The entrance to the complex at South First Street, looking north towards downtown. Image: Timbercreek Apartments / Facebook
The redevelopment of a 1970s-era South Austin apartment community could bring up to 550 new apartment units to the Bouldin Creek neighborhood, only a stone’s throw from the city’s growing South Central Waterfront district. The proposal, outlined in a briefing by Austin’s Planning and Zoning Department at a meeting of the city’s Environmental Commission earlier this week, will seek Planned Unit Development (PUD) zoning to replace the 198-unit Timbercreek Apartments complex currently occupying 8.19 acres at 614 South First Street with a taller, denser building designed by the offices of well-known local architect Michael Hsu.
The so-called Timbercreek PUD agreement would entitle the project’s developers, who remain unnamed at this time, to build a structure up to 120 feet in height — roughly 10 stories, give or take — exceeding the height limitation of 40 feet imposed by the property’s current medium-density multifamily zoning. The PUD would also reduce the site’s maximum impervious cover from 65 percent to 50 percent, and remove a 25-foot setback requirement on its South First Street frontage.
An aerial view of the 8.19-acre Timbercreek Apartments site (its boundaries outlined in yellow) and its surroundings, with the path of East Bouldin Creek plotted in blue. Image: City of Austin
The proposed building, though its design is still in an early stage, would utilize the PUD’s removed setback requirement and smaller footprint enabled by the additional height allowance to minimize development in the rear of the property directly adjacent to East Bouldin Creek, allowing the creekside area to be restored with trail connections and other improvements for public access. According to presentation documents for the PUD agreement, the structure’s parking would be located entirely underground, replacing the site’s existing large surface lot.
In addition to site improvements, a possible new traffic light or pedestrian crossing at the project’s frontage on South First Street is also reportedly in discussion between the developers and Austin’s Transportation Department — if you’ve spent much time walking around in this area, you’ll know what a welcome improvement that would be.
A view of the downtown skyline from the pool at Timbercreek Apartments. Image: Timbercreek Apartments / Facebook
While the developer of the building is unknown, city documents associated with the plan indicate the involvement of local companies Michael Hsu Office of Architecture, engineering firm Big Red Dog, and land-use law practice Drenner Group. The project’s applicant is University Financial of Texas Inc., and the owner of the Timbercreek property since 1991 is H&H Texas Partners Ltd. — both of these connected entities are registered in California and not clearly associated with any major real estate development firms. According to Travis County tax records, the property’s latest assessed value in 2019 was $34,282,185.
Though the purpose of the presentation to the Environmental Commission was related to the PUD’s entitlements reducing overall impervious cover and minimizing development within the site’s Critical Water Quality Zone near East Bouldin Creek, a few commissioners couldn’t help but express concern about the structure’s height compared to the single-family homes located on the other side of the creek.
A view of the Timbercreek site’s current parking lot area.
In fact, staff had to gently remind the commission to focus on the environmental factors of the project, since by those standards the plan represents a significant improvement for the area’s ecology, regardless of any aesthetic critiques related to homeowners possibly seeing a moderately tall building outside their windows in a neighborhood located roughly half a mile from downtown. Per Leah Bojo of Drenner Group, who represented the project at the meeting, the developers are working with the Bouldin neighborhood to determine the ideal placement for the new structure.
Since the PUD is still in its assessment stage, no action by the commission was necessary — the briefing is part of the process towards hashing out the terms of any potential agreement between the developer and city for the project’s realization, and plenty could change between now and the actual PUD application. The project’s next step is a briefing to City Council at its February 6 meeting, which could provide us with more information on this latest effort to bring height and density south of the river.
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