Big project coming to the north shore of Lake Travis...
Project website here: Waterscape Villas
http://waterscapevillas.com/
From the Austin Business Journal
http://austin.bizjournals.com/austin/stories/2006/02/13/story1.html
Villas project set for Lake Travis
Mary Alice Kaspar
Austin Business Journal Staff
Three Lake Travis enthusiasts have joined forces to develop a $200 million to $250 million resort-style community along the north shore of the lake.
Austin-based Omni Joint Venture is embarking on WaterScape Villas, an upscale, mixed-use project that will feature 600 to 700 condominium units, a 300-room hotel and 150,000 square feet of retail and office space. Amenities will include a marina, a spa, pools, a fitness center, a beach club and an amphitheater.
The development will sit on 50 acres at the mouth of the Sandy Creek arm of Lake Travis, where Old Burnet Road ends.
It will target a range of dwellers, from owners of second homes to permanent residents. A one-bedroom condo will start at $250,000, with penthouse suites fetching $1.3 million to $2 million.
Pending approval from Jonestown officials, the project would be the first condo community and hotel in the lakeside community, about 35 miles northwest of Austin.
Omni Joint Venture comprises three partners who have a combined 50 years in real estate -- and a shared love of Lake Travis:
* Rick Vanderslice, a certified public accountant who began his development career in construction management for small commercial buildings in Central Texas. Vanderslice since has been a principal partner in several large commercial and residential development projects, including Round Rock West and Sienna Creek.
* Pat Hicks founded Environmental Excavating, which provides excavation and septic systems for general construction in the Austin area. He later developed and built Riviera Marina on Cypress Creek. In the late 1980s, he founded River City Excavating.
* Farrald Belote, a former Air Force pilot and IBM Corp. employee in Austin. He is a director of Texas Country Bank in Lakeway. His latest real estate project is a 500-acre development called Tierra Manana, off U.S. Highway 290 and Nutty Brown Road.
Vanderslice says Omni Joint Venture's three partners plan to live at WaterScape.
"Where other developers usually take the money and run, we're going to take our money and stay," he says.
As such, the development team has spent plenty of time on details -- both functional and aesthetic.
Vanderslice says his research found the two most common kinds of lawsuits dealing with condos involved complaints over noise and leaks. So, all of WaterScape Villas' walls will be made of concrete and steel to promote soundproofing, and all pipes will be boxed in with a vinyl lining.
The project also will adhere to "green building" standards to minimize any harm to the environment. In addition to incorporating trees into the design, Omni Joint Venture will take environment-projection steps such as capturing parking lot runoff and building water quality ponds featuring a vegetation filtration system.
The trio also made a commitment to hand the first $5 million in profit to the development to ensure all the planned amenities are built, with any leftover money earmarked for the homeowners' association.
As for the hotel component, Omni Joint Venture hired PKF Consulting Inc. to assess the site's potential. PKF determined a high-end boutique concept would work best, Vanderslice says.
Now, PKF is negotiating with four companies to run the hotel: Fairmont Hotels and Resorts Inc., Hilton Hotels Corp., Hyatt Corp. and the operator of the Watermark concept. A final decision on the hotel isn't expected until after the property goes through the entitlement process.
Construction on the waterscape's two phases, consisting of condos, a pool and related amenities, is scheduled to begin in April or May. The hotel and retail spaces will follow, with completion of the project expected within five to eight years.
Financing for the project will come from IBC Bank in Austin, which will authorize each building once it hits the 50 percent mark for prebooking.
The project is expected to bring 250 jobs to Jonestown and an annual payroll of more than $5 million.
Jonestown Alderman Bob Walker says the project would represent a "milestone" for the town of about 1,750 people, because it would be the town's first condo community and hotel. Walker, who also is a member of the Jonestown Chamber of Commerce and a director of the North Shore Heritage and Cultural Society, says WaterScape would adhere to the city's preferred pattern of growth in clusters.
The 50-acre site is within Jonestown's extraterritorial jurisdiction, but Omni Joint Venture will request annexation of the land.
Mary Alice Kaspar can be reached at (
[email protected]) | (512) 494-2519.
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