Minto Communities USA received a green light to build 3,500 homes for active seniors in a Latitude Margaritaville development near Galveston.
The Florida-based developer was approved to build the 1,318-acre Latitude Margaritaville Galveston Bay on a former oil drilling site between Hwy 3 and Hwy 146, north of Emmet F. Lowry Expressway in Texas City, the Houston Business Journal reported.
The Texas City Commission approved the planned unit development request and a development agreement after a two-year pause reversed by a new city mayor who backed the project.
Minto said it will file plans for a first phase containing a model home park with a sales center and a clubhouse.
The company hopes to close on the property and break ground this year. The model park and sales center are expected to open in early 2028.
The seller of the 1,318-acre property is the Kohfeldt family, which has owned the property for generations. The cost of the land was undisclosed, as was the projected cost of the project.
Plans for Latitude Margaritaville Galveston Bay include 3,500 single-family homes, cottages and duplexes, exclusively for residents of 55 years and older.
Like other Latitude Margaritaville communities, it will include a town square with a bandshell for live music and dancing, a fitness center, shops and a restaurant, as well as a theater, pool, tennis and pickleball courts, a dog park and trails.
Resistance to the project was led by the previous mayor, Dedrick Johnson, who criticized the developer for requesting exceptions to city codes. Johnson was voted out in May but is still an outspoken critic of the project.
The new mayor, Abel Garza, had been pushing for the development as a city commissioner and is now fast-tracking it, according to the publication.
Minto Communities USA, a unit of Ottawa, Canada-based Minto Group, has developed Latitude Margaritaville communities in Daytona Beach and Panama City Beach, Florida, as well as Hardeeville, South Carolina, near Hilton Head. In the past 45 years, the U.S. subsidiary has built 38,000 homes, according to its website.
Margaritaville and Minto announced in 2022 they planned to build Latitude Margaritaville communities around Austin, Dallas and Houston.
In February, Minto closed on 3,170 acres in Waxahachie, 30 miles south of Dallas, with approval to develop a master-planned community of 13,270 homes, including 4,000 carved out for seniors.
— Dana Bartholomew
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