Looking over the Hatchery site towards downtown Austin — that’s the Weaver apartment building in the foreground. Image: Chasco Constructors / SSG Momark Collaborative
A little more than two years after its official groundbreaking, the expansive redevelopment of the Rebekah Baines Johnson Center is making visible progress in East Austin. Soon, we’ll be calling it the Hatchery — and along with the construction of new market-rate residential, retail, and office space at the 17.8-acre site just southeast of downtown, its existing 250 units of low-income senior housing will be renovated and then doubled with an additional 250 affordable senior apartments.
A view of the renovated 1972 RBJ Center senior living tower with new senior residences and retail space surrounding the old structure. Image: Nelsen Partners / SSG Momark Collaborative
Another view of the new development around the original RBJ Center tower. Image: Nelsen Partners / SSG Momark Collaborative
The vision of Momark Development, Southwest Strategies Group, and Diana McIver & Associates, the renovation of the original 1972 tower — which will soon be rebranded as the Rebekah, after the center’s namesake Rebekah Baines Johnson — along with the considerable expansion of new buildings surrounding it is a lot to take in, even from the air. The master plan for the center’s redevelopment dates back all the way to 2010, so as you can imagine we’re extremely excited to see this beautiful and under-appreciated site reach its full potential.
Split into three phases of construction, in addition to its 500 senior residences the master-planned development will eventually host more than 250 market-rate residential units, 176,000 square feet of Class A office space, 16,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space, a community garden and “food forest” just west of the original RBJ tower, and “Hatchery Park,” a public plaza located near the corner of Haskell and Waller Streets. Here’s a map of everything headed to the site, including a new headquarters for classical radio station KMFA 89.5:
Image: SSG Momark Collaborative
By the way, that hatchery name references the site’s history as a federal fish hatchery between the 1940s and late 1960s, when stock ponds drawing water from the nearby Colorado River raised bass and catfish — which, once well-fed, were then used to populate lakes around Texas for the benefit of local anglers.
An aerial view looking south over the RBJ Center site during its time as a federal fish hatchery. The round pond seen in the bottom-right corner of the image, part of the pumping infrastructure of the hatchery, remains near the corner of Haskell and Waller Streets, and will serve as the centerpiece of the “Hatchery Park” component of the redevelopment. Image: The Tejano Trails
It’s a fun backstory, and the Hatchery Park section of the site will likely embrace it, considering that area contains the last of the former hatchery’s pumping infrastructure — there’s also a stop here for the Tejano Walking Trail, with signage explaining its fishy past. A second stop on the trail at the RBJ tower itself will also receive more signage explaining the site’s senior housing history.
Looking south towards the lake across the full Hatchery development. Image: Chasco Constructors / SSG Momark Collaborative
The major market-rate residential component of the project is known as the Weaver, for President Lyndon Baines Johnson’s Secretary of Urban Development Robert Weaver. Its 251 apartments, located in the complex at 1401 Art Dilly Drive, are now leasing, with the building scheduled to open later this month — the first real milestone of completion for the Hatchery, which is expected to be fully built out by 2022.
Image: Davies Collaborative / SSG Momark Collaborative
As seen in the rendering above, the Weaver’s two main buildings are connected by an outdoor “paseo,” with restaurant/cafe-oriented retail sites designed to spill their seating out into the space, taking advantage of large oak trees Momark project manager Megan Shannon says the company spent “a lot of energy” relocating.
Image: Davies Collaborative / SSG Momark Collaborative
Image: Davies Collaborative / SSG Momark Collaborative
Image: Davies Collaborative / SSG Momark Collaborative
Image: Davies Collaborative / SSG Momark Collaborative
Shannon says the Weaver appeals to a demographic of Austinites that appreciate its peaceful environment despite its stone’s-throw location from downtown proper — and that’s always been the public appeal of both the RBJ Center area and surrounding parks around Festival Beach, potential that will soon be explored with nearby improvements like the Holly Project and Longhorn Dam Pedestrian Bridge.
Image: Chasco Constructors / SSG Momark Collaborative
The developers of the Hatchery recently donated to the Trail Foundation for that parkland’s architecturally-interesting new public restroom, and with the new Hatchery Park and features like the site’s community garden, we’re happy to see the growth here retain a residential feel — even if downtown’s rising taller behind it every day.
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