Texas A&M Galveston files $24.1M sea turtle hospital

Texas A&M University Galveston filed a $24.1 million registration with the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation for a new 13,916-sq-ft Sea Turtle Hospital and Educational Outreach Center at 3104 Seawolf Parkway in Galveston. The filing, registered Oct. 18, 2026, names Stantec as design firm and lists public funds behind the project.

Why it matters

The new building replaces a temporary hospital housed in the university’s Wetlands Center, which the school’s Gulf Center for Sea Turtle Research has outgrown. The project has since been named the Cheryl Mellenthin Sea Turtle Rehabilitation Hospital and Educational Outreach Center, after a donor whose gifts total $8.55 million. Contributions from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Texas General Land Office and federal restoration trustees helped close the center’s $23 million fundraising goal. For Galveston contractors, it is a public-funds job with no general contractor named in the filing yet.

The numbers

The TDLR filing puts the estimated cost at $24,072,448 for a single-story, 13,916-sq-ft building. Stantec is the listed design firm; no general contractor is named in the record. The filing marks the project as involving public funds or public land. Its status reads “Project Registered,” and no tenant is assigned.

A 2025 university announcement described a 16,000-sq-ft complex with groundbreaking expected in late 2026. The TDLR filing sets the building at 13,916 sq ft and the start in January 2027. The announcement said the site has direct access to Galveston Bay and the Gulf, and pairs clinical space with public exhibit areas.

What’s next

TDLR lists an estimated start of Jan. 4, 2027 and completion of July 3, 2028, about 18 months of construction. The temporary hospital at the Wetlands Center stays in use until then.

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