Grand Galvez. Photo courtesy of the Grand Galvez via Facebook.

A Preston Hollow neighbor bought Galveston’s Hotel Galvez & Spa in May for about $50 million. When renovations are complete, he expects to have spend over $100 million.

That neighbor is Mark Wyant, the CEO and owner of Seawall Hospitality LLC.

Wyant renamed the 110-year-old property along Seawall Boulevard the Grand Galvez, the Dallas Morning News reported. His wife, Lorenda, is overseeing the interior redesign.

Our neighbor, who, according to the Dallas Central Appraisal District lives on Lakehurst Avenue, bought the hotel from the heirs of George Mitchell, a Galveston-born billionaire who made his money in oil and real estate development. Mitchell, who died in 2013, and his wife, Cynthia, were seen as the guardians of the property, according to Michael Woody, the chief tourism officer for Galveston Island.

Galveston locals were concerned when a couple from Dallas swooped in and planned to paint the building pink. Many were calmed when they learned the hotel’s design is not consistent but instead is an amalgamation of four decades of renovations, and when they realized the hotel was originally painted pink.

Lorenda may be married to a longtime North Texan, but she grew up in Houston, and her family has a history in Galveston. They owned a beach house there. Her father had a surf shop, and her grandmother had a souvenir shop.