Tiki Island gets $52.4M Miami-style condo development

Call it Miami on the Bayou.

Tiki Island, just south of where Interstate 45 meets the Galveston Causeway, is getting a $52.4 million condo development that looks like it belongs more in Miami Beach than on the Texas Gulf Coast.

Since the early 1980s, the 1.5 square miles, man-made Tiki Island has attracted affluent retirees and wealthy Houstonians looking to build a second home that offers sport fishermen great access to the Gulf of Mexico. Now Austin-based Legend Communities is going to build a resort-style condo development on the isle.

Phase 1 of The Residences at Tiki Island, which will break ground later this year, will offer 70 condo units with prices from $1 million to over $3 million.

The development is being marketed by Houston’s Nan and Co. Properties which recently hired Claudia Valdez from Compass’ Houston office to head up sales for the project.

The units will be two-, three-, and four-bedroom homes ranging from 1,200 to more than 3,000 square feet. The top floor will have two-story penthouses with their own elevators. Residents will share a fitness center, resort-style pool, outdoor kitchen and lounge area. The developers say it will be “a golf cart-friendly community.”

It will of course be right on the bay — Tiki Island’s deeply crenulated shoreline ensures that every lot is on the waterfront — and The Residences will offer boat valet service.

Future phases of the development will include The Villas at Tiki Island with eight luxury waterfront villas, a waterfront restaurant, ship store, boathouse and marina rental slips. Place Designers is the project’s architect and FirstServices Residential is the property management firm.

Legend Communities is headquartered in Austin, but has developed single-family and multifamily communities across Central Texas, California and Colorado.