TEXAS SNAPSHOT, DECEMBER 2008

Brownsville: Retail Project Spotlight

DEVELOPMENT UNDER WAY FOR BALLPARK PLAZA IN BROWNSVILLE, TEXAS

The 200,000-square-foot Ballpark Plaza shopping center will be located adjacent to a new minor league baseball stadium. Locally based R&R Hope Properties is developing both the retail center and the stadium.

Brownsville-based R&R Hope Properties has received the final approvals for the construction of Ballpark Plaza, a 200,000-square-foot shopping center located in Brownsville. The project will be located adjacent to a new minor league baseball stadium R&R Hope Properties also is developing. In embracing the new trend of turning sports venue into 24/7 destination centers, the developer is trying to avoid the pitfalls others have made in the past.

“It has been stated to me that the landscape in Texas is littered with baseball stadiums that didn’t work,” says Richard Hope, managing partner of R&R Hope Properties. “Most of these stadiums that didn’t work were built independent of any sort of economic engine that could help support them. In Brownsville, we are building a stadium that is associated with the shopping center, and they are going to help each other.”

With that in mind R&R Hope Properties is developing a 200,000-square-foot shopping center that will focus on providing basic services to the surrounding area. It will be anchored by Amigo Market, a grocery chain that targets the Hispanic community. Richard Hope notes that 33,000 people live in the future shopping center’s trade area, and there is currently no immediate access to basic retail services. This will provide Ballpark Plaza with an immediate customer base once the center is complete.

Phase I construction totals 70,000 square feet, and it consists of the Amigo Market and some of the pad sites. Tenants already signed at the center include Subway, Pronto Insurance, Al Capone Pizza, C&C Wings, Lipita’s Wireless and Brownsville Children’s Clinic. The project is expected to break ground in January, with completion of Phase I expected in October 2009. The timetable is not as firm for Phase II of the project, but this is due to R&R Hope Properties’ philosophy. Ballpark Plaza is being constructed as leases are secured, so that the center does not fall victim to the vacant storefronts that dot many of the state’s retail centers that were constructed speculatively.

“This is not the time for speculation,” Hope says. “There is enough risk in building a shopping center without building a bunch of spec space, particularly in this economic climate.”

R&R Hope Properties will be ground leasing the space for the shopping center from the city of Brownsville. In addition, the company is developing and managing the construction of the new baseball stadium. The sports venue will be the home of United League Baseball’s Brownsville Charros, which is returning after a long absence in the city. But with the Charros only using the facility a small portion of the time for home games, the stadium will provide the perfect venue for other events, as well.

“The facility, in order to accomplish our goals, needs to be used a whole lot more than that,” Hope says. “It needs to be a place where the public goes for a variety of entertainment.”

The stadium will contain 3,500 fixed seats with expansion capability of up to 5,000 people. The ball field will be made of field turf, which will cut down on maintenance costs, as well as provide for the easy conversion of the field for other uses. In addition to the Charros baseball team, the stadium will host sporting events from the University of Texas – Brownsville, amateur football and soccer leagues, and other public events. The stadium will be owned by the city of Brownsville. Construction will break ground at the same time as Phase I of Ballpark Plaza, with completion coinciding with the retail center in October 2009.

— Coleman Wood

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