THE COASTAL BEND MAGAZINE • March/April 2018 39 TheCoastalBend.com munity where his heart resides, appeared to find profound happiness inviting every- day folks to his beautiful, brightly-colored, three-story beachfront bar and grill. We Coastal Benders need to hold onto people like Messrs. Frazier and Blackard, as they are few and far between. The Blackard/Frazier group has presented two options to the city council as prospective redevelopment plans for North Beach, but we will feature here the one we like the most—the one with the canal and new islands! Traveling southbound from Portland currently, TX-181 takes a rather sharp curve to the east, toward the bay, at Burleson St., and then up the bridge. The new route will not curve at Burleson, but instead continue more southwesterly over the channel, where it will become the Crosstown Expressway, intersecting IH-37 via a new, multilevel interchange. Those heading to downtown will take IH-37 toward the bayfront, and a new system of exits and ramps will be constructed at the newly expanded TX-181/Crosstown/IH-37 interchange. This change will open up about a dozen new blocks of developable land on North Beach, much of which was lost when the 1959 Harbor Bridge was built, plus about ten acres west of the Texas State Aquarium located along the north bank of the ship channel. The grand entrance to North Beach will be on Burleson St., where the main exit is now, and the proposed plan is centered on a saltwater canal that is fed by Corpus Christi Bay and cuts through the beach where Burleson now ends. The canal would run north and south, roughly where the median between Surfside Blvd. and Timon St. is now and will be navigable by medium-sized bay boats. A small ma- rina would accommodate a few dozen vessels, including docks for passenger ferries, visiting boaters, and small charters. On the beach side of the canal would be hotels, dining, retail and enter- tainment venues, along with the existing Radis- son and its adjacent hotel, Villa del Sol and the other condominiums. On the in- land side of the canal you would find a newly devel- oped bayside village area that is pedestrian, cyclist and pet friendly, and encompasses over two dozen blocks. Affordable, long term apartments would be developed, along with condominiums and townhomes for sale and overnight rental. At the northern tip of North Beach, a public park is proposed that would include an “eco-destination” that features native flora and fauna. But…the most stunning, innovative, and radical feature of the Blackard/Frazier concept for North Beach are four new, man-made spoil islands built of discarded concrete and earthen material from the old Harbor Bridge. The new islands would serve as a breakwater as close as 100 yards from the beach and will diminish the ef- fects of surf and currents on the boating entrance to the canal. Rising as high as forty feet above the bay, foliage and palm trees will be planted on the new islands, which will be reachable by kayak, paddle boat and moderately strong swimmers. Considering that the developers of this proposed vision for the new North Beach have a decades-long track record of making big projects work—from upscale, master planned communities in the DFW area to a Croatian resort hotel—and that their com- mitment to the Coastal Bend is proven by their persistence and financial investments here so far, the Blackard/Frazier redevelopment plan for North Beach after the 2020 Harbor Bridge opens, offers the best hope for historic improvement and develop- ment of Corpus Christi’s bay front. We Coastal Benders should look at the next five years as a coming Gilded Age—a period when investment and improvement will outpace any prior period, and when demand for all labor markets, and all service sectors, will exceed supply. The result will be new neighbors, new neighborhoods, new attractions, along with a higher standard of living and greater array of opportunities for the generations that will lead us into the middle of the 21st Century. TCB Rising as high as forty feet above the bay, foliage and palm trees will be planted on the new islands, which will be reachable by kayak, paddle boat and moderately strong swimmers.