Develop Austin Texas

Palmco Inc., a south Texas developer with an office in Austin, is proposing to build Capitol Terrace, a 12 story mixed use development. In it would be 30 upscale apartments aimed at lobbyists and other government employees, five floors of office space, a white tablecloth restaurant and shops. They plan on adding wide, tree-lined sidewalks to encourage pedestrian use and vibrancy, says their attorney. The development will also have five levels of parking, two underground, and will sit on four lots on one fourth of a city block on the southwest corner of 14th Street and Lavaca.

The one catch: the developer plans on a building up to 163 feet high, where current city zoning only allows buildings up to 120 feet in height. The group is requesting a zone change, which will go before City Council on December 10th. Pending approval, building should begin in second quarter 2010. It is Palmco’s first project in Austin.

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.