Affordable Senior Housing Planned in Downtown Church Parking Lot

A view of the redeveloped St. Austin Catholic Parish in West Campus, adding a 29-story student housing tower to the church property while providing new onsite facilities for the congregation and school — another local example of “Yes In God’s Backyard” development. Image: St. Austin Catholic Parish / Greystar Development

Churches are one of the most overlooked owners of urban land, with more than a dozen large properties held by congregations in the downtown Austin area alone. Facing declining attendance and rising property values, some churches looking to maximize the use of these properties in alignment with their faith-based missions are pursuing affordable housing development — it’s so popular in certain housing-constrained locales like California that the general concept has gained its own snappy name: “Yes In God’s Backyard,” or YIGBY. The most prominent example in Austin so far is the ongoing redevelopment of St. Austin Catholic Parish in the forward-thinking neighborhood of West Campus, where church leaders partnered with private developers to build a 29-story residential tower providing 200 beds of affordable student housing alongside new facilities for the ministry and its school, while securing the financial resources for the congregation to continue its mission at the site.

Austin’s latest YIGBY project is now in the planning stages at a half-acre property owned by St. Martin’s Lutheran Church, which happens to be one of downtown’s most striking modernist buildings and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. What isn’t historic or striking is the overflow parking lot at 1500 Rio Grande Street, located one block west of the church building. The leadership of St. Martin’s has partnered with Austin-based developer DMA Companies to build an 83-unit affordable senior housing project, offering a mix of one- and two-bedroom units in a five-story building replacing the parking lot, designed by local architects Nelsen Partners.

A concept rendering of the 1500 Rio senior housing community submitted as part of the project’s application for state affordable housing tax credits. As always, this is just a concept and is obviously subject to change, but don’t you love that masonry matching the look of the modernist church next door? Image: Nelsen Partners / DMA Companies

This project, currently known only as 1500 Rio, would become the first income-restricted senior housing development inside downtown Austin since 1967, with approximately 72 of its 83 total units offered at rates affordable to seniors earning no more than 60 percent of the Austin area’s Median Family Income. At its meeting late last month, the city’s Planning Commission approved a rezoning for the tract, changing its office and single-family residential uses to downtown mixed-use zoning to allow the building’s construction with a maximum height of 60 feet — we would obviously like to see a taller project with more units built here, but in this specific case the height limit was requested by the developer.

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It’s a welcome addition to this corner of downtown, especially since dense, walkable urban areas are uniquely attractive for seniors due to all the nearby amenities accessible without the use of a car — in fact, the only real downside of the St. Martin’s project is that downtown land values would typically make it nearly impossible to build outside of a church-owned property. Most affordable housing developments rely on inexpensive land, which in Austin usually means somewhere far-flung and dependent on cars, increasing isolation for seniors who no longer drive. (There’s a reason the Domain and Mueller have incredibly popular senior living communities.) We would happily replace every surface parking lot in downtown with a project like 1500 Rio, so we hope other nearby churches are watching this space with interest!