Music venue reportedly planned for Galveston's historic Balinese Room

June 10, 1957: The Balinese Room at 2107 Seawall Blvd, Galveston. June 10, 1957: The Balinese Room at 2107 Seawall Blvd, Galveston. Photo: Houston Chronicle Files Photo: Houston Chronicle Files Image 1 of / 105 Caption Close Music venue reportedly planned for Galveston's historic Balinese Room 1 / 105 Back to Gallery

A team of three Galveston and Houston-area developers could be bringing music and merriment back to the seawall on the very spot where the ghost of the Balinese Room still haunts the shore.



The trio of investors plans to install a music venue at 2107 Seawall Blvd., where the Balinese Room stood until it was decimated by Hurricane Ike in 2008, according to a mananger involved with the project.

"We want people to come to Galveston, have dinner, see a show, and then stay at a local hotel," said Doug Thomas, one of the project's managers.

The investors would need a surface parking plan with the city before they can build. They don't plan on charging for parking, Thomas said. Next week, the investors meet with a Galveston zoning board to iron out that parking plan.



"We need to have parking to have a successful business," Thomas said.

There will be no parking on the new pier development, so the investors will need to locate parking spots and possibly a shuttle service for their venue.

"The zoning board is a body set up to waive the city's zoning requirement if there is a hardship for an incoming business," said Catherine Gorman, assistant director of planning for the City of Galveston. "The board will see if this new development qualifies for a variance, or waiver, for the parking requirement."

The investors would like to be open and operational by 2016, if all goes to plan. Thomas said he couldn't disclose the cost of the development

Attorney Scott Arnold currently owns all the rights to the property, including the Balinese trademark.

The historic Balinese was a swanky nightclub and gambling den for high rollers, where headliners — then some of the biggest names in show business — played during the 1940s and ’50s.

It was a long, narrow structure stretching out over the Gulf of Mexico, with its front door on the seawall. The fine food, excellent service and lavish decor combined with top entertainers and gambling to attract the wealthiest Houstonians. This was when some called Galveston the “Sin City of the South.”



If this venue comes to fruition, it would join the nearby Pleasure Pier among the city's biggest attractions, along with The Strand, Schlitterbahn, and the cruise terminal.



Last summer, real estate broker Ray Allison said anyone who wanted to buy the land and build something would have a hard row to hoe, or swim, as it were. Millions of dollars would be needed to bring the land up to Galveston building code standards post-Ike.



Any building coming up on the property would needed to be approved by the Army Corps of Engineers and the state due to its precarious location in relation to hurricanes. According to a commercial property condition statement document related to the property, there are restrictions on how high a structure could be built there.



The last real estate listing for the property had it priced at $500,000 with a footprint of over 27,000 square feet, which could be used to build over the Gulf of Mexico. An extra 140 feet of street-level seawall frontage was also included in the asking price.