GroundFloor Development and Prescott Group took a step outside their development comfort zone with plans for a $120M 265k SF mixed-use project, Saint Elmo, on South Congress near Ben White Boulevard in South Austin. The project—to be designed by Andersson-Wise Architects—includes 225k SF of creative office space and a 40k SF indoor-outdoor marketplace on almost 10 acres next to a new location for Austin’s Saxon Pub. GroundFloor Development president/CEO Brandon Bolin (pictured during a media tour of the site Tuesday) tells us the site appealed to him because of its historic look with the existing 40k SF Bluebird school bus warehouse for Austin ISD. He says Austin's growth has to start heading east and south, which puts Saint Elmo right in the path of development. JPI is already developing a multifamily project just south of Ben White, he notes.
People want a sense of place and history, Brandon says. Approval for changing the zoning to mixed-use took almost a year. Now, the site development plan is moving through city processes and the JV should close on the land before the end of the year. Construction will start in Q2 ’16. The entire project will deliver simultaneously, he tells us. Peloton Commercial Real Estate will lease the office space, and CBRE will lease the public market. Negotiations are in the works with some lead anchor tenants, Brandon says. Naming rights are on the table, too. He hopes to have some pre-leases executed by year’s end. He said some of those talks are with co-working spaces. JLL Capital Markets is handling the capital. The project is scheduled to open in Q1 ’18.
