This week the city staff recommended Trammell Crow’s proposal for redevelopment of the Green Water Treatment plant tract in downtown Austin. Trammell Crow and it’s partner Constructive Ventures, which has been involved in the development of Spring and BartonPlace, proposed the most ambitious plan for the site with the tallest buildings, the most parking, and the biggest diversity of uses.
While the staff’s recommendation is not biding, it is a strong endorsement for the project and makes Trammwll Crow the clear front runner for this important project. Here are some details of their proposal:
– The Trammell Crow proposal calls for a 350,000-square-foot hotel and a 250-unit senior assisted living facility in addition to condos, apartments, offices and retail space.
– Five public squares could accommodate as many as 2,700 people.
– The proposal includes 5,200 parking spaces
– The proposal includes an Austin Car Share program, bicycle bays, and electric refueling stations
– The proposal offers to make 25 percent of its rental units affordable–defined at 80 percent of the city’s median family income–and offered to make a donation to the city’s affordable housing fund for every condo it sells, estimating that total donations could reach $2.5 million.
Here are renderings from the Trammell Crow Proposal:
Nestled between Whole Foods, Ladybird Lake, Seaholm, Austin Music Hall, and the 2nd Street District is the City’s oldest sewage treatment plant – the Thomas C. Green Water Treatment Plant – which began purifying water from Ladybird lake in 1925. The plant covers 6 acres across 4 city blocks. In addition to using a key tract of land to process water using 1920’s technology, the plant also serves to disrupt the natural grid of the city — it stops second street at its west end and blocks Nueces and Rio Grande from reaching Cesar Chavez.
The Green site offers an incredible development opportunity. With four downtown blocks, it is a huge chunk of land. The location is perfect — it is on the lake and adjacent to both the hot second street district and the future Seaholm multi-use development. The site is free of Capital View Corridor restrictions, although portions of the site close to the lake are limited to 45 feet in height.
Here is a summary from the Statesman:
After sorting through five partnerships’ proposals for developing the Green Water Treatment Plant site, city staff members on Thursday recommended Austin go with Trammell Crow, which proposed the biggest and tallest buildings with the most uses.Staff members ranked Stratus Properties second, followed by Forest City, Catellus and Simmons Vedder.The site is five city-owned blocks roughly bounded by the Seaholm Power Plant and San Antonio, Fourth and Cesar Chavez streets.The recommendation is based largely on financial information the city has declined to release. The information won’t be released until the city has signed a deal with the selected developer, a process that could take more than a year after the City Council makes a choice June 18.The staff recommendation is not binding.”We now have a couple weeks as a council to continue to get a bit of public feedback while, more importantly, drilling down through the staff analysis, asking questions of staff and ultimately coming up with our decision in two weeks,” Mayor Will Wynn said.
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