By Amanda Cassanova
The iconic Flagship Hotel, long neglected and more recently battered by Hurricane Ike, will be demolished if the city approves plans revealed Tuesday.
Landry’s Restaurants told the city planning commission it was abandoning plans to restore the historic hotel, the only one in Texas built on piers over the Gulf of Mexico, and would instead build an amusement park on the pier.
A year ago this month, the company said it would renovate the 225-room hotel and build an amusement park on the pier at 2501 Seawall Blvd.
Commissioners voted unanimously to approve the company’s plans for the park.
Company officials originally agreed to spend $15 million on renovations to the 45-year-old hotel and add a Chart House restaurant to the building.
“The hotel structure just wasn’t conducive to renovate,” said Jeff Cantwell, senior vice president of development for Landry’s.
Landry’s bought the hotel from the city in 2005 for $500,000. It already was dilapidated and was mauled by Hurricane Ike in September 2008. Landry’s had said it would consider selling, demolishing or restoring the hotel.
In a return to its roots, the pier will boast a double-decker carousel, a Ferris wheel and 1940s-style amusements similar to the attractions the pier featured when it was built in 1943.
The hotel was built in 1965 as a show of confidence after Hurricane Carla.
“I’m really glad you couldn’t do the hotel because this really looks nice,” Dominick Sasser, a member of the planning commission, said. “I think this has a lot of potential for Galveston.”
Once approved, the project is slated to take about 18 months and cost about $30 million.
“We just thought ‘what a great opportunity to restore this pier to its original glory,’” Cantwell said, adding the park will employ Galveston and area residents.
While mostly positive about the project, the panel did voice concerns about parking, which will be across the street adjacent to Fish Tales restaurant, also owned by Landry’s Restaurants.
The panel also recommended that Cantwell look into walkover access to the pier over Seawall Boulevard.
“We’re proposing to go explore that,” Cantwell said. “We’re prepared to carry the torch, but it wasn’t a condition for us to go forward on the pier.”
Plans and details of the park still are being discussed, Cantwell said.
Representatives from Landry’s will meet with city council at the end of October and in November with the zoning board.
If officials OK the plans, demolition and construction could begin by the end of the year, Cantwell said.
