[Urbannizer]

1500 Rio Grande

https://austin.towers.net/downtown-a...gods-backyard/

Austin’s latest YIGBY project is now in the planning stages at a half-acre property owned by St. Martin’s Lutheran Church, which happens to be one of downtown’s most striking modernist buildings and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. What isn’t historic or striking is the overflow parking lot at 1500 Rio Grande Street, located one block west of the church building. The leadership of St. Martin’s has partnered with Austin-based developer DMA Companies to build an 83-unit affordable senior housing project, offering a mix of one- and two-bedroom units in a five-story building replacing the parking lot, designed by local architects Nelsen Partners.

This project, currently known only as 1500 Rio, would become the first income-restricted senior housing development inside downtown Austin since 1967, with approximately 72 of its 83 total units offered at rates affordable to seniors earning no more than 60 percent of the Austin area’s Median Family Income. At its meeting late last month, the city’s Planning Commission approved a rezoning for the tract, changing its office and single-family residential uses to downtown mixed-use zoning to allow the building’s construction with a maximum height of 60 feet — we would obviously like to see a taller project with more units built here, but in this specific case the height limit was requested by the developer.