Trammell Crow to Develop 6 Acre Downtown Site

Today, the City of Austin offically selected Trammell Crow, Constructive Ventures, and USAA toredevelop the six acre Green Water Treatment Plant site into a dense multi-use extention of downtown. As part of the deal, the development team will pay the city $57.9 million for the right to develeop the prime site.

With the developer selected — Trammell Crow proposed the most dense and ambitious plan for the site — downtown Austin is now set for it’s most radical transformation in decades. With the redevelopment of the Green Site, as many as five high-rise buildings – some as tall as 40-stories — will be added to the Austin skyline. In addition, a new retail district will connect the 2nd street district to the Seaholm development, creating a vibrant new downtown region which will draw many more residents, workers, and visitor downtown for shopping, dining, and entertainment.

As previously reported, the Trammell Crow proposal includes the following components:

– 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.

– 5,200 new parking spaces

– The proposal includes an Austin Car Share program, bicycle bays, and electric refueling stations

– Restoration of the downtown street grid which will ease congestion and streamlie the flow of traffic into downtown

– 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 is a summary from the Statesman:

The Austin City Council on Wednesday unanimously chose Trammell Crow and its partners Constructive Ventures and USAA for the single biggest development project ever to take place downtown.The group beat four other development teams to win the right to negotiate with the city to buy and transform five isolated blocks of city-owned land bounded loosely by the Seaholm Power Plant and San Antonio, Fourth and Cesar Chavez streets into a residential, commercial and cultural hub.But a city official familiar with the proposals said the Trammell Crow team offered to pay $57.9 million for the six acres appraised at $55.5 million. The official requested anonymity because the official is not authorized to speak about the unsigned deal.Of the five teams, Trammell Crow proposed the biggest and tallest buildings, the most uses and the most parking for the current sites of the Green Water Treatment Plant and Austin Energy Control Center.Two weeks ago, members of the city staff announced that they had determined that the Trammell Crow plan was the best deal for the city.Their decision was based largely on financial information the city has refused to release, including: the proposed sales price for the land, sales and property tax projections, the financial backing of the developers, and the amount of public money needed to achieve the developers’ plans. City officials say 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.