THE $24 MILLION DOWNTOWN STREETSCAPE

A federal grant is about to reshape historic downtown.

Pedestrian, lighting, trolley, and streetscape improvements are coming to the streets we walk every day. The design team is selected. The first stakeholder meetings are being scheduled. The shape of what actually gets built is still being decided.

Read the Overview
THE SHORT VERSION

A $24 million Federal Transit Administration grant is funding pedestrian, lighting, trolley, and streetscape improvements across historic downtown Galveston. The City has contracted a design team led by Clark Condon (Landscape Architects) to plan and document the work, building on previous studies and the Pilot Project already completed on 23rd Street.

The project is structured as three bid packages. Two are funded by the grant; a third, covering aesthetic items the grant doesn’t allow, is optional and only moves forward if the City identifies a separate funding source.

This project will take 3 to 4 years to complete.

AT A GLANCE
By the numbers.
3
BID PACKAGES ACROSS THE FOOTPRINT
6
DESIGN PHASES, EACH WITH A CITY GATE
6+
STAKEHOLDER MEETINGS WHERE YOUR VOICE IS HEARD
Downtown community gathered together
WHO THIS PROJECT IS FOR
Historic downtown is a neighborhood — not a single constituency.
A streetscape project of this scale reaches every kind of person who lives, works, invests, or spends time downtown:
→ Residents who live downtown — about 20% of District 3 lives in this footprint
→ Merchants running storefronts, restaurants, bars, studios
→ Property owners whose buildings shape the street wall
→ Workforce that staffs downtown every day
→ Community and arts organizations across the footprint
→ Government partners — City, Wharves Board, Park Board, GHF, Cultural Arts District
→ Visitors — cruise passengers, island neighbors, tourists
Every group above belongs at the table when decisions about downtown’s public space are being made.
WHERE THE WORK HAPPENS
Three bid packages across the footprint.
BID PACKAGE A
North & South corridors
Grant-eligible. Block-face and intersection analysis for each street.

20th, 21st, 22nd, 24th, 25th — Harborside to Church
23rd — lighting, planting, irrigation, furnishings
26th — Santa Fe Place to Church
Harborside & 19th — boundary streets only

BID PACKAGE B
East & West corridors

Grant-eligible. Three dedicated stakeholder meetings included.

The Strand — 19th to 25th
Santa Fe Place — 25th to 26th
Mechanic — 19th to 27th
Market — 19th to 26th
Post Office — 19th to 26th
Church — 19th to 25th
Plus three trolley switch repairs at Strand & 20th

BID PACKAGE C
Non-eligible improvements

Optional. Only advances if the City identifies a funding source.

At the completion of Design Development for Bid Packages A and B, any improvements within the overall scope of work area that are deemed purely aesthetic, nonfunctional improvements and not eligible for grant funding will be incorporated into Bid Package C.

CONTINUE READING
Three more layers to this story.

FTA PROJECT: PART TWO

What’s Being Built
The full public-space experience of a historic downtown, read through four lenses — pedestrian, mobility, evenings, historic character.
Read More

FTA PROJECT: PART THREE

Phases & Your Voice
Six design phases, each with a City decision gate. Plus the Task 9 stakeholder meetings — and how to make sure the right voices are in them.
Read More

OTHER INITIATIVES

Action Items from Downtown Meetings

Four priorities the neighborhood has raised — parking, public restrooms, microtransit, and derelict buildings — are being addressed in parallel. All are moving.

Read More

Source: Scope of work for the Downtown Streetscape Project, prepared by Clark Condon and team for the City of Galveston, dated April 19, 2026. Updated as the project moves forward — questions to contact@historicdowntowngalveston.com.