City, Catellus Clear Another Airport Redevelopment Hurdle

AUSTIN-The next stage of the redevelopment of Robert Mueller Municipal Airport is underway with the signing of an exclusive negotiating agreement between the City of Austin and Catellus Development Corp.

“The next step is to finalize terms of the master development agreement,” Steve Bryan, a senior vice president of Catellus, tells GlobeSt.com. “And we’re going to be working on that right now.”

While a master plan exists, the agreement to be developed over the next 12 to 18 months will nail down the specifics of the $100-million redevelopment. Those include the parts of the property that would be leased or sold, zoning changes and the phased-in steps for the project. Factors governing the new agreement would include market conditions.

The airport was decommissioned in 1999 when Austin-Bergstrom International Airport opened. The 20-year redevelopment calls for 4,000 residences and five million sf of commercial space. Catellus, based in San Francisco, won the redevelopment contract earlier this year.