Future Hitchcock downtown development meant to add livability, boost local economy

​The city of Hitchcock in Galveston County covers more than 90 square miles, stretching all the way down to the West Bay, but most of the land is rural and undeveloped.
Virtually all of its commercial and residential life is planted just north and south of State Highway 6, but the town's linear layout along a five-lane highway doesn’t give it much of a downtown area.
The city’s economic development corporation wants to change that.
For the past two years, the Hitchcock EDC has been working on plans to develop a partly pedestrian, mixed-use downtown district, with new retail, offices and possibly a residential component.
“The city doesn't really have much of a downtown or very many buildings to help put a downtown together,” said Tyler Robert, the EDC’s executive director.
“So, the EDC has taken it upon itself to develop out property to invigorate the area and to define the downtown itself.”
The project is in the early stages, and the city has not yet identified a developer.
The EDC is working with Conroe-based architecture firm Burditt on the design.
The area to be defined as Hitchcock’s downtown district would be along Highway 6 between Second and Fourth streets and could include turning Wallace Avenue into a pedestrian street lined with retail and restaurants, Robert said.
The EDC last year purchased a Hitchcock Independent School District building at 8002 Martin Luther King Blvd., one of the city’s oldest structures, to serve as the “catalyst for our downtown historic development,” Robert said.
The EDC has already started renovating the building with the plan for it to house restaurants and retail. The organization is also in talks with property owners in the area of the future district to either sell or redevelop their properties, Robert said.
The city has also provided up to $5,000 in matching grants for storefront improvements to businesses in this area.
Currently, the future downtown district is marked by grassy lots, vacant buildings, a liquor store, and a hardware store.
Across Highway 6, there is a post office, a Texas First Bank, and the future site for Hitchcock City Hall.
The city last year purchased 6801 Delaney Road and 8104 Highway 6 for the new city hall and will be moving from 7423 Highway 6 after renovating the property,
the Galveston Daily News reported.
Robert said the city’s layout, with a large area squeezed in between a highway and a railroad track, has not been conducive to development, but he hopes the future downtown district will be a game changer for the 7,300-resident town.
“If we’re able to capture bigger, larger population groups, we're also able to capture, then, the bigger workforce drivers, things that will help us grow the community (and) help us diversify our economy,” he said.
“We're hoping that this is kind of the first catalyst that helps really reinvigorate the city and get the citizens of Hitchcock truly excited about something finally happening with the community.”
Robert hopes design plans will go before City Council and the public this fall.
It’s hard to say when the project will be completed, but Robert estimates it will take between 10 and 20 years.

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