The Hill Country Galleria would bring 1.8 million sf of retail with such esteemed anchors as Lord & Taylor, Saks or Macy's, low-rise office buildings, mid-rise multifamily buildings and a full-service Hyatt hotel. The property is owned by Baldwin Properties Inc.

The project was quietly unveiled last week in Bee Cave and is going through the village's zoning process. The main retail sections are to open sometime between 2002 and 2003; the office space and smaller shops, delivering between 2005 and 2007; and the multifamily coming to market between 2007 and 2008.

In 1999, the Bee Cave board of aldermen put a moratorium on development after Wal-Mart and Barnes & Nobles stores were proposed for the site where the Galleria is to be built. In late 2000, the board adopted a master plan to help guide growth. Currently, the biggest retailers in the community are an H-E-B grocery store and a Home Depot home improvement store.

The project would sit on nearly 114.7 acres, known as the Baldwin tract, bounded by Bee Cave Road, Texas 71 and RR 620. The multifamily buildings, on the north side of the property, would back up on the Balcones Canyonlands habitat and bird sanctuary and overlook the Colorado River.

Austin-based International Development Management, led by CEO Christopher Milam, heads the venture with co-developers Forest City Enterprises of Cleveland and Los Angeles and Lincoln Property Co. of Dallas.

Larry Speck, an Austin architect whose design stamp is strong in the city's CBD, is the primary architect and planner. He and the firm with which he practices, Page Southerland Page, have designed and planned the Austin Convention Center and the new Computer Sciences Corp. buildings in the Downtown as well as Austin-Bergstrom International Airport.

The project is to be positioned as a regional town center and bearing design principals of European town centers. The Hill Country Galleria will incorporate open space, civic and public areas, pedestrian-oriented plazas and piazzas. Most parking will be in garages close to destinations such as stores or apartments.

Bee Cave has been a community for more than 150 years although it wasn't incorporated as a municipality until 1987. It long was a place to stop for a snack or gas up the boat on the way to Lake Travis west of Austin. Although Bee Cave's has just a bit more than 600 residents, its population more than doubled between 1990 and 2000. The community is adding residential subdivisions–several of them on the high end–and other retail projects.

The Hill County Galleria is reminiscent of the Arboretum, though much bigger than the upscale hotel, retail and office development in northwest Austin that Trammell Crow Co. developed in the mid-1980s. The center, which has about 200,000 sf of retail space, anchored the explosion of retail growth at the intersections of US Highway 183, MoPac Boulevard and Capital of Texas Highway.

Instant Insights /

1.8 Mil-SF Hill Country Galleria Planned for Austin Suburb

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