Projects to add hundreds of apartment units to Austin region – Austin American-Statesman

Amid Central Texas ongoing apartment-building boom, two of the latest projects to be announced will add several hundred new rental units to a market that continues to be primed by the regions job and population growth.

One complex, which is being developed by Dallas-based Trammell Crow Residential, is due to break ground early next year at 1919 East Riverside Drive, replacing the now-closed American Bingo hall and its parking lot.

The seven-story project, likely to be called Alexan Riverside, will have 308 apartments plus retail space, said Matt Enzler, senior managing director with Trammell Crow Residential.

The other project is being developed by Dallas-based Stillwater Capital Investments, partnering with Dubai-based Sweid & Sweid, The complex is under construction FM 1626 and Old San Antonio Road in South Austin. The first phase of the three-story development will have 372 apartments, said Brandon Easterling, Stillwaters Central Texas partner.

The first units are scheduled to be ready in late 2020, with final construction wrapping up in the summer of 2021.

Amenities will include a fitness center, pool, clubhouse, outdoor lounge and dog park.

A second phase is projected to have a similar number of units, Easterling said, although a site plan and design work havent yet been finalized. Phase two could break ground sometime in 2021 or 2022, Easterling said.

"Stillwater decided to double down in the South Austin submarket due to its continued low level of supply compared to the increased demand for rental units," Easterling said. "Historically we have noticed less concessions and quicker lease-ups in this submarket, and feel very fortunate and excited to deliver two high quality rental properties to this submarket."

Trammell Crow and Stillwater have not released the estimated cost of their developments or projected rent rates.

Easterling said hes bullish on South Austins demographics, and that over the next three to four years, the area's density will continue to increase.

As in other parts of Central Texas, Southeast Austins demographics also are spurring a surge of apartment building, including along the booming East Riverside corridor.

Stillwater is working on a 222-unit apartment project on Montopolis Drive, off East Riverside Drive. The first units are expected to open in the summer of 2020, Easterling said.

Meanwhile, at the 2.5-acre site of the former bingo hall at East Riverside and Royal Crest drives, construction is due to start in the first quarter of 2020 on the Alexan Riverside project, with an opening targeted for the fourth quarter of 2021. Enzler said

"We are excited to be building in the dynamic East Riverside corridor, with its ever increasing jobs, retail, restaurants and other resident amenities," Enzler said.

Further east along Riverside, construction has started on Zoey, a 307-unit apartment complex that will be built between Penick Drive and Country Club Road, on land originally platted for single-family homes in the 1950s by the late golf legend Harvey Penick.

At 6400 E. Riverside Drive, the previously announced Urban East mixed-use project is poised to break ground in the first quarter of 2020, said Cory Older, president of River City Capital Partners.

Urban East is slated to have 375 apartments, along with 100,000 square feet of office space and 20,000 square feet of retail/restaurant space.

One of the largest mixed-use projects to date is proposed for 97 acres at East Riverside Drive and Pleasant Valley Road that would bring about 4,700 new apartment units and several million square feet of office space and other commercial and retail development, in a project to be built in phases over more than two decades.

As of June 2019, Central Texas apartment rents reached an all-time high, according to Charles Heimsath, whose consulting firm Capitol Market Research tracks apartment rents and occupancy rates.

At mid-year, Capitol Market Research's forecast called for a record number of apartment units to be completed this year more than 12,000 with leasing activity matching the pace of new deliveries. Heimsath at that point was tracking about 25,800 units that were under construction and scheduled to open through the last half of this year to 2021.

"This is truly an amazing time in the market, from a development standpoint," Heimsath said at mid-year. "We are building and (leasing) a record number of units across the region."

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Projects to add hundreds of apartment units to Austin region - Austin American-Statesman