Heated debate at City Hall over Homewood Suites investigation report<\/a><\/p>\n\u201cDon’t underestimate downtown Corpus Christi,\u201d said Hank Harrison, owner of The Exchange. \u201cDon\u2019t underestimate downtown Corpus Christi \u2014 believe it. Come hang out in it, see what we’ve done.\u201d<\/p>\n
Harrison\u2019s business, The Exchange, is nearing completion of a 10-month, multi-million-dollar renovation project just blocks away from the event.<\/p>\n
\u201cWell things took a little longer than we wanted to, but it\u2019s Corpus,\u201d Harrison said. \u201cIt did take longer than we planned, but that’s just kind of how it goes. I know that we’re about to launch it as high quality on the best standing we possibly can. In fact, I can tell you, March 3 is when we\u2019re going to open the doors.\u201d<\/p>\n
Harrison said he hopes events like the State of Downtown encourage stronger relationships among business owners \u2014 even those competing for customers.<\/p>\n
\u201cLike a rising tide, this lifts all boats,\u201d he said. \u201cThis is us checking on each other from boat to boat. Sometimes the boats are in a race and we\u2019re racing somewhere, but we\u2019re all cheering each other on as we go. And the rising tide lifting all racing boats \u2014 I think, if anything, that\u2019s sort of like a playful, competitive nature of how we are in this neighborhood. And that really is what it is. It\u2019s a neighborhood.\u201d<\/p>\n
But just a few blocks away, another downtown business owner says that same \u201ctide\u201d has been difficult to navigate.<\/p>\n
Hector Cavazos, owner of Rebel Toad Brewing Company, said multiple nearby construction projects \u2014 including the renovation of The Exchange next door and the construction of a new Homewood Suites by Hilton Corpus Christi Downtown across the street \u2014 have significantly impacted his business.<\/p>\n
Cavazos said the Homewood Suites project has been under construction since the summer of 2023.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt slows down business, walking traffic,\u201d Cavazos said. \u201cIt creates a lot of debris and dust and so \u2026 blowing this way from the winds.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said the prolonged construction has forced him to lay off much of his staff, even as the brewery recently commemorated 10 years in business.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo it\u2019s not been easy,\u201d Cavazos said. \u201cBut we understand progress takes time and we\u2019re trying to get on the other side of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The contrasting perspectives reflect a broader conversation playing out in downtown Corpus Christi: how to balance redevelopment momentum fueled by public incentives with the short-term realities facing small businesses during construction-heavy growth.<\/p>\n
As TIRZ-funded projects continue reshaping the area, business owners say the long-term success of downtown will depend not only on new investment, but on whether existing businesses can endure the disruption that comes with it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Downtown leaders praised TIRZ-backed growth at the State of Downtown, while some business owners say nearby construction has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":172466,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[155,157,156],"class_list":["post-172465","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-corpus-christi","tag-corpus-christi","tag-corpus-christi-headlines","tag-corpus-christi-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172465","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=172465"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172465\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/172466"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=172465"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=172465"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=172465"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}