- City of Corpus Christi Planning and Community Development Department
- Hosting a design workshop on Thursday, Jan. 11 at the Antonio E. Garcia Arts & Education Center from 4 - 7 p.m.
- Requesting input from community members about senior housing project
- Senior housing project will take place of former Lamar Elementary School site
What was once home to Lamar Elementary School could now be the beginning stages of the city's newest senior housing project.
The school, which opened in 1941, was closed in 2010 and in 2018, the Ed Rachal Foundation purchased the school building and announced their expectation of turning it to a Good Samaritan shelter in 2020. The foundation later gave the property to the city of Corpus Christi, where it was demolished in 2021.
“This is part of a first phase relating to over 50 properties that were gifted to the city of Corpus Christi from the Ed Rachal back in the spring of 2023," Keren Costanzo, the Planning Manager for Corpus Christi's Planning and Community Development Department said.
Last year, the city issued a Request for Interest for the property in hopes to seek more real estate and affordable housing opportunities under the city's Westside Area Development Plan.
But in order to fulfill that, they want to ask residents exactly what they’re looking in their neighborhood. That's why they're hosting a design workshop on Thursday for the proposed project.
“Our goal as city staff is to give the big picture and work with residents to understand how all of this fits within this phase 1 and phase 2 of bringing housing reinvestment to this neighborhood," Costanzo said.
The original plan was to create administrative buildings and a police sub-station. Now that all of that has changed, residents are getting a chance to speak to the developer as this senior housing project moves forward.
“The developers are going to be taking very direct input from local residents to hear what type of amenities that they can incorporate into the plans for this site," Costanzo said. "Those that live there are the local experts, so we want to make sure we’re always consulting our local experts as we’re moving forward.”
The design workshop will be Thursday, January 11 at the Antonio E. Garcia Arts and Education Center from 4 to 7 p.m.
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