Barings Real Estate has raised the ceiling for North Austin development after the City Council unlocked a 38-acre site near The Domain.
The rezoning, granted last week, allows buildings up to 350 feet tall and a floor-to-area ratio of 10:1, the Austin Business Journal reported. The move sets the stage for dense, vertical projects in one of the city’s fastest-growing corridors.
The property is owned by TR Stonehollow Corp., a business name that traces to Barings Real Estate. The firm is a subsidiary of North Carolina-based Barings, a global investment management firm owned by MassMutual.
The site is in the North Burnet/Gateway District, a designated growth zone, where Austin has pushed for vertical development. Transit connectivity plays a role in this effort, as the site sits near CapMetro’s McKalla Station and the forthcoming Broadmoor Station, part of the city’s growing rail network.
The site, at 11800 Stonehollow Drive, houses seven low-rise office and warehouse buildings, and development was previously restricted to heights of 60 feet.
The potential redevelopment would bring “much needed housing” to an area ripe for transit-oriented growth, said attorney David Hartman of DuBois Bryant & Campbell, who represented the property owner. The market in North Austin changed over the years from industrial uses to dense residential and commercial developments.
Ledgestone Development Group is one of many companies capitalizing on this shift. The company plans to develop a 200-unit condominium project at 2001-2013 West Anderson Lane, aimed at addressing the city’s tight condo supply. Prices are expected to start at $400,000.
Meanwhile, the broader Austin multifamily market is seeing a decline in rents due to an oversupply of apartment units. Nine of the 15 U.S. submarkets with the largest rent decreases are in Austin, led by Southeast Austin, where average rents dropped 12.8 percent over the past year, according to Madera Residential.
The site could support almost 1,600 residential units, generating roughly 7,200 daily vehicle trips, according to a transportation analysis submitted by the owner.
No project plans have been revealed, but development is projected to occur in a single phase, with construction potentially completed by 2027, according to the transportation analysis.
In January, the City Council approved similar rezoning for a 121-acre tract nearby that includes the Gateway Shopping Center. The unidentified developers in that case can now build 350-foot towers.
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— Andrew Terrell