City Council authorizes due‑diligence and option to buy Evangeline groundwater rights, with closing conditions

Corpus Christi’s City Council voted to authorize staff to pursue and close on a purchase of groundwater rights from Evangeline Laguna LP, approving an ordinance that begins a contract option and due‑diligence period. The item cleared the council after several hours of technical briefings and public comment.

The city will pay a negotiated purchase price of $169,491,700 for Evangeline’s groundwater rights, subject to conditions staff described as mandatory before closing. As part of the option the city will deliver a nonrefundable $1,000,000 earnest payment and will escrow $3,250,000 at the end of a 120‑day due‑diligence window; those amounts would be credited to the purchase price at close if the sale proceeds. City staff said the price was the final negotiated offer after prior negotiations and an appraisal and that the contract contains adjustment clauses that reduce price if the final permitted production or acreage is smaller than projected.

City staff said the Evangeline rights encompass a large tract in San Patricio County and were described in staff materials as conveying production capacity of roughly 24 million gallons per day (MGD) in total, subject to the transfer…