Lockhart Preps for Downtown Development as Austin Grows South

The city of Lockhart is prepping to reconfigure its core while Austin’s population pushes to its outer reaches.

City officials are moving to reimagine a multi-block stretch of downtown, a bid to channel growth pressure into a cohesive, walkable core rather than a scattershot expansion, the Austin Business Journal reported.

The city and the Lockhart Economic Development Corp launched a public process this week to map out the redevelopment area, in the town roughly 35 miles south of Austin.

The zone includes city-owned property and land held by First Lockhart Baptist Church, between West San Antonio and West Live Oak streets, stretching from Guadalupe to South Church Street. Two Austin Community College parcels could be folded in later, giving future bidders room to shape a sizable development.

The plan makes Lockhart the latest satellite community in Austin’s orbit to establish or redevelop downtowns before private projects leapfrog ahead of them.

San Antonio-based TBA Douglas is leading community engagement, with feedback set to feed into requests for proposals. Development teams will be asked to submit concepts for a district that balances Lockhart’s small-town character with newfound economic momentum.

Mayor Lew White cast the initiative as a chance to define the city’s future rather than react to it.

The city plans to post materials and updates online as planning advances.

Austin’s suburban boom has already reshaped places like Georgetown, Kyle and Hutto. Lockhart — famed for smoked meat but increasingly on developers’ radar — is a town of about 15,000 residents, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s 5-year estimates.

Perry Homes started construction on Juniper Springs this summer, a 400-acre master-planned development in Lockhart, which is expected to include 1,400 homes.

A few miles north of Lockhart, along State Highway 130 in Mustang Ridge, is where plans are rolling out for a $1.5 billion, 211-acre master-planned community called Pura Vida. The Austin-based SonWest Company project includes a potential surf park.

Lockhart’s reputation rests on barbecue royalty — Kreuz Market, Smitty’s Market and The Original Black’s BBQ — but newcomers like Barbs B Q and Terry Black’s are even diversifying the low-and-slow market.

Manufacturers tied to food production have planted flags, including Larry Ellison-backed Sensei Farms, pickling outfit Hill Country Foodworks and frozen treat maker Ziegenfelder.

Related Companies’ cold-storage arm RealCold is also building a major facility, as Lockhart’s industrial corridor grows.

Other industrial and technology-driven developments are in the works as well. Ashton Gray and Earthship received approval in August to build a “proto-town innovation hub” on 538 acres at 1307 Westwood Road, just outside of Lockhart. The project is described as a manufacturing company town, aiming to create a work-life ecosystem around advanced manufacturing, robotics, space and energy research.

Earlier this year, Denver-based developer Tract acquired more than 1,500 acres in Caldwell County just outside of Lockhart, with plans for a data center campus.

— Eric Weilbacher