Good thing Terry Sweeney is an Iron Man triathlete. The new executive director of the Corpus Christi Downtown Management District can call on the endurance needed to complete such an event — 2.4-mile swim, 112-mile bicycle ride and 26.2-mile marathon — to tackle the challenges he faces in his new job.
In this endeavor, he said, he won’t be alone. Unlike the individualistic Iron Man competition during which athletes go from one event to the next without stopping, Sweeney said he has the support of a strong team working to boost business and development downtown.
“Corpus Christi Downtown Management has an engaged board of directors and an enthusiastic team of stakeholders,” Sweeney said from behind his desk a week after settling into the job. “Corpus also has a committed city council dedicated to making sure the city and downtown are successful.”
Outside his first-floor office window, the noise and the dust of ongoing construction whirl in the gulf wind blowing in over the seawall just a few blocks away. The district’s corner office at 223 N. Chaparral St. is almost hidden in the detritus of building activity. Sweeney is undeterred by the chaos.
“These two blocks will be completed in February,” he said. “The Cosmopolitan just two blocks down will be complete in 2015.”
The Cosmopolitan is a $2.3-million, multi-family project of 165 apartment units and 6,000 square feet of retail space.
“We will be working closely with the businesses here to get back up and running,” he assured. “We will need to reconstitute the street and businesses on it. In the short term of what’s happening with the street and the downtown in general, there’s a great deal of momentum going on.”
He cited $50 million in projects that include the Cosmopolitan and the Shoreline Drive realignment, along with other street work — a dire need throughout the city. The plans for the new Harbor Bridge, which will be built 1,000 feet to the west of the structure completed in 1959, soon will be approved and under way, he added.
“The new Harbor Bridge will create a new gateway into downtown,” Sweeney said. “With all the things surrounding the downtown district — the marina, the shoreline, the museums and aquarium — here, where the hotels are, this becomes home base for visitors and a corporate base for businesses.”
The goal, he said, is to create a vibrant place to work, live and play downtown.
“You’ll see that we are going to raise the standard in downtown,” he said. “We are going to establish a higher standard of cleanliness and safety and build off of that. We are going to recruit developers and business operators who will make that vision of a vital downtown come true.”
The 51-year-old Sweeney seems confident of achieving this new Iron Man feat. He successfully tackled the same issues in downtown Indianapolis over the past 18 years. He’s looking forward to meeting this new challenge in a warmer clime. He and his wife, who left foot-high drifts of snow in his hometown for the sandy beaches of South Texas, made warmth and water their two criteria for relocating.
The weather also makes it a great place to train for the next Iron Man competition, something Sweeney said he’s taking a break from for the next few years while he trains his steely focus and determination on downtown development. He is planning on participating in the next Conquer the Coast, however. The annual September bicycle ride is a 10- to 65-mile challenge that crosses the Harbor Bridge and includes 18 miles of Mustang Island coastline. Sweeney said he will be going the full distance.
