A new developer has been chosen to work with Austin on the transformation of an old Crestview utility yard into a mixed-used community with affordable housing.
The setup
The city has hoped for years to bring hundreds of new housing units and other public amenities, such as parkland, to its 5.5-acre site at 6909 Ryan Drive, formerly home to an Austin Energy storage lot.
Neighbors from the surrounding Crestview, Brentwood and Highland areas helped form a vision for a redevelopment in the 2010s, and the city moved forward with a plan from a local builder in 2021.
However, economic factors and differing approaches between city staff and developer 3423 Holdings LLC caused that project to fall through last spring. Austin went on to reboot its planning and solicitation for a new partner at Ryan Drive.
The land was transferred to the Austin Housing Finance Corp., the city's nonprofit affordable housing arm, last year, and several months of renewed public engagement led to the selection of a developer for the project in May.
What happened
City Council, which oversees the AHFC, selected DMA Development Co. to take on the long-awaited redevelopment on May 2. City staff will now begin negotiations with DMA to come up with a final project plan over the next few months.
Council member Leslie Pool, who's pushed to realize the redevelopment for years on the council dais, said she "couldn't be happier" to see the process advance with DMA.
"I am really, really pleased that we have another chance to move forward with the redevelopment of the Ryan Drive parcel in my district," Pool said. "I think I first started imagining what this might look like back in 2014 when I was but a candidate for council. So here we are 10 years later really working very hard at the staff level, in the community, with the Ryan Drive working group which has done amazing work to develop the concept for this site."
Ten outlines were submitted for consideration this year. Of that group, three advanced and city staff eventually landed on DMA as the best option based on its initial proposal and finalist interview.
A public survey on the finalists found a wide majority of nearly 200 respondents favored another option—Pennrose, LLC. Housing Director Mandy DeMayo said DMA's higher score led to staff's recommendation and noted that, despite the community input, the decision was not meant to become a "popularity contest," and requested features from the survey may still be included in DMA's final project.
Austinites testifying at the May AHFC session said they'd favored Pennrose for its community engagement, development experience and plans to include affordable housing for seniors.
What they're saying
"It was a selection made solely on qualifications—the next step is to get with City and neighbors to craft their vision into a transit-oriented development that includes affordable and workforce housing with open park space and appropriate retail amenities. Weighing heavily into the scoring and decision making was our work on Talavera and Travis Flats," the DMA team said in a statement.
The details
The city's request for qualifications for the Ryan Drive project called for builders who could realize community priorities, including affordable housing, added parkland, improved transit connections and other amenities for the surrounding neighborhoods.
The request for qualifications asked for developers to come up with projects that'd include at least 300 housing units, with about 150 available at the lower affordability levels of 50% and 80% of Austin's median family income, or MFI. The remaining units would be available at 100% to 120% MFI.
Of the 5.5-acre property, at least 1.5 acres would be reserved as parks or amenity space while a portion of the land would be turned into an accessible transit plaza.
The previous iteration of the Ryan Drive redevelopment that was canceled last year would've brought more housing overall and a much larger share of affordable units. It could have also featured an expanded footprint onto adjacent land owned by 3423 Holdings for additional parkland and a new cultural facility.
Zooming out
The site's redevelopment will be moving along amid a local focus on building up more of the surrounding Crestview Station area under Austin's transit-oriented development, or TOD, policies.
The existing Capital Metro bus and rail hub is one of a few areas in the city designated for denser mixed-use development in line with civic transit priorities. Given that framework, CapMetro won $1.5 million in Federal Transit Administration funds in April to help with TOD planning and develop new transit features alongside the Ryan Drive project's affordable housing. Pool also highlighted the site's potential for improved transit links.
"Crestview Station serves as an important transit hub for my district and will eventually be expanded with the extension of Project Connect's Blue Line," she said. "There's a perfect opportunity for more affordable homes, new neighbors; they are welcomed by the Crestview area on both sides of Lamar Boulevard."
CapMetro spokesperson Jorge Ortega said the transit agency's initial planning and predesign process through the federal award will last until mid-2025, when more public engagement and design work will take place. A final design could be ready in 2026, he said.
