Remarks by Cory Crenshaw
177 remarks on the record, newest first · Page 5 of 8
- Play at 1:16:29
Not quoted here: it may name a member of the public. Hear it at the meeting.
City Council · Aug 4, 2026
- Play at 1:17:25
“And your proposal is to tear down the First Baptist Church? Yes. This would replace that?”
City Council · Aug 4, 2026
- Play at 1:17:30
“And Broadway around that area may be in one condition, but Broadway a little further down the road is a pretty rough road. Have you thought about and would you consider infrastructure improvements around the Broadway area in order to make this project work?”
City Council · Aug 4, 2026
- Play at 1:18:15
“What other cities have you done an actual project as you're proposing here?”
City Council · Aug 4, 2026
- Play at 1:18:39
“What other developments have you done that maybe not be exactly like this, but are in any way similar?”
City Council · Aug 4, 2026
- Play at 1:19:09
“Would it be safe to say this is your first project of this type?”
City Council · Aug 4, 2026
- Play at 1:19:24
“And have you pitched this to any other cities or where you're”
City Council · Aug 4, 2026
- Play at 1:30:24
“When you talk about parking, I know where the church is, and then across the street from the church is the federal courthouse. Behind the federal courthouse is a very large parking area, and then there's the building that used to house, that's owned by the Austin family, I believe, that used to house several federal agencies. Is your purchase of this property, if this was to be approved, include that parking area that I'm talking about that's between the federal courthouse and the building that's owned by the Austin family?”
City Council · Aug 4, 2026
- Play at 1:31:24
“The same owner. The same owner. Yes. So was that previously the same parking for the First Baptist Church? I'm assuming so. Okay.”
City Council · Aug 4, 2026
- Play at 1:31:35
“the next building next door which once was a gym for the church if i'm not mistaken so that whole corner which was there okay and so your purchase of that three square miles is that what you said it was uh three yeah three acres yeah three acres three acres does not include the purchasing of the 300 uh unit uh car parking area that you're talking about Yes, it will. It will include that. Okay. So it's not just that three acres. Right. It's the parking area adjacent going towards the visitor's bureau. Correct. Okay. All right.”
City Council · Aug 4, 2026
- Play at 1:32:23
“Yeah. And then previously, when a developer came to us, they were going to put affordable housing at Phelan and Major. and in order to justify that location was the fact that it was near a grocery store and that was a big deal to them and it helped get approval for the project by the state the fact that it its proximity there was to a grocery store uh i ultimately voted against that because i thought that it would create an even more difficult traffic area there. I don't think we have a real problem with traffic downtown, but I'm curious why Why you didn't, and I'm also happy to have things…”
City Council · Aug 4, 2026
- Play at 1:33:41
“Ah. Ah, good information. Right. So you get a lower percentage and it doesn't require the...”
City Council · Aug 4, 2026
- Play at 1:40:12
“And on that, Mr. Mayor, and it was also this point was brought up with Councilman Turner. And this is mainly maybe more of a question for staff. What is the economic impact? I could see where this could be great for downtown. So that makes me tend to want to support it. I also think about all the complaints that we get about downtown not having a police presence. and that it's not, you know, all the problems we have with all the buildings around here is because those building owners say that, you know, Beaumont police isn't actively patrolling downtown. And I'm not in any way saying that…”
City Council · Aug 4, 2026
- Play at 1:42:34
“And I understand that, and I'm not asking for a complete in-depth economic study. I'm just kind of hoping for maybe some ballpark figures here with, like you said, y'all had looked at similar projects in other downtowns. I mean, what are we talking about here just in tax revenue a year, 60 million times the 65 cents or 71? 414,000.”
City Council · Aug 4, 2026
- Play at 1:43:04
“Right. And then have we looked at whether our infrastructure downtown could immediately handle this? Are we going to have to, like the project we just approved, over off of Northwest Parkway where it needs $12 million in infrastructure improvements that we're allowing the developer to get reimbursed after he spends the money. Are we going to have to do anything?”
City Council · Aug 4, 2026
- Play at 1:44:21
“And there's currently a group of condominiums or townhomes right by the church, and it seems like it always has power. issues. They've had several power outages that have lasted several days and I can recall discussing that with energy. Have you looked at power problems in the downtown area and”
City Council · Aug 4, 2026
- Play at 1:50:52
“Back to that parking lot that you said with the 300... Well, you mentioned the gym. Does your purchase of this also include the building that's at gym?”
City Council · Aug 4, 2026
- Play at 1:51:26
“parking lot parking spaces that can be provided as well okay but you're not going to own that parking lot you would just make an agreement to use it i'll own it we'll the project will own it okay and we'll own the parking lot across across the street right okay but is that in that's not in this right and that's where i'm confused because i'm trying to say well there's a street there and it's not on”
City Council · Aug 4, 2026
- Play at 1:51:59
“There aren't 300 spaces on this, are there?”
City Council · Aug 4, 2026
- Play at 1:52:03
“And so in addition to 300 spaces here, you're going to have an additional parking lot across the street that you're not going to actually own, you're just going to have access to. We will own it. You're going to own that as well? Yes. And how many additional spaces is that other than the 369?”
City Council · Aug 4, 2026
- Play at 1:52:58
“Lastly, I was originally probably going to be against this, but you're an impressive gentleman. I really do like the fact that you went to Lamar and you want to come back to do this. I'm a little uneasy about the fact that it's your first project, but hey, we all have to start somewhere. But anyway, you're an impressive guy. I appreciate you putting this and trying to make our downtown area better.”
City Council · Aug 4, 2026
- Play at 2:05:06
“I would also add that He wants to basically do the same thing with the property that was previously being done when I was operated as a school by making it into a daycare whatever but the school previously was grandfathered in and not subject to the zoning laws of or the zoning requirements if I'm correct but then he waited. too long to lose that grandfather protection uh and uh it's unfortunate uh because he made quite an investment he spent a lot of money on that property uh but you know i i hate to say it but after listening to some of the issues that he's had with it uh he He really…”
City Council · Aug 4, 2026
- Play at 2:06:36
“So could he sell it to like a Harmony type entity that could get a specific use permit and restart the school?”
City Council · Aug 4, 2026
- Play at 2:13:09
“Just curious, did the 11th Street Cruise thing on the agenda get pulled?”
City Council · Aug 4, 2026
- Play at 2:25:25
“the situation out in the south end near the jail and the prisons. And that caused significant issues for us. And, you know, I just feel like we should not raise rates at all on residential and small business. And I'm even fine with not raising it. On commercial, but I do believe that our rates are low on the industrial side, and those are the customers that can most afford it, especially with oil prices the way that they are and how a lot of these companies are making significant revenue right now. SO ANYWAY, I JUST THOUGHT THAT OUT THERE THAT I THINK OUR INDUSTRIAL RATES ARE LOW AND I WOULD…”
City Council · Aug 4, 2026