Clear Lake city leaders cite planning, leadership in bringing hotel, restaurant, convention center complex to Courtway Park (AUDIO)

CLEAR LAKE — Clear Lake city leaders earlier this week showed their elation on the announcement of a hotel, restaurant and convention complex to be placed in the Courtway Park subdivision east of Interstate 35 and north of State Highway 122.

The City Council Monday night approved a $4 million urban renewal development loan with the project developer WillowStream LLC. which in turn will bring a 75-room GrandStay Hotel and conference center as well as a Jethro’s BBQ restaurant to the southwestern part of the subdivision.

Mayor Nelson Crabb says it’s a great opportunity to develop a piece of land prime for this and other development in the future.  “It’s my hope ten years from now, that will be one of the top economic development areas along I-35, certainly the quadrant there, I believe is just going to blossom with Courtway Park. What a wonderful project to look forward to, especially further down the road.”

Councilman Mike Callanan says the council and City Administrator Scott Flory had the vision to prepare for potential development of the Courtway Park property.  “One step involved a bit of a leap of faith. Several months ago, the city started working on extending a road to, at that time, nowhere. We put about $1.8 million in a road and drainage system to make that land accessible. At that point, you’re hopeful that it’s going to happen, but it might or might not. Then Scott moved forward with revising the urban renewal district, so when something was in the works, we could do our part in trying to help that along.”

Councilman Bennett Smith commended Flory for his shepherding the project forward.  “As I worked on studying this process, and as a fairly new council member, I look at the economic development process, there are a lot of moving parts to it. As Scott said, typically a project like this would take two to three years at a minimum, and many times it takes much longer. I do think that we have a significant, competitive advantage in economic development with our leadership team here in Clear Lake, the mayor, Mike and Scott as our quarterback, I think it’s really coming to fruition here.”

The hotel and restaurant project will be located on a 5.8 acre piece of land on the southwestern portion of the Courtway Park subdivision, a 64-acre tract of land on what used to be the Andrews Pre-Stressed Concrete property. Groundbreaking for the project is scheduled for early next month, with completion no later than next November.

The Courtway Park subdivision project was our focus on today’s “Ask the Mayor” program on AM-1300 KGLO. Listen back to the program via the audio player below