I recently moved to Mueller proper after living just outside of it for over five years, attracted by its walkability, greenspaces, and family-friendly reputation. Considering the state of density in the rest of the city I can see the arguments that it is underwhelming for what Austin needs to combat sprawl, though it's still a huge improvement over most modern city construction which builds single family homes on sprawling lots full of cul-de-sacs on the outskirts of the city. And while the East side has absolutely gentrified over the last few years, and Mueller is helping to gentrify its immediate surroundings, at least no one was displaced from the land Mueller itself is built upon.
Now that I live here, I have taken a keen interest on the developments still remaining to fill out the area. I've compared Google maps imagery to the Mueller master plan document, and compiled a bunch of sources for developments both inside of and nearby to Mueller. I thought people here might appreciate it, as while I think most of the remaining items are known by everyone here I don't think they're compiled in one location. I have made four maps/images which contain information on the various available plots of land and what is or may be coming to each of them.
The first one shows the projects inside of Mueller itself. I have color coded lots into one of four categories:
active,
potential,
surface lots, and
withheld.
Active represents currently active construction projects, from groundbreaking to final touches; this is based on the actual state of the projects as of this post, so the Google imagery might make it look like there are more unfinished projects than there actually are as it is dated November of 2023 (and thus is a year old).
Potential shows empty lots with no construction activity yet. Some of these lots have had proposals for them in the past, and others are deemed to be potential based on the Mueller master plan. There is one 'potential lot' I chose not to highlight, at the southwest corner of Mueller and Philomena, since it seems to be a fully landscaped mini-park even though the master plan says it could be an office building.
Surface lots are all of the surface parking lots in Mueller, minus the school lots since those will never be developed. Many of these lots, especially around the Children's Hospital, are shown to be potential office or mixed-use space according to the master plan and may be developed at some point in the future. Others, like those in the retail and market districts, are in my opinion the biggest failures of Mueller and sadly are unlikely to be developed, even though redesigning both districts could add 1,000+ more housing units and retail spaces while still having space for all retail options currently there. Finally,
withheld is the Austin Film Society/Troublemaker Studio portions of Mueller, which are arguably underdeveloped given their locations so close to the city center but can't really be made to be denser given the requirements of film making.
https://imgur.com/a/vw5smCk
You can see that the main portions left are between on the northern side Aldrich and Mueller, with a little left to do along the south of Berkman and some remaining homes in the new southeast portion. I think Catellus amended their involvement to continue until December 31st 2027 or 2028, so hopefully the remaining empty lots can see serious proposals within the next year or so.
The next three are all images of Mueller's surroundings. The first is the southwest corner, by the Manor/Airport intersection. This plot has the most activity, with Cumby Group recently completing apartments, the ongoing Seabrook Square development, and a strip-mall type development along airport. There are two new colors here; one representing
road projects which are supposed to improve access for pedestrians and cyclists while also making them safer for drivers as well. The other shows
unoccupied buildings which are available for leasing. Actually, one of these I am unsure if it is actively leased or not; on Google maps there is a window sign for SmartMail still, but they've removed a bunch of the other signage on the site over the last few years and I never see anyone there anymore, while before the pandemic there were more cars/trucks in the lot. Maybe they adopted a work-from-home policy after the pandemic?
https://imgur.com/a/pcK0Zb0
In addition to the active construction, Cumby may add two additional luxury apartment complexes along Manor, but they have a terrible reputation online so I am not optimistic. There would likely be single family homes in both the empty lot on EM Franklin, and perhaps even on the old Blue Starlite Drive In if they choose to sell that land someday.
Next is the northeast corner. While there is a lot of available land, none of it seems to have any plans or activity at this time, save for a lot along Pecan Springs Road which has had streets paved in preparation for condos recently, but may have stalled. Just outside of this image is additional land at the corner of 51st and Springdale which has proposed medical office space, and the new future home of David Chapel if they are ever able to sell their land along MLK.
https://imgur.com/a/GdnFmPo
Finally, is the northwest part. Lots of road improvements going on here, and a potentially exciting development at the corner of Cameron and 51st that still hasn't had anything officially announced. There's also the new Central Health building at the Hancock center, and who knows what may happen along Cameron or I35 in the future. Most exciting are the possibilities of caps connecting Cherrywood and Hancock/Hyde Park, but those will be expensive and are already at risk of being scaled back. Just outside of this image the Cherrywood Coffehouse/Alma Apartments lot has been discussed for rezoning and could be redeveloped, but no actual plans have been made at this time.
https://imgur.com/a/MAKgGQM
For as much as I could, I tried providing a link/evidence towards each project. I've uploaded each image to Imgur and used the insert image option, but in case that doesn't work I've also just copied the URL beneath each. I'm hoping that by the time I am raising children most of this can be complete, and they'll get to experience growing up in one of the most walkable places in Texas!
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