The Record Newspapers - Hometown News For Orange County, Texas

The main goal for Hearthland Inc. has been to provide safe and affordable housing for its tenants since the day it was founded.

“When we were made aware of the possibility of purchasing the Village and Southern Oaks apartment complexes, we felt that Bridge City would be the perfect fit for our company,” said Richard Hudson, chief operating officer and vice president of Hearthland. “Having family ties in the area had made us aware that Bridge City is more than a city... it is a community that we wanted to be a part of.”

Hearthland officially became the owners of the two apartment complexes in March of 2008. Over the course of the following weeks, they introduced themselves and their goal of making the complexes “homes” to their tenants.

“On Sept. 13, 2008, Hurricane Ike caused our tenants to become family and the support and encouragement that we received from the residents of Bridge City, further confirmed that we had made the right decision in expanding our property holdings into this community,” said Hudson.

Fortunate in locating a local contractor, the reconstruction of 11 first floor units at the Village that was completed in February of 2009. Their office and several other units received such extensive damage from the storm surge, it was decided to construct a new office and apartment building on the vacant lot across the street from the damaged units.

Hearthland will break ground at 4:30 p.m. Aug. 2 for a new office and apartment building at 240 Tenney St. Eight one bedroom units that will have washers and dryers included. This new construction will be Phase 1, and Phase 2 will consist of the demolition and rebuilding of the damaged buildings.

The Bridge City management team consists of: Shawn Skinner (president/CEO), Richard Hudson (vice president/COO), Angela Mays (leasing manager) and Landon Fragstein (Physical Plant supervisor).