Featured Illustration (above): A conceptual rendering of the proposed town center in the planned Colony Park Sustainable Community. The town center will offer mixed-use, office, retail and civil spaces. Image: Catellus
Posted: 6-2-20
By Edmond Ortiz
Austin (Travis County)–The city and a California firm are negotiating an agreement on Colony Park, a 208-acre mixed-use project being described as the largest redevelopment of public land since Mueller Airport.
The Austin Economic Development Department signed an exclusive negotiating agreement with Oakland-based Catellus Development Corp. in May for the Colony Park sustainable community project, which could permit 960,000 square feet of commercial space, and more than 3,000 housing units.
The exclusive negotiating agreement ends the solicitation process and anti-lobbying/no contact requirements between the city, Catellus and community partners. It also sets up a two-year time frame for the city and Catellus to negotiate a master development agreement.
According to a press release, the project is expected to include a blend of housing types, retail and office space, a transit center, and an innovation district. Colony Park will be located near Colony Loop Drive and Loyola Lane in Northeast Austin.
Colony Park has been in the works for several years. City Council adopted a master plan and approved a Planned Unit Development district in late 2014.
The newly adopted master development agreement will follow concepts from the master plan.
The master development agreement will also follow concepts from which was guided by three years of extensive public engagement that involved neighborhood residents, the city, the University of Texas Division of Diversity and Community Engagement, business leaders, and community groups.
The master plan breaks down Colony Park into five tracts. There are two so-called “neighborhood centers” on the north part of the Colony Park site, one of which will feature a transit-friendly job center.
There are two other neighborhood centers in the east part of Colony Park, designed to bring retail and services closer to existing and future residential neighborhoods.
The master plan also shows a town center, innovation district and a regional park with amenities in the south part of Colony Park. The town center will include retail and civic facilities.
The town center is designed to be a regional dining and retail destination for Northeast Side residents. The innovation district is conceived to be a destination for Science Technology Engineering Mathematics (STEM) companies, organizations and institutions.
According to the master plan, there is potential to accommodate more than 438,000 square feet of institutional development, in campus buildings organized around a large open green.
A bus route is proposed to run through the middle of the new overall community, linking new development with existing neighborhoods.
Additionally, the master plan calls for 10 pocket parks, as well as community gardens, eco-cottage zones and open greenspaces all across the overall development, and new bike and hike trails connecting with existing trails and parks. The plan, also, identifies potential public art spaces.
While there are no specific projects proposed for Colony Park, the master plan envisions single-family as well as multifamily residential developments, including live/work and mixed-use.
There is no estimated cost for the entire project. The next steps for the project include creating a community engagement plan, identifying ways to deliver community benefits, such as addressing food deserts and affordable workforce housing issues, updating the project’s master plan and zoning, and analyzing the economic feasibility of the project based on proposed public and private funding sources and required infrastructure investments.
Local firm McCann Adams Studio is overseeing project master planning, Civilitude is the civil engineer, and RVi is handling landscape architecture. VBX members may track this overall project using ID number: 2020-42AB.
City officials and community stakeholders say the new Colony Park development will benefit the surrounding area.
“Signing this Exclusive Negotiating Agreement is a major step forward for this priority project,” Sylnovia Holt-Rabb, acting director of the city’s Economic Development Department, said in a news release.
“The Colony Park Sustainable Community will bring significant community benefits to this Northeast Austin neighborhood, including affordable workforce housing and improved access to food and healthcare services. We look forward to continuing engaging with the community and Catellus to finalize a master development agreement for this project.”
“It is our hope that developing the Colony Park site will bring the much-needed healthcare, workforce housing, and economic stimulus that has been missing in this area of Eastern Travis County,” Barbara Scott, Colony Park Neighborhood Association president, added in the release.
The sustainable communities initiative is funded through a U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Sustainable Communities Challenge Grant.
HUD has been coordinating with the U.S. Department of Transportation and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to help create sustainable communities that contain various housing and transportation options, commercial, work and recreational destinations close to home, and ecologically-sensitive land management practices.
The new Colony Park project is located near other planned or completed East Side redevelopments, including the Travis County Expo Center, where there are plans for improvements and expansion.
Caellus also oversaw the 700-acre Mueller redevelopment, a master-planned, mixed-use, eco-conscious conversion of the Robert Mueller Municipal Airport. Catellus has led multiple mixed-use developments in California and other communities around the nation.
edmond@virtualbx.com
