BEAUMONT, Texas — A new subdivision is coming to Port Arthur. The affordable housing project would go up right next to the intracoastal waterway off Procter Street and 6th Street.
It includes new houses, a park and a waterfront view. It’s a project that has been years in the making.
Ultimately, the goal is to have housing available in downtown in an area that's starving for opportunity.
Soon the vacant lot just off intracoastal waterway will be transformed into a new subdivision, and it's creating quite the buzz.
"I'll tell anybody, tell everybody come on home to Port Arthur," Port Arthur Mayor Thurman Bartie said.
24 houses will fill a property known as Legacy at Gifford Pond. It’s the second phase of a housing development project being spearheaded by Legacy Community Development Corporation. It's an initiative that Bartie believes is an investment in the future
"We're trying to do what's necessary, and we want to even want to work with our industrial neighbors so that they would be in a position to offer jobs to individuals who are in Port Arthur," Bartie said.
The subdivision would be a mixed-income community. A study by National Association of Home Builders shows that building 100 affordable homes could result in $11.7 million of local income and bring in 161 jobs along with $2.2 million in taxes.
"Affordable housing is very to meet the income, the low income level," President of LLB construction Dinah Nguyen said.
Nguyen would know. His company, LLB construction, has built many of the homes for Legacy Community and soon will do the same with this new subdivision.
"There's a need for housing as you can see. There's not enough housing around here. We build so many homes in downtown Port Arthur and as soon as the homes are built, they are sold out."
The City of Port Arthur is preparing for the future one brick at a time. No timeline has been set for when crews will break ground on the new subdivision.