Keep Austin weird is a popular slogan that highlights the freewheeling history of Texas’ capital city. Now, in an effort to keep Austin Black — or maintain a key piece of its African-American history, at least — the city is moving ahead with a public-private development as well as a memorial to a different past.
The project is planned for a two-acre development site on East 11th Street, the historic and cultural center of the local Black community.
The development plan covers two separate parcels of about a block each. The proposal calls for 130 units of housing, with 100 approved for the 900 block between East 11th Street and Curve. The other block would get live/work townhomes, restaurants and cultural venues.
The Austin City Council recently gave its Urban Renewal Agency a green light to negotiate an exclusive agreement with the Pleasant Hill Collaborative on a deal to lease and develop a commercial-and-residential hub there, Urbanize Austin reported.
The area around 11th and Curve Streets is now called the Central East Austin African American Cultural Heritage District. There was little choice in the area taking on the status, thanks to a policy of redlining that kept Black and Latino Austinites from living west of what is now Interstate 35 under the Austin City Plan that took effect 1928.
The development team is made up of local non-profit Guadalupe Neighborhood Development Corporation, Austin-based commercial developer TOPO and Servitas, a Dallas-based student-housing specialist. It’s unclear whether any Black developers have ownership stakes in the project, based on reviews of missions and rosters of leadership of the entities on their respective websites.
Two of the service providers — Austin-based architecture firm Carter Design and nationally renowned Moody-Nolan — are Black-owned. Forge Craft, another Austin architecture firm is, also involved in the project, according to the developers.
Carter Design counts historic preservation as a specialty under longtime local leader Donna Cater. Columbus, Ohio-based Moody-Nolan has worked on projects ranging from a high-profile Omni Hotel in Boston to a sleek energy and innovation center at the Ohio State University campus.
The city’s economic development arm, Rally Austin, sought proposals for the development.
JP Morgan Chase, Berkadia, WNC, Greystone and Regions Bank have been listed as potential backers of the project. Negotiations on financing are ongoing. The developers aim to start construction sometime next year, with opening of the two phases in 2027 and 2029.
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