Proposed Statesman redevelopment postponed for third time
Developers still confident they'll get approval
https://www.bizjournals.com/austin/n...d-sept-15.html
Austin City Council has again postponed a rezoning request that would transform the southern banks of Lady Bird Lake near downtown with commercial and residential towers along South Congress Avenue.
Brought forth by Endeavor Real Estate Group LLC, the massive and contentious development plan of the Austin American-Statesman’s longtime home at 305 S. Congress Ave. will effectively expand Austin’s Central Business District across the waters of the Colorado River.
Set to be discussed during a Sept. 16 meeting, the project is now planned to be reviewed by City Council on Sept. 29 so city staff can have more time to craft a proposal that includes input from some of the council members and members of the Austin Planning Commission.
The vast 19-acre project, directly adjacent to the Ann W. Richards Congress Avenue Bridge, is planned to include 1,378 residential units, 1.5 million square feet of offices, a 275-room hotel and 150,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space across six towers — with its tallest reaching a height of 524 feet, or about 47 stories.
Like many of the current projects under consideration by Austin city officials, the request has been met with friction regarding exactly how many affordable housing units the new development will create for the city.
Endeavor previously proposed making at least 4% of the project's residential units income-restricted affordable housing, in accordance with the city’s South Central Waterfront Initiative, but members of City Council have shared a desire to see the developer dedicate 10% of its residential units for below market rates.
“This is going to work out,” Richard Suttle, a real estate attorney who represents Endeavor, said.
The project, which would be erected on one of Austin’s most prized pieces of land owned by the media empire Cox family, is a keystone project for the waterfront plan, which covers 118 acres and 32 private properties situated along the south shore of Lady Bird Lake.
“We are just now discussing the details," Suttle said. "There are only so many dollars and if you create more tax base, you have more dollars to spend on affordable housing. I just keep telling people it is just math. We are doing their fair share and the city needs to do their share.”
Austin-based Endeavor Real Estate Group LLC is the project’s master developer for the land owners and Chicago-based architecture and urban planning firm Skidmore Owings & Merrill LLP is leading design efforts.
Suttle, a real estate attorney with Ambrust & Brown PLLC, previously proposed that Endeavor could immediately begin to transition a portion of its nearby property — suggesting that the firm's Lake at South Congress, a 207-apartment community nearby at 422 W. Riverside Dr., dedicate apartments as income-restricted units in exchange for those at the Statesman site.
Instead of waiting 10 years to construct the 55 affordable housing units located within the planned development, Suttle said the units could be made available within months of the project’s approval.
The city has yet to take up the offer.
The Statesman redevelopment proposal, perhaps the largest project currently being considered in Central Austin, has bounced about City Hall for much of the year. The rezoning request received its first approved reading in April. Council previously postponed voting on the rezoning request on July 28 and again on Sept. 1.
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