Maceo Family Selling Prime Galveston Acreage

GALVESTON, TX-A well-known Galveston family with connections to the city’s colorful past has put a large batch of prime properties on the market. The Maceo family, which at one time owned several popular casinos, has retained Yancey-Hausman Interests Inc. in Houston to market more than 50 acres of undeveloped land in several tracts fronting the island’s two main traffic arteries, the Galveston Seawall and Stewart Road.

According to Yancey-Hausman senior associate David Crawford, who heads the firm’s land and investment sales division, the properties consist of a 26-acre parcel, an 11-acre tract and five contiguous parcels totaling about 16 acres. Including about 1,600 feet of seawall frontage with direct views of the Gulf of Mexico, the parcels are zoned for residential, recreation or planned development use and would support most types of residential and resort uses.

“With its prime location, the Maceo family’s property is ideally suited for significant new development that will further enhance Galveston’s appeal as a resort community,” Crawford tells GlobeSt.com.

Located near 99th Street, the properties are surrounded by new development and renovation projects, including the $65-million Diamond Beach Resort to the west and Galveston Municipal Golf Course, currently undergoing a $14.6-million renovation, to the north. Crawford says a recently developed condominium project to the east has sold out, with units priced at $300,000 to $400,000. The nearby 247-unit Regatta Condominiums are currently selling for $450,000 to $700,000.

Yancey-Hausman senior vice president Pat Pollan says similar properties have been getting $12 per sf to $15 per sf. Crawford expects the Maceo tracts will fetch prices in that range.

“This is one of the last large blocks of property that are on the seawall and have the protection of the seawall so it’s generating quite a bit of interest,” Crawford says. “We’re getting calls from Florida, the Northwest, the Atlanta area, just in the few days since we announced it was on the market.”

Salvatore Sam Maceo and his brother Rose owned many of the semi-legal casinos that drew huge crowds to Galveston during the 1950s and ’60s. The properties, which are owned by the brothers’ heirs, are being sold on a sealed-bid basis, with bids due by Aug. 27.