THE COASTAL BEND MAGAZINE • Late Summer 2018 23 TheCoastalBend.com The area of downtown north of IH-37, the S.E.A. (Sports, Entertainment, Arts) District, is where many of the city’s major assets are located, including the Ameri- can Bank Center, the museums, Heritage Park, Whataburger Field, the Ortiz Center, Hurricane Alley waterpark and more, but there is not a single hotel and a total of two full-service restaurants, Railroad Seafood Station and Brewster Street Icehouse. Within two blocks of the seawall, large, acre-sized lots set empty alongside a few worn-down apartment buildings. This is an area visited by tens of thousands of people at a time in the case of major festivals and conventions, but where less than a half-dozen business owners have invested to take advantage of it. A number of new businesses have opened in the heart of downtown in the last two years, including The Exchange, the Bay Jewel event hall, Bar Under the Sun, the Gold Fish, the Cosmopolitan apartment building, the relocated and expanded Craw- daddy’s Downtown, and a few others. However, entire city blocks of Chaparral St., including the one improved at a cost of more than $3.5 million in taxpayer funds, remains almost entirely vacant—an area once alive with activity in multiple night- clubs, pubs and small eateries, less than 20 years ago. The one business that did benefit from the public investment on Chaparral St. was Water Street Market, two restaurants of which, Water Street Seafood Company and The Executive Surf Club, had entrances on the block that was improved. The for- mer remains closed a year after Harvey, despite stated plans to restore and reopen, while the latter operates as usual. The Market itself is downtown’s single, multi- attraction center of entertainment that once was home to a few shops and galleries, as well as a coffee shop, in addition to four restaurants. Today Water Street Market houses three restaurants, all owned by the center’s owner, Brad Lomax, as well as the Texas Surf Museum (ditto), and nothing else. While events like Fiesta de la Flor (the Selena music festival) and the Dia de los Muertos festival attract 30,000 to 50,000 people to downtown on a single day, only a handful of investors, mostly small ones, have taken the leap downtown. The Kemah Boardwalk, located 30 miles south of Houston, is owned by Landry’s. It is home to a dozen restaurants, a theme park including a wooden roller coaster and Ferris wheel, shops, a 133-passenger charter yacht, and a hotel, and is visited by millions of people every year. Its intended sister property was proposed for the Corpus Christi Marina on the T-Heads, but Landry’s pulled out after the City insisted they give a piece to a local developer. The Santa Monica Pier is one of the top visitor attractions in Southern California. A smaller version thrives on the Galveston Seawall. The downtown Tampa, Florida, Riverwalk area is visited by millions of locals and visitors, and is the site of almost-weekly special events and festivals. A wide variety of restaurants, bars, shops and galleries line the adjacent streets