$700M Margaritaville Beach Resort Galveston Set To Break Ground Early This Year
A swath of empty beachfront land in east Galveston will soon be home to a major hospitality development that includes a 300K SF Margaritaville Beach Resort with a water park, restaurants and hundreds of guest rooms.
RREAF Holdings, a Dallas-based development firm, is partnering with Innisfree Hotels, an operator of beachfront hotels and resorts in the Southeast, on the $700M project set to break ground early this year and deliver in 2026, according to a news release and RREAF Holdings.
RREAF closed on the 95-acre site in November 2021 and spent significant time determining the best development plan, RREAF Holdings CEO Kip Sowden told Bisnow.
“We looked at Marriott resorts. We looked at a number of different options for that location,” Sowden said. “But it became clear to us that the Margaritaville overall concept on the beach in Texas was hands down the best option to guarantee the success of that development.”
The developers will also build 278 furnished cottages, ranging from two to six bedrooms, contiguous with the resort site, he said. These will be for sale for north of $2M each, Sowden said.
Margaritaville Beach Resort Galveston will be the second Margaritaville Beach Resort in Texas after the first opened on South Padre Island last summer. A Camp Margaritaville RV resort in Crystal Beach opened in 2022 as Bolivar Beach Club but quickly aligned itself with the Margaritaville brand.
The RV resort is about 13 miles down the beach from where Margaritaville Beach Resort Galveston will be built, at 317 E. Beach Drive in Galveston. The site is about 2 miles away from the Galveston Ferry Terminal.
Some of the cottages will be to the east of the resort, while others will be across East Beach Drive, according to a site plan. The cottages will have their own amenities, homeowner association and security, said Carl Schwab, president of RREAF Development Services.
“It'll be truly a master-planned community,” Schwab said.
Resort amenities will include pickleball courts, a family entertainment center, a ballroom, a lazy river along with an adult pool, beach access and Margaritaville food and beverage offerings, according to the news release. The 2.5-acre elevated water park will overlook the beach, the release states. The resort will have 334 guest rooms.
Resort restaurants and bars, including Landshark, 5 O’Clock Somewhere and Salty Rim, will be open to the public, the developers said. The development will include 1.75 acres of public parking.
RREAF plans to break ground on the resort this quarter. Infrastructure for the cottages will get underway in the next three to four months, Sowden and Schwab said. The resort will have a 24-month buildout time, and the first batch of homes should deliver around the same time, they said.
This is Innisfree Hotels’ fifth joint venture and ninth beachfront hotel with RREAF Holdings. Sowden called Florida-based Innisfree “the best of the best” when it comes to hotel operations. Gensler is the architect of record on the project.
The project comes as Galveston has enjoyed an increase in tourism. The island saw 8 million visitors in 2022, a 25% increase from 2021, which brought a record $1.2B in tourist spending, according to Visit Galveston.
“We love drive-to leisure,” Sowden said, adding that “when you think about where Galveston is located, you've got 21 million people in a four-hour drive and 8 million in a one-hour-or-less drive.”
Sowden said the resort will bring 500 to 600 direct jobs, with more indirect jobs expected.
“It's going to have a huge positive impact to Galveston Island and the economy,” he said. “I suspect this is the largest privately-owned development deal in the history of Galveston Island.”
