A clerical error nearly halted the opening of Houston’s newest concert venue before it even started. According to the Galveston County Daily News, the company backing a Friendswood developer’s transformation of the former Gulf Greyhound Park in La Marque mistakenly listed the property for foreclosure.
Greene Group Inc., based in Alabama, made the listing at the Galveston County Courthouse, causing a stir. The error stemmed from a misunderstanding involving two different properties, according to all parties involved, as reported by Laura Elder of the Daily News.
In March 2022, developer Jerome Karam and his wife Leslie purchased the 88-acre parcel at I-45 and FM 1764, which includes the former dog track, after another Houston developer backed out. Karam aims to elevate the JMK5 Arena to “Las Vegas quality.” With a seating capacity of 12,000, it will rival major Houston venues like Toyota Center and Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion, and be about double the size of Sugar Land’s Smart Financial Center.
Clearing up the foreclosure misunderstanding, Karam updated the Daily News on the progress of transforming the kennels into cabanas for the future concert site. He also announced that JMK5 Holdings has signed a management agreement with Denver’s Oak View Group, co-founded by music industry giant Irving Azoff. Oak View manages numerous venues across the country, including Austin’s Moody Center, Corpus Christi’s American Bank Center, and Tulsa’s BOK Center.
Karam noted that work on the former track is about 50% complete and could be finished within a year.
JMK5 Holdings owns over 1 million square feet of commercial real estate in Galveston County. Their properties include Mainland City Centre, the Texas Entertainment Xperience in Texas City, College of the Mainland’s League City Campus, Galveston’s old Falstaff brewery, and various shopping centers and storage facilities.
In 2022, JMK5 acquired the rights to develop on the site of the historic Seawall amusement palace, the Balinese Room, though the project appears inactive. Last year, the company sold seven acres around the dog track to Main Street Commercial Partners, which plans to develop fast-food franchises such as Raising Cane’s and Chipotle on the land.
The Karems bought the Gulf Greyhound property from Paul Bryant Jr., son of the legendary University of Alabama coach “Bear” Bryant. Paul Bryant Jr., who became president of the university’s board of trustees and a major booster for the school’s championship-winning football program, started investing in greyhound racing in 1977 and later expanded his fortune through ventures in catfish farming, cement manufacturing, reinsurance, and banking, as reported by Insurance Journal in 2013.
Gulf Greyhound Park set a Texas Racing Commission record in 1993 by grossing $268 million. The track closed in June 2020, a few months into the COVID-19 pandemic, after years of declining revenue.
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