The New Braunfels City Council on Monday gave initial approval to a $20 million deal to buy a 100-acre property that could become a tech school or an industrial park. The council voted unanimously to OK the purchase of the site, which is north of a Walmart distribution center, east of Interstate 35, between the interstate and FM 1101, south of Kohlenberg Road. The New Braunfels Economic Development Corporation, which manages a portion of the city’s sales tax revenue, approved the plan last week.
New Braunfels has the option to buy the remainder of the property, which is owned by the estate of Frederick Frueholz Jr, a well-known New Braunfels physician who died in 2018. “I can’t think of many pieces of land that could offer this opportunity,” said Jonathan Packer, president and CEO of the Greater New Braunfels Chamber of Commerce. Mayor Neil Linnartz called the land some of the only property in the city that could to be used for industrial purposes.