Key Texas property poised for redevelopment

Axios Austin
Asher Price
December 1, 2022

The Austin City Council could give final approval Thursday for the massive redevelopment of the old American-Statesman site.

Why it matters: Positioned against Lady Bird Lake and the Ann Richards Bridge, the 19-acre tract is possibly the most valuable underdeveloped site in the city.

Catch up quick: The redevelopment project has been caught up in a swirl of local politics over affordable housing, park space and the fate of a proposed hotel.

Details: The Statesman site could include up to 1,378 apartments, a 275-room hotel, 1.5 million square feet of office space and 150,000 square feet of commercial and restaurant space, per city documents.

• That could result in twice as much square footage as Barton Creek Square mall and a high-rise or two taller than the Frost Bank Tower, per the Austin Business Journal.

The hold up: The City Council is sparring — among its own members and with the developer, Endeavor Real Estate Group — over the affordable housing set-aside.

• Richard Suttle, the lawyer for the development team, has said 55 units could be made affordable — or 4% of all the apartments.
• But other options, proposed or backed by the developer, include 70 affordable units at another building controlled by Endeavor — or a payment of $20 million to underwrite more affordable housing at a site off South Lamar.

Between the lines: The Statesman site, located at 305 S. Congress Ave., is owned by the Cox family, which bought it from their namesake newspaper chain, Cox Media Group, in 2015.

• Disclosure: Cox Enterprises owns Axios Media, which has editorial independence.

Flashback: Last year the City Council created a tax increment reinvestment zone, to use future tax revenue from new development to pay for infrastructure improvements needed on the property — the creation of streets and the laying of utilities.

• The City Council could also vote today to divert nearly half of future tax collection increases in the district for a period of 20 years or more into the special reinvestment zone fund.

Yes but: An odd-bedfellow coalition of environmentalists and conservative tax hawks have decried the financing mechanism as a "giveaway" of hundreds of millions of dollars in future tax revenues.

• "This giveaway sets a terrible precedent that other developers will follow, demanding their own massive tax handouts, costing taxpayers billions," attorney Roger Borgelt, a former Travis County Republican Party officer, said.

What we're watching: Whether the Council actually gives final approval — or postpones a vote.

• "Everybody seems confused, almost as if we're blindly shuffling along," one council member aide tells Axios.