b'Portandthe work week, with some in town entire weeks at a time. On weekends, while Portland is not in-and-of-it-self a tourist town, the construction of a massive, new $25 million public sports complex is attracting visiting sports teams and their families for regional and state-wide competition, thus filling hotel rooms vacated by weekday-only contractors.The citys investment in the sports complex did not come without great debate and controversy. The City of Portland is one of the most financially strong and well managed in the state of Texas, and by far so in the Coastal Bend. They made news a few years ago by actually paying forrather than borrowing fora new city hall, rare for a municipality these days.PORTLAND EMERGES AS THE NEW COASTAL BEND BOOM TOWNP ortland was founded in 1891 by legendaryalong with that boom came a small explosion in devel-businessman and Texas legislator, John G.opment in Portland. Today, the small town to where we Willacy, a Kentuckian who made his for- moved in the mid-70s is barely recognizable, as up-tune in Portland, Maineand yes, our Gemscale neighborhoods have fully matured around North of the Coastal Bend was in fact named af- Shore Country Club, medium-scale neighborhoods and ter Willacys adopted hometown. The Port- apartmentshavefilledrecentlyemptycottonfields land Harbor and Improvement Company was formed tothat set between US-181 and Broadway, and massive purchase 1,920 acres on the high bluffs at the northeastapartment complexes have been built on acreage that corner of Corpus Christi Bay, across Indian Point andwas considered outskirts less than a decade ago.along the northern edge of Nueces Bay. Lots were di- Up until the 1990s, the center of activity in Port-vided up and offered for sale, and Willacy built a smallland was K-Mart, which was not only replaced by a hotel along with a wharf where two chartered steam- Walmart Supercenter, but also one of the busiest Acad-boats would ferry potential buyers from Corpus Chris- emy Outdoors stores in their system, plus many of the ti. Within a year, Portland, Texas, was home to 500most popular food operations like Chilis and Starbucks, residents, and a 1,200-foot cargo dock was constructedwhile locally-owned restaurants like A-1 Texas Steak-by a freight forwarding company. Fed by the San An- house and La Iguana have grown and prospered. With tonio and Aransas Pass Railway, which ran throughmore car dealerships, business services and retailers, town coming from Corpus Christi, Portland continuedeven dog training, fancy boutiques and specialty shops, to grow into the new century. the business population of Portland these days is more For the entire 20th Century, the growth of Portlandthat of a small city than that of a small town.tracked very closely to the growth of Corpus Christi Hotel accommodations in Portland have expand-the exception being the period in the 1980s when Na- ed exponentially since the oil and gas fracking boom val Station Ingleside was being established, and a needstarted in 2010. Virtually all of the new properties are for thousands of housing units in San Patricio Countymid-level, box hotels like Holiday Inn Express and La quickly emerged. A brief economic doldrums took holdQuinta Inn, and they remain full just about every dayTop/Left to BottomHomes on Nueces Bay in Portland; for a time after the naval station closed and before theof the year. Visiting contractors working at the manyHigh-tech educational facilities at Gregory-Portland ISD; New Texas Oil Boom came into play in the 2010sandpetrochemical and other plants fill the rooms duringPortlands new $25 million public sports complex.60 THE COASTAL BEND MAGAZINEFall 2019 TheCoastalBend.com'