A rendering of the St. Johns West apartment project planned at 601 West St. Johns Avenue. You’ll find more info on this baby at the end of the article — better read through the whole thing, huh? Image: St. Johns West / GFF Architects
Yesterday, we dug into apartment plans for the former Honda dealership at 1301 West Koenig Lane, but it didn’t take long before we realized there’s a lot more development worth noting in the north central neighborhoods of Austin. Being downtown-dwellers, we don’t always pay enough attention to what’s going on in the neighborhoods up north from the University of Texas campus, so here’s quick rundown on a few northside projects — mostly residential — that you might find interesting.
This article’s not intended as a comprehensive guide to every upcoming development in the area, so don’t take it as such. Still, even just the major projects listed here add up to a total of 1,698 new apartment units — and with plenty of undeveloped land and sprawling, underused commercial properties in the north central region, it feels like development along the North Lamar Boulevard corridor is the right move towards increasing local housing stock at a time when Austin needs it most. Giddyup:
Madrone Project – 5210 North Lamar Boulevard
A current view of the vacant 5210 North Lamar Boulevard site. Image: Google Maps
The permit for a 209-unit apartment development atop the currently vacant lot at 5210 North Lamar Boulevard has already been approved and released by the city, so a groundbreaking could kick off any time now. As we’ve mentioned before, the developer for this project, Madrone Ventures, LLC, is associated with the Midland-based Fasken Oil & Ranch, one of the nation’s largest privately-owned oil companies.
We’ve found some old illustrations for this building, which should still be current since they’re part of the city-approved site plan for the address — looks like a five-level building with ground-floor retail, along with the name “Madrone” displayed prominently on the side:
Elevations of the apartment project planned at 5210 North Lamar Boulevard. Click for a larger view. Image: BSB Design
Aura North Lamar – 5629 North Lamar Boulevard
The friendly whale at Lamar and Koenig. Image: Google Maps
Remember the Aura North Lamar apartment and retail project by Dallas-based developer Trinsic Residential Group, bound for the odd whale-shaped tract of vacant land at the southeastern corner of North Lamar Boulevard and Koenig Lane? We’ve dug up new plans and some other architectural drawings for this five-story, 296-unit building, which give us a slightly better idea of how it’ll fit into this unique space:
Part of a site plan for the Aura North Lamar mixed-use project, which shows not only the layout of the building on its odd triangular tract, but also how the project will integrate with its surrounding streetscape. Click for a larger view. Image: KBGE
Elevations for the Aura North Lamar mixed-use project, which give us a vague, but still interesting impression of the building’s design — what colors do you think they’ll end up using here? Click for a larger view. Image: KBGE / GFF Architects
826 Houston Street Offices
Image: Michael Hsu Office of Architecture
This isn’t an apartment project, making it the odd one out, but it’s still worth knowing about. Called 826 Houston for its address just off North Lamar Boulevard, this two-story development will bring nearly 18,000 square feet of warehouse-inspired office space to market, with design by well-loved local architect Michael Hsu.
Its developer, Central Austin Management Group, previously built creative office and studio complexes Springdale General and Canopy Austin, and this project appears to be more of the same — and that’s certainly not a bad thing for companies seeking interesting leases outside of the downtown area.
Crestview Highline – 6324 North Lamar Boulevard
The future site of the Crestview Highline development at 6324 North Lamar Boulevard. Image: Google Maps
Houston-based multifamily developer Urban Genesis, which has a few projects under the Highline branding on the way in the region, is planning Crestview Highline at 6324 North Lamar Boulevard, a five-story, 93-unit mixed-use apartment project with 1,772 square feet of retail space on the ground floor.
We’re planning a more in-depth story in the coming weeks about what’s going on at this particularly interesting site (which is currently occupied in part by legendary local boxer Richard Lord’s gymnasium), so stay tuned.
The Pearl – 1301 West Koenig Lane
Image: Ledcor Group / Rhode Partners
We already covered this one yesterday, but we’re including its 383 units in our count. Read all about it.
Crestview Station Phase VI – 7400 North Lamar Boulevard
A rendering of the sixth phase building at Crestview Station. Image: JHP Architecture
The massive Crestview Station development, a joint venture of Stratus Properties and Trammell Crow, hopes to soon break ground on its sixth phase of the project, a five-story apartment building at 7400 North Lamar Boulevard bringing an additional 226 units to market.
Flora Apartments – 5406 Middle Fiskville Road
A current view of progress at the Flora Apartments, located at 5406 Middle Fiskville Road. Photo by James Rambin.
We’ve covered this one already, but here’s a progress photo taken yesterday at the Flora Apartments, a 194-unit development by JCI Residential at 5406 Middle Fiskville Road, located just behind legendary neighborhood dive Barfly’s. Man, do I ever love Barfly’s.
St. Johns West – 601 West St. Johns Avenue
A rendering of the St. Johns West apartment project planned at 601 West St. Johns Avenue. Image: St. Johns West / GFF Architects
Last but certainly not least, here’s another project by JCI Residential, a four-story, 297-unit apartment building underway at 601 West St. Johns Avenue. Appropriately enough, they’re calling it St. Johns West.
Available plans for this building don’t show any retail space on the ground floor, but the rendering above kinda looks like it has some kind of restaurant at the corner. We’ve been fooled before by a fancy-looking leasing office and/or resident amenity area shown in a rendering, mistakenly thinking it was some kind of retail space, so we’ll have to get back to you on that one — anyway, probably best to trust the plans for now. That’s quite a mantra, isn’t it? Always trust the plans.
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