Retail, wellness space, duplexes and a hotel pad around a lake: that is the kind of mixed program a developer might plan on open land in Combes, and it is the kind of program we are set up to build. Interstate 69E runs through the area and offers frontage, but drainage and phasing decide whether a plan can be built.
We build commercial and residential work for developers who think in phases. We can manage the framing of duplexes, the erection of a metal retail shell, a wellness center slab pour and a hotel interior finish, all under one contract and one schedule.
We also advise on the unglamorous part: the drains, ponds and utilities that make the rest possible. We give straight numbers on each, and we explain what every step is for.
A project that mixes retail, a strip center, a wellness building, duplexes and a hotel pad needs one builder who can move from a storefront to a wood-framed duplex to a limited-service hotel without losing the thread. We write one master schedule with separate packages for each building, so a delay on the hotel pad does not hold up the duplexes and a utility change shows up on every package at once.
Under the buildings is a shared site: roads, sewer, water, storm drainage, electric, lighting and landscaping. We prefer to build that infrastructure first, test it and then release building pads in order. Our mixed-use construction and multifamily apartment construction pages show how we sequence shared utilities with vertical work.
Texas Border Business described the 26-acre Crosswind Landing project in March 2022: 45,000 square feet of retail, a nine-suite strip center, a 38,000 square foot wellness center, 45 duplexes (90 apartments) and a future 60 to 80 room hotel around a lake. Those are plans from a trade report, not a construction schedule, and we cannot say how much has been built. They do show what a developer expected could work in Combes, so we use them as a menu of building types.
Each piece has its own rules. Duplexes are residential construction with party walls, sound and fire separation. A wellness center has larger mechanical loads and accessibility demands. A hotel needs fire alarm, guest-room mechanical systems and a lot of furniture and fixtures lead time. Our hospitality hotel construction work and multifamily mixed-use buildings page explain what to plan for.
The lake in that project is described as a retention pond owned by Cameron County Drainage District #5. Calling a drainage pond an amenity is smart, but it raises questions that an owner should answer before design: who maintains the banks, what level is the water meant to hold, what happens when storms fill it and whether buildings on its edge need extra freeboard.
Public drainage work is also moving in the area. KRGV reported in May 2025 that the district has an about $7 million project that would widen a drainage pipe under Interstate 69E so floodwater can pass into canals, and that a FEMA grant of nearly $900,000 for the pipe replacement was frozen on May 9, 2025. A June 2026 report said the county approved more than $1.5 million for a first phase of the Adams Garden Drainage Project for northern Cameron County, including Combes, finishing by January 2027. We watch these projects because the outcome affects every lot nearby.
Mixed-use budgets fail in the shared costs: the infrastructure, the lake or pond, the parking field and the entrance. We list those separately, then allocate them to each building so a developer can see what a duplex or a retail pad must carry. That allocation tells you whether a phase is worth building first or whether it should wait.
We also price the risk of funding delays on public drainage and roads. A frozen grant is outside our control, but it can change a developer's schedule. We show two versions: one that depends on the public project, and one that handles drainage on site with a bigger private pond. Seeing both lets you choose with real numbers. Multifamily developers and hospitality groups often ask us for these alternates.
The state insurance windstorm map for Cameron County places Combes in the Inland II zone, with a 110 mph three-second gust design wind speed. A hotel roof and a retail storefront share that wind load, and the engineer's design decides the details. We make sure all packages in a mixed-use project carry the same design wind and the same flood elevation basis.
Combes may fall under the county's rules or a city's, depending on the parcel, and each has a different review office. Before we price, we confirm which authority governs, how plans are submitted and who inspects. Fire separation between the duplexes, the wellness building and the hotel is its own review, and we put the fire marshal in the loop early.
We phase mixed-use work by pad, not by building type. Roads and utilities come first, then the pad that produces income soonest, usually retail or duplexes. Hotels and wellness buildings follow when financing or tenants are in place. Phasing this way gives lenders something to appraise while later phases wait for their own approvals.
Weather and public work set the pace of site work, so we keep float in the schedule for drainage and paving. If you are comparing Combes with La Feria or Harlingen for a first phase, we can price the same program in each place and show the difference.
Tell us the acreage, the mix of uses and your funding timeline, and we will return a phased budget with site and building costs shown separately.
Yes. We organize the site into packages, each with its own scope, schedule and inspections, and a single superintendent coordinates the shared utilities and paving. Different trades handle each building type, but the owner deals with one contract.
In the Crosswind Landing description, the lake is owned by a county drainage district. Maintenance, access rights and water level obligations are set in agreements with the owner of the pond. We recommend that developers get those agreements in writing before design.
It could, since widening a pipe under the interstate changes how floodwater passes into canals. The project's funding has been uncertain in public reports. Ask the drainage district for its current plans, and we will plan your site to work with or without it.
The published plan mentions a future 60 to 80 room hotel, so that is the kind of limited-service scale to test. A hotel pad needs parking, utility capacity and franchise approvals. We can price the pad and the building so you see the cost before you commit.
A first phase of retail or duplexes can often open in less time than the whole development, since it needs only the roads, utilities and the pad. The schedule depends on the review time for plans, the weather and the supply of gear such as switchgear. We give a month by month schedule once the drawings are firm.