CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas —
Developer and owner of Maddalone Developments, James Maddalone has some big plans for the old Flato school building in Kingsville.
"There's a number of things of things that we can do here that we want to bring. Kingsville is excited, and so we're excited to partner with the community," Maddalone said. "Our family, we're locals. We are local people here that believe in South Texas. It's a great time to be doing business in South Texas and to building new things in South Texas."
The space where the Flato Elementary school once stood will soon become Kings Plaza. Maddalone says it will include restaurants, a coffee shop, outdoor stage, turf field, pickleball courts, beach volleyball and more. The developer has even received letters of intent from urgent care clinics.
Maddalone and his wife, Megan, are the same people that developed the London Square Plaza. He says what they learned from developing that property only inspired them to pursue more projects that bring people together.
After the seeing the success of London Square Plaza, with encouragement from one of Maddalone's business associates, he began reaching out to different cities around the South Texas. Within a month, he had four different cities showing their interest in the plaza.
"We had mayors. We had city managers. We had centers for economic development. They came and visited the London Square Plaza and they said, 'Will you come to our town and do this?' In that, we then visited Kingsville," he said.
"We said, 'You know what? It's 30 minutes down the road. There are some great things happening here with the carbon plant. You've got Tesla up the street. It's just the beginning. This fits extremely well with what's good that happening and what's more to come," he said.
Kings Plaza is set to open in 2025, so there's still some time until we see it completed. Right now, the project is in its preliminary stages of cleaning and securing the old school building. Maddalone says he's excited for what's to come and ready to see what the plaza does for Kingsville.
"There's a lot of people that truly have been waiting and waiting and waiting for something like this to come to Kingsville, but this is the first, and so we're willing to take that risk, and it is a risk. But we're looking for the right business people to join us in this venture. We can't run and operate all these shops, but we want people to come and put their flag up and put their investment in as well," he said.