Austin’s once crowded construction skyline is getting another subtraction.
Northland Living put a planned 35-story condo tower near the Texas Capitol on ice, the latest sign that the city’s development boom is losing steam as supply piles up and buyers hesitate. Northland delayed the groundbreaking and sales launch for Luminary, a roughly 400-foot-tall residential tower planned for the northwest corner of West 14th and Guadalupe streets, according to the Austin Business Journal. The project had been targeting a late 2025 start, but will now wait out what the developer called unstable market conditions.
Northland Living President and COO Tony Kaleel said in an emailed statement to the outlet that a sales launch and groundbreaking were paused in order to wait for “more stable market conditions.”
The pause comes as Austin’s condo market tilts sharply in buyers’ favor. Local brokerage Team Price Real Estate reported that metro area condo inventory hit a record 4,240 units in December, more than double the supply from three years earlier. At the same time, prices have slid. The median condo sale price fell to $337,500 in November, down from a peak of about $470,000 in April 2022.
Luminary isn’t alone. Across Austin, multifamily towers, office projects and mixed-use developments have been delayed, resized or rethought, amid elevated vacancies, higher construction costs and lingering questions about long-term space demand from tech and other white-collar employers. Slower in-migration has only added to the pressure, according to the publication.
Northland Living first unveiled plans for Luminary in January 2024, pitching a 354,616-square-foot tower designed by Page Southerland Page. A year later, the developer refined the concept to roughly 280 condos, ranging from 600 square feet to 2,700 square feet, along with ground-floor retail and a single level of office space. Prices were expected to start around $499,000 and climb above $3 million, with about half of the units priced below $1 million. Urbanspace is handling marketing and sales.
The site, which measures less than an acre, is currently occupied by two low-rise buildings, one housing the Combined Law Enforcement Associations of Texas, which is slated to relocate into the new tower’s office space when — or if — the project moves forward. Northland has secured a site development permit that runs through July 2028, giving it a long runway to restart construction.
— Eric Weilbacher
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