Barshop & Oles’ Brodie Oaks Mall Agreement Needs Fine Tuning

Austin city officials postponed a decision on a planned revamp of the Brodie Oaks Shopping Center in order to finalize some key details.

Austin City Council voted to postpone action on Barshop & Oles’ request to redevelop the property located on the edge of Barton Hills and South Lamar, the Austin Business Journal reported. The delay isn’t expected to hinder the project, in fact the developer says it will allow them more time to formally draft a planned unit zoning agreement with the city.

“Everything that we have presented and been discussing with the City and other stakeholders over the last two-plus years needs to be reduced in writing into the actual zoning ordinance for the Brodie Oaks Redevelopment PUD,” Milo Burdette, partner and vice president of development at Barshop & Oles, told the outlet. “It will be a challenge to capture everything within a single zoning ordinance. We have received a draft from the City and felt like additional time was needed to review it thoroughly and provide any feedback we felt would make it a thorough and accurate reflection of our proposal.”

The mall redevelopment in South Austin would include 1.26 million square feet of office, 140,000 square feet of ground-floor retail and restaurant and more than 13 acres of open space, including about 10 acres of park outfitted with native plants. Multiple towers, the tallest of which will be 25 stories, will contain about 1,700 residential units and a 200-room hotel.

“In order to do everything that we want and everything that the city desires, the project needs to achieve enough density to be viable,” Milo Burdette, partner and vice president of development at Barshop & Oles said in November.

City Council Member Ryan Alter, who represents the district where the shopping center is located, said the developers are working with the city’s legal staff.

“We want to make sure — with something of this magnitude — we get the ordinance language right,” Alter said during the Council meeting. “We just need a little more time.”

— Victoria Pruitt