This is a bit of a departure from the urban Austin threads, but I thought I would pass along some of the goings-on in suburban Williamson County, specifically Round Rock (home of the Dell World HQ's). There is a rapidly evolving Medical/Educational/Commercial hub developing between Round Rock and Georgetown:
This is from Tuesday's Austin American-Statesman (4/5/05):
http://www.statesman.com/news/content/auto/epaper/editions/tuesday/news_242583fb0174b00f0017.html
'Sleepy little road' about to wake in Round Rock
I-35, future Texas 130 frame fledgling commercial, medical and higher education hub
By Camille Wheeler
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Tuesday, April 5, 2005
ROUND ROCK -- Sixty years ago, Chandler Road was two lanes of dirt that farmers traveled to town and back.
Now it's a paved, five-lane road speeding toward urbanism: At least one hospital, a public university, a bonanza of retail and a $100 million outlet mall are set to open this decade between Interstate 35 and the future Texas 130, with the potential to bring explosive growth to northern Round Rock.
"All of a sudden, a sleepy little road is kaboom," said John Hurt, spokesman for the Texas Department of Transportation.
Along the Chandler Road corridor, the rooftops are scattered but going up rapidly. And traffic, once a trickle, is expected to soon flood the area. It's the kind of transformation that one county official calls the most significant real estate trend in Williamson County in the past 10 years.
Chandler's pending development will come at both ends. On the western edge, what is now a sprawling swath of cactus-filled pasture land is expected to eventually give way to an outdoor outlet mall, a retail center, a super-sized H-E-B grocery store and a specialty hospital.
Less than three miles east, the rural landscape is giving way to a fledgling higher education and medical hub: A new Texas State University campus set to open in August could be flanked by a Seton Healthcare Network hospital by 2010. Austin lawyer John Avery's family, which owns a mammoth tract of land there, wants to add Concordia University and Austin Community College to the mix.
Officials agree that Chandler Road will quickly become crowded. And some say the rapidly evolving corridor could pull Round Rock's commercial center from La Frontera, in the heart of the city, to Chandler Road, 5 1/2 miles to the north. Already, transportation officials are planning how to handle traffic congestion in the area, Hurt said.
More developers are lining up for a shot at what many agree represents a golden opportunity for Round Rock. They are undeterred by threats of traffic or high land costs popping up east of I-35, where some tracts' multimillion-dollar values have increased by more than 1,000 percent since 1993.
"This is Round Rock's future," said Bill Carroll, the county's chief appraiser. "This is certainly the biggest shift we've seen in the area in the last decade."
More to come
Proposed developments include movie theaters, restaurants and subdivisions. And there's more to come.
City officials are racing to build a fire station there. The Round Rock school district is eyeing the area for future campuses. And Avery envisions tree-lined pedestrian walkways, parks and a carefully crafted residential and commercial mix on his family's land.
Such developments could help reduce Round Rock's reliance on Dell Inc., which is expected to produce about half of the $36.6 million in sales tax revenue that the city projects will be in its general operating fund at year's end.
The Premium Outlets alone could generate as much as $3.4 million annually in sales tax revenue, city officials said.
Then there's Simon North, a proposed retail center north of the mall spearheaded by Simon Property Group. IKEA, a popular Swedish furniture retailer, has shown interest in Chandler Road, but spokesman Joseph Roth said the company has not settled on any new locations, including in Central Texas.
IKEA has a relationship with Simon, Roth said. Last July, IKEA opened a store in Bloomington, Minn., on 15 acres that it bought from the mall developer. But forecasters should not overlook the 328-acre La Frontera retail center, Round Rock Executive Planning Director Joe Vining said. Neatly positioned between I-35 and the future Texas 45, La Frontera probably generates about $230 million in annual sales and more than $4 million in sales tax revenue, based on its size and conservative estimates, city officials said.
La Frontera and Chandler Road's proposed developments "should be thought of more as a balancing of the retail opportunities around our community," Vining said. "(They) are two different products. It's not necessarily one versus the other."
Yet some officials caution that primary jobs could be lost if too much emphasis is placed on retail development and not in other sectors. Scott Martinez, Round Rock's vice president for economic development, said the city is trying to recruit biotech companies. "We don't need to have blinders on and only go after retail," Martinez said. "There needs to be a healthy mix. You can have all the rooftops in the world, but where are those people working? Are they working in Round Rock?"
'Not scaring people'
To some, Round Rock's dirt is as precious as gold.
It's certainly selling in that vein: The 259-acre site being developed at Chandler and I-35, of which the new mall is the centerpiece, includes a 100-acre tract worth $16.8 million in assessed market value, Carroll said. The entire site is worth $35 million to $40 million.
The high land costs aren't stopping development, city officials say. "It's obvious that it's not scaring people, or Simon wouldn't be interested," said Round Rock Planning Director Jim Stendebach.
Expect Simon and its wholly owned subsidiary, Chelsea Property Group, to attract other commercial development, said Tracy Grote, an Austin-based appraiser.
"When you have someone like that coming in, it's going to create a synergy in the area," he said. "It can generate activity and drive up land prices."
Land assessment is tricky business, Grote said. For example, various tracts in Austin, near I-35 and MoPac and Research boulevards, range in price from $3 to $28 a square foot, he said. A 20-acre lot worth $12 a square foot would cost about $10.5 million.
In 1993, seven years before La Frontera opened, land in the area was worth about 14 cents a square foot, Carroll said. Now, the price is about $8 a square foot and higher in some parts.
Square footage prices at the I-35 and Chandler Road tract range from $2.50 to $5, Carroll said.
As a looming development boom starts to reshape the area, northern Round Rock will be in the driver's seat, said Round Rock Mayor Nyle Maxwell.
"It will not be developed as what we've been used to in suburban Central Texas," he said. "Just the fact that we're going to start with 101 acres of campus for higher education, good gosh, who knows what we're going to wind up with? It's going to be something very special."
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