Written by Amanda Coers – The Pecan Bayou Enterprises LLC, Developmental Group officially purchased the Weakley-Watson building located in downtown Brownwood at 3:30 p.m. on Thursday, April 26th. Pecan Bayou Enterprises LLC was recently formed in the last six months by Jeff Tucker and Mark Andrews. Both are local ranchers and businessmen. The pair are expecting to do big things in the years to come.
The newly-formed development group is focused on historic restorations for business opportunities in the Brownwood area.
“We hope to create a ripple effect of positive tax development, tourism, and quality of life. Things that will have a positive impact for Brownwood at large and the business community,” Tucker said.
If Tucker’s name rings a bell, you might remember him from his adventure surviving in a cave for six days as part of a Discovery Channel series.
Pecan Bayou Enterprises LLC was established as Tucker and Andrews began to eye several properties in the downtown Brownwood area, all of which have historic significance for the area. The group hopes to develop those properties, honoring their historic value, while at the same time creating modern uses for the long-emptied properties to drive tourism to Brownwood.
The 140-year old Weakley-Watson building sold for $175,000. Tucker was tight-lipped on plans for the historic property, only alluding to a grander plan currently in the works with another historic property.
“It will be a very significant development for downtown,” he said. Tucker and Andrews would like to remove the Weakley-Watson building’s ‘newer’ add-ons and bring the building closer to its original state when it was first built in 1876.
“I want everyone to see this as the historic renovation that it needs to be,” Tucker said. The group does plan to apply to have the building added to national and state historic registries. Tucker evaluated it would take 36 months, perhaps longer, to complete the renovation once started.
And though this is just the first step of many, Tucker is energized for the future.
“Since I’ve lived here in this area for six years, if you look at what’s going on in Coleman, if you look at what’s going on in Cisco and Comanche, my question has always been ‘why is that not going on here in Brownwood?’ Tucker explained. “This is the epicenter of Texas. There’s a great causeway of traffic through here.”
While still considered a newcomer to the area, Tucker and his wife Tracy have a heart for Brownwood. Both grew up in smaller Texas towns before moving to the Fort Worth area where Tucker was a firefighter and successful businessman and Tracy was the Assistant Dean of Students with Texas Christian University. But the hustle and bustle of the city was not where they wanted to raise their three children.
“We wanted to move back to small town Americana,” Tucker said. “We wanted to bring our kids to where our roots were. But as we’ve gotten into the community, and when I drive around Brownwood, all I see is constant opportunity.”
