus Christi Caller Times
August 30th 2007
$100M development
Residential community set for Mustang Island
A San Antonio real estate broker is preparing to build a Mustang Island residential community that will exceed $100 million.
The 137-acre project, dubbed Tortuga Dunes, is immediately north of city-owned park land on the north bank of Packery Channel.
Austin-based Forestar Real Estate Group will start construction within three weeks on 142 houses, 97 condominiums and 37,000 square feet of retail space featuring architecture of the Caribbean and West Indies.
Click here to read the entire article###
Media Contacts
Eric Whittington, Dublin & Associates, 210-227-0221 x-239
Charlie Kuper, Kuper Sotheby’s International Realty, 210-477-9373
