Lamar Plaza Development Plans on Hold
This drug store has already made plans to move from Lamar Plaza, but now redevelopment plans appear to be on hold. Photo by an agent, flickr.com/an_agent.Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
A plan to redevelop a popular shopping center in south central Austin seems to have hit the brakes. Developers say it’s just being pushed back a few weeks, but some tenants have heard the plan is being completely pulled off the table. KUT’s Andy Uhler met with Colin Pope, editor of the Austin Business Journal, to discuss the latest on the development plans.
Reporter James Jeffery was looking at this site because it’s a very iconic shopping center. A lot of great Austin businesses are in there… We had heard they’re just having a tough time operating because there’s been this plan to redevelop the shopping center for almost a year now, and as he was doing the reporting, talking to them about what a pain it is to not know their future, they had heard from the owner of the property that the deal is now off. So it’s added even more confusion to them.
The hangup may be nothing more than typical development delays such as financing or city approvals, Pope said.
The problem is that the developers — well, it’s uncertain even for them. They hope that they’ll get the financing and get all the city approvals that they’ll need to get done, but really it wasn’t all done yet. So they were operating under some hope, and they communicated as best they could with the tenants, but it’s just one of those situations. It’s difficult to work through.
Check out the Austin Business Journal’s latest coverage on the plaza and its future.
Podcast: Download (3.8MB)
To which groups does Mr. Pope refer when he says “a lot of neighborhood groups were excited that the center was going to be redeveloped into new shiny shops with a bunch of condos above them?” None that I know of.
One neighborhood group, the Zilker Neighborhood Association, wants to see the current parking and traffic problems associated with Lamar Plaza addressed, whether it’s for the existing configuration or for a new one. If the plaza is redeveloped, the ZNA has said that the plan should be pedestrian and bike friendly and a significant portion of apartments should be “affordable.” (Condos were never part of the developer’s plan.)
A major concern is how a new plaza with 400+ apartments would affect traffic on the surrounding streets, especially with 2000+ other units going in nearby.
Dave Piper
ZNA Executive Committee
Not sure who Jeffery was talking to when he heard that the neighborhood groups were excited about this development, as a resident of the neighborhood (lived down the street from Lamar Plaza for 17 years) I can say that stretching the truth would put it mildly. More expensive condos, more overpriced stores, more traffic on Lamar in a city that won’t commit to much of anything regarding public transit, is not something that “the neighborhood groups” are getting excited about. The death of the project would not be mourned by many in the Zilker neighborhood.