$1B Plan: Another Decision in Two Weeks

AUSTIN-Catellus Development Group will decide within two weeks who gets the second multifamily tract at the gateway of the largest redevelopment in the city's history. The master developer's upcoming decision is yet another clear signal that the $1.3-billion plan is firing on all cylinders and possibly ahead of schedule.

The 706-acre former Robert Mueller Municipal Airport has been on the city's development docket for 20 years and Catellus' for a decade. Initially, planners mapped out a 15- to 20-year, three-phase delivery schedule, but the high-demand land, situated less than two miles north of the CBD, could be built out much sooner than projected. "They're hitting milestones quicker than they expected," Teresa Guidotti Lowery, a Houston principal and chairman for Colliers International Inc.'s multifamily group, tells GlobeSt.com.

Part of a four-member team for Catellus Mueller, Lowery says the 3.76-acre tract hit the market as a condo site. It attracted numerous bids from all breeds of multifamily residential developers. Though she can't confirm it, it's a safe bet that Simmons Vedder & Co., with headquarters teams in Austin and Houston, is part of the pack after inking a ground lease for 14 abutting acres just two weeks ago.

Simmons Vedder, staking the first multifamily claim in the project area, is planning a $60-million urban midrise with 442 apartments at the corner of Aldrich Street and Airport Boulevard. Ground will break in early 2007; delivery is set for spring 2008.

The 706-acre redevelopment is anchored by the 450,000-sf Dell Children's Medical Center of Texas, which is slated to open in fall 2007. The build-out plan is mapped out for 366,000 sf of retail, 2,200 multifamily units, 2,400 single-family lots and 3.8 million sf of office space. But like all plans of its magnitude, it's in a state of flux to some degree.

This summer has brought a series of back-to-back announcements for project starts. Earlier this month, the development team made it known that anchor leases for the first retail phase had been signed by Bed, Bath & Beyond, Best Buy and Marshalls. The first shops for the regional retail play will open in the spring on a 36-acre, Interstate 35-fronting tract between the 51st Street and Airport Boulevard exits.

In July, Strictly Pediatrics started construction on a 127,000-sf, four-story building at the corner of Lancaster Court and Barbara Jordan Boulevard. The ambulatory surgical center and medical office space also is ticketed to deliver before midyear 2007. Work on a 50,000-sf headquarters building is about to get under way for locally based Southwest Educational Development Laboratory, which will relocate from Downtown Austin in the spring.

Michael Dell, founder of Dell Inc., not only seeded the redevelopment with the children's hospital, but recently kicked in another $50 million in grant form to the University of Texas for a research facility. Ground breaks in November on the Dell Pediatrics Research Institute, says Lowery, whose teammates are Bob Wynn and Brett Arabie of Colliers Austin, Ronny Landry of Landry Commercial and Saul Keeton with Colliers in Houston. As part of the fast-paced announcements, Austin native Matt Whelan recently was named senior vice president and put at the helm of the redevelopment charge for the award-winning master plan. Former chief Greg Weaver was promoted to managing director of the locally based Catellus Development Group.