GID to Build Apartments in Cedar Park

General Investment and Development is planning a $65 million, 194-unit multifamily project in Cedar Park’s Bell District, amid a long but lessening trend of rent declines in the Austin area.

Boston-based GID will develop the apartments within the 54-acre district, which is anchored by a new public library, according to a filing with the state. The building will wrap around a precast parking deck with about 530 spaces, and construction is scheduled to finish in late 2028. The development cost equates to about $335,000 per unit, the filing shows.

The city selected RedLeaf Partners in 2019 to be the master developer of Bell District, intended to “become the heart of Cedar Park,” the city states. Construction began in 2021. The first building of the development, the Cedar Park Public Library, opened in 2024.

The development will also have street-level retail and restaurant space, according to Bell District’s website.

Dubbed The Residences at Bell, the apartments will eventually be joined by The Brownstones, a townhome community, according to the website.

Rent has been declining in Austin for more than two years after developers met an influx of new residents with oversupply. Austin started the year with an average rent of $1,381, a 4.8 percent decline from the previous January — the longest fall of any major metro in the country, according to CoStar.

In Cedar Park, the average rent for a one-bedroom apartment in February was $1,047 per month, according to RentCafe. The average rent for all units is $1,389 per month, marking a 6 percent decline, year-over-year.

However, investors expect the trend to change course by 2027. Throughout 2025, apartment vacancy in Cedar Park fell for the first time since 2021, finishing the year at 14.1 percent, according to CoStar.

Additionally, demand remains strong in the Austin area, based on the metro’s high absorption rates. In the last quarter of 2025, Austin absorbed over 3,100 units, ranking second in the country for absorption as a share of its total apartment supply, CoStar found.The Austin area has seen a decrease in home sales as well as rents, especially in suburbs like Cedar Park, according to the Austin Board of Realtors. While transactions and prices remained strong in Austin proper in 2025, Williamson County to the north saw the number of deals decline by 4.5 percent in 2025 year-over-year to 10,000 closings. The median sale price of a home in Williamson County also fell in 2025, dropping by 2.8 percent to $417,000.