Cypress Getting Ready to add to LakeShore Pearl along Lady Bird Lake

Rendering of Lakeshore Apartments courtesy of Big Red Dog

As the Lakeshore Pearl apartment construction wraps up on the south shore line next to Riverside Drive, Cypress Development is prepping the next phase of the Lakeshore PUD development.

The Lakeshore PUD is next door to, but distinctly separate from the SouthShore development, in case you’re confused.

The next phase of Lakeshore will be a 285,000-square-foot, 282-unit apartment complex, which includes five levels of parking the building will wrap. The site does have one heritage tree, which will be incorporated in the building design.

The Lakeshore development has been a slow burn, being announced just before the recession, stalling like other projects and changing hands with a number of civil engineering firms, before getting off the ground with Big Red Dog.

Some time ago, Lakeshore PUD development kicked off with construction began on the Lakeshore Pearl, a $20-$30 million project planned for 230 units along Elmont Drive off East Riverside, which is opening now with rents ranging from $800 to $2,300. We’ll expect a comparable rental cost for this development.

If anything, this development shows that Cypress is certainly keeping the pedal down on Austin multifamily development. In addition to the Lakeshore Pearl, there’s:

• The University Park Apartments at the Concordia University site, next to St. David’s and I-35 downtown. Its 302 units, average rent of $1,529 a month, with a projected summer 2013 opening.
• The Corazon TOD development on E. Fifth, next to the train station, which is 262 units with average rents of $1,500 a month. The project would include 13,300 square feet of retail-restaurant space.
• The Lamar and Manchaca Apartments, which is 318 units, average rent of $1,350 a month, along with 11,700 square feet of retail. Cypress hopes to break ground in March.

Not to mention in 2011, City Council approved (pdf) a 707,414-square-foot mixed-use Cypress development at the 16.24-acre site of the vacant Cinemark Movie Theater adjacent to Barton Creek Square Mall.

It is a relief that Cypress is moving ahead with the Riverside development, even as City Council delays adopting the East Riverside Corridor Zoning Plan, apparently because the fast-food lobby is making a stink about drive-thru’s being barred in the plan. Hopefully, City Council makes good on plans to adopt the Riverside Plan this March 7 and put that silliness behind it.