BEAUMONT — Port Arthur Mayor Derrick Freeman spoke about the growth downtown at the Southeast Texas Press Club meeting Thursday.

With Motiva agreeing to buying three buildings downtown for administration offices, the Mayor said the area is expected to blossom over the next few years.

“There is such an excitement about downtown,” Freeman said. “All of these people [in the new buildings], they are going to need somewhere to eat. They are going to need something to do. There are going to be strip malls, other retail investments coming to Port Arthur. It’s opened up for small business. I don’t want you to think small businesses can’t get involved.”

Freeman also talked about how opportunity zones have impacted Port Arthur.

“We have six opportunity zones,” he said. “If you invest in these distressed areas that are designated, and keep it there for 10 years, when you take your money out, you don’t have to pay any capital gains tax.”

Freeman said the $150 million dollar opportunity zone investment from Motiva is the largest of its kind in the United States.

“I haven’t seen a larger one and we’ve been researching it,” he said. “If you Google it, it’s the hottest thing in investing right now. Port Arthur has six of those. We have all of the tools. All we are looking for is more investors and more dollars to come do exactly what Motiva did.”

Freeman said Motiva is not the city’s only industrial partner who has inquired about real estate downtown.

“Unfortunately, I had to sit with one of the presidents of our industrial partners in the city and tell him that he was on the late show,” Freeman said. “I hated to tell him that. A lot of stuff has been happening behind the scenes that [interim City Manger Becky Underhill] is going to get mad at me for talking about. There have been a lot of people on the late show. Not only [industrial partners], but subcontractors also. A lot of them would love to go and sit with Motiva and be right across the street.”

 

Related story: Imagine that!: Motiva, Port Arthur to host celebration of downtown plans