$60 million prayer: developer and ministry team up on multifamily project

As multifamily deals in Austin proceed at a cautious pace, a ministry and a local developer have a spirited development plan for south Austin. 

Graham Development filed project details for a $60 million multifamily project at 7809 Peaceful Hill Lane. The development will include more than 340 affordable units and span 360,000 square feet, according to the filing. 

Work is slated to begin in February and run through November 2026. 

The site lies in the fast-growing area south of downtown Austin between South 1st Street and Congress Avenue. It is currently 11.8 acres of mostly wooded land next to a large parking lot for a self-storage center. 

Agape Christian Ministries has owned the land since 2002, according to property records. The non-denominational church is headed by Bishop Lawrence A. Wilkerson. 

The Peaceful Hill Lane site has been a development prospect for two decades. In 2003, it was rezoned from a development reserve to community commercial, and its present zoning also allows for multifamily. 

Graham Development is based in Austin and has developed both commercial and residential projects across the country. At the start of 2023, it broke ground on a 290-unit workforce housing development near McKinney Falls State Park. That project will be owned by the Travis County Housing Authority. 

Last year, Graham scored a rezoning to build 7900 South Congress, a 43-acre mixed-use project with 1,218 multifamily units, 210,000 square feet of office space and 136,000 square feet of retail. 

Affordable projects, with significant amounts of public funding, have been some of the few developments to get off the ground since starts plummeted last year. The combination of expensive development debt, high inventory and falling rents has made it much more difficult to find the funding needed for new development. Public sources of capital haven’t slowed down to the same extent, though, paving the way for some projects, like this one, to move forward.

Some 19,300 apartments were delivered in Austin in the last 12 months, according to Collier’s. Asking rents fell 6.7 percent in that time span.

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