Baron makes pitch for mixed housing

Richard Baron seems genuinely surprised at the opposition to the mixed-income proposal for replacing the public housing units here in Galveston.

Baron, the chairman and chief executive officer for McCormack Baron Salazar, points to the nearly 40 years his company has been doing these types of developments all across the country and the successful transformations he says have taken place in the communities where they have been built, and he wonders why Galveston residents wouldn’t want the same thing here.

“Everywhere we have done these developments, everyone has been thrilled with the outcome,” Baron told board members of the Galveston Economic Development Partnership and the Galveston Chamber of Commerce during a joint meeting Wednesday. “Properties we built 25 to 30 years ago are as nice today as they were the day we built them.”

Baron said one of the keys is the extensive screening process MBS uses to determine who is going to live in its developments, as well as the “tough love” that is sometimes required if a resident does not adhere to the standards set for the development, many times set by the residents themselves. He added MBS always will manage the properties rather than sell to another group, ensuring Baron and the company’s standards for the development are met long term.

The mixed-income proposal has been met with significant opposition locally, with opponents wondering why MBS feels the need to build more than the 569 public housing units required by the Conciliation Agreement, further saturating what already is considered a soft housing market on the island.

But Baron said the mixed-income developments, which he said will blend public housing with tax credit and market rate housing seamlessly, is not only better for the people who live there, but the community in general. He added the units, just less than 1,000 total, will be of such a high quality they likely will cause other local property owners to improve their units, meaning even better housing will be available on the island overall.

Baron, who grew up in a mixed-income development in Detroit, said the mixed-income properties here would be successful in attracting new residents to the island and, maybe more importantly, successful in getting folks who already work on the island to live on the island as well, rather than leaving Galveston to go home at the end of the work day.

For example, 40 percent of the employees who work at the University of Texas Medical Branch, or 4,000 people, would be eligible to live in the development’s tax credit units, Baron said.

Combine capturing these potential dollars in the local market with the additional retail and commercial development that typically accompanies these developments, then these mixed-income properties become a real catalyst for economic development, Baron said.

“Everybody should be supportive of this kind of thing,” Baron said.

But not everyone is supportive of the mixed-income proposal, and Baron clearly knows he has an uphill public relations battle here. He intends to do more, like the presentation he did for the GEDP and chamber boards, to start climbing that hill and building some credibility with island residents.

I wonder, did anything you read today cause you to second-guess your position on this controversial proposal? Need more information?

Let’s see what Baron comes up with moving forward.

Patrick Graham is president and publisher of The Daily News.