Develop Austin Texas

Within six months, we will know if the city approves northwest Austin’s first major retail project in nearly three years, the Statesman reports. Developers Rodney Speaks and Leslie Perry Sloan have proposed a $70 million, 300,000 Sq Ft Center on 69 acres at RM 620 and Wilson Parke Avenue, near RM 2222. They plan to break ground by June for a targeted summer 2011 opening. It is the only new development of its size expected to get built in the next couple years.

Sloan and partners are working with the views and the land in that area and hoping to work with local retailers and restaurants to create not “just another strip mall. We want it to have a very ‘Austin’ flair.” The project will make use of the large greenbelt running across the rear of the property backing Balcones Canyonlands Preserve, and the large oak trees on the site. In addition to shops and restaurants, there will be playscapes, ponds and two miles of trails. “We are going to extreme measures to design around some very, very beautiful trees.”

Jim Smitherman, member of the development committee for the Parke Homeowners Association (representing 180 households within a mile of the proposed development) said the plans are the best he’s seen for the site, among others previously proposed. He says it will fill a demand for local retailers and sit-down restaurants, which the area is “starving for.”

 The area is near a HEB grocery store, a Home Depot, a Target and a Walmart. Developers hope to attract a movie theater, hotel, and specialty grocery along with sporting goods, books, and clothing retailers.