Upscale Oak Harbor opens floodgates for development

Mitchell Richard / Slidell Sentry-News / March 2, 2000

COVINGTON - After 23 months of work, Tammany Holding Corporation took a significant step forward this week on creating what developer Robert Torres Sr. calls the most upscale residential development in the area.

On Monday, a levee was cut and thousands of gallons of Lake Pontchartrain water began flowing into an artificial "linear" lake. The lake surrounds two large island areas that will form the hub of the Lakeshores Estates residential development.

Torres, the president of Tammany Holding and the mastermind behind the Lakeshores Estates development, looks at the project seated to the east of Interstate 10 and south of Slidell as something unique to the state and the southern part of the nation. Encompassing almost 600 single and multi-family residential slots in phase one alone, along with a planned boardwalk and roughly 500 slips for sea craft, Torres said, "This is an inland, lake-accessible community that will serve not only families but the older members of the community. There will be mixed commercial interests from shopping to office space and we expect it to become a hub for the north shore. There's nothing like this anywhere." Key to the 850-acre Lakeshores Estates is the 120 acres of excavation that in roughly two days will be transformed into an artificial lake.

Monday, when the levee separating the phase one excavation and Lake Pontchartrain was cut, the water flow was kept to a conservative trickle. Robert Torres Jr. explained, "allowing too much water in would rip the banks up, but as the basin fills we'll open it up." And open it up they did. By noon Tuesday a drag line had pulled more dirt away from the cut turning the trickle into a flood - a miniature white water rapids formed as the water rushed in.

Torres Sr. said that at the current flow in would be roughly 40 hours before the linear lake basin was filled, putting the estimated completion sometime this Friday.

When complete the artificial lake will have an average depth of 18 feet, more than adequate for any sea craft, said Torres Jr. The channel linking the inland lake with Lake Pontchartrain will have a comparable depth and will be 200 feet wide. At key points along the bank and at the channel entrance, bulkheads will be installed to support the waterway and prevent erosion.

Surrounding the potential lake is an inner ring of lots with an average price of $250,000. Apart from critics predictions that lots with that kind of price tag wouldn't sell, Torres says the market is good.

"So far we have 35 lots sold with prices ranging from $135,000 to $450,000. The average is $250,000," said Torres.

Torres also pointed out that he has five homes being built for customers with lot and home price tags of around $500,000 each: "There's definitely a market for these homes." In the four years since he first envisioned the project, Torres has dealt with obstacles ranging from the U.S. Corps of Engineers to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

The most recent roadblock was the up-in-the-air status of 119 acres of land on the development site labeled as wetlands. A remediation settlement between Tammany Holding and the Corps of Engineers has Torres reconditioning the area to preserve the wetland aspect while continuing development.

Torres associate J. Durel Landry pointed out that the embryonic lakefront community, along with being a crown piece in the parish, will provide a buffer between the lake and Slidell.

"The whole area has been built up to 11 feet above sea level," said Landry. "Any storm surge would have to totally wipe out this area before it would get to the city."