Redevelopment of the soon-to-be vacant Concordia campus.

[southsideatx04]

Developing Stories
Concordia Discord: Urban design to the rescue
BY KATHERINE GREGOR


God's Eye View

How tall? How dense? And do we want it in our back yard?

In Austin, broad questions of land-use and planning policy typically get addressed, by default, through City Council reviews of controversial individual projects. That's a weak substitute for comprehensive urban planning, but doin' it at the dais is a time-honored tradition in Austin. A hefty list of contested development issues – including many proposed projects whose scopes would significantly reshape their Austin neighborhoods – made the agenda at last week's Feb. 15 City Council meeting (see "Pulling Our PUDs," at right).

Here's a spotlight on one project with important urban-planning implications: the future of the Concordia campus.

The Project: Redeveloping the Concordia University campus

The Backstory: The former Concordia Lutheran College is moving to a new campus in far North Austin and selling off its Central 22-acre campus (on the west side of I-35, north of 32nd) to developers, who plan to redevelop it as a dense mixed-use project. The Hancock Neighborhood Association wants less height and density, and a better-designed project, than the developer had proposed. Despite regular meetings since last summer, the neighborhoods had been unable to wring an acceptable project from the developer and its representatives, whom they characterized as unwilling to respond in meaningful and substantive ways to citizen concerns.

The Players: Developer: East Avenue IG LP (out-of-town investor group represented by Andy Sarwal, former general counsel for Grande Communications)

Developer's attorney: Richard Suttle, Armbrust & Brown

Neighborhood's attorney: Nikelle Meade, Brown McCarroll

Architect: Larry Speck, Page Southerland Page

At Issue: How tall and dense should it be? Council must vote on whether to grant the developer's request to rezone the property as high-density mixed-use and to create a planned unit development granting broad entitlements. The developer hopes to win council approval on March 8; its contract to buy the land runs out March 31. If that deal falls through, it could in turn jinx Concordia's acquisition and development of its new campus up north.

Council action: Vote deferred to March 1, with the public hearing kept open

The News: To break the deadlock in negotiations, ROMA Design Group has been brought in to work for at least two weeks with the parties to devise a stronger, clearer – and hopefully, mutually acceptable – redevelopment plan. At the urging of Brewster McCracken and other council members, the developer is footing the bill for ROMA to craft a better site design (working on behalf of both sides) and for legal counsel for the neighborhood association, to level the playing field. Meade says the developer "got a clear message from council that they couldn't just bring the project like it was" and win the rezoning case over neighborhood objections. So, as Suttle cracked at council, "We finally got some adult supervision to help us get this done." Meade reports that real progress is at last under way. "ROMA has been able to help the neighborhood representatives focus on what really impacts our lives, what really matters. And they're helping the developer see that in Austin, for a project of this magnitude, you have to get the community involved and on board, to get your project done."

The Devilish Details: The Hancock Neighborhood Plan (which predates the campus sale) calls for mixed-use development that is "neighborhood friendly, neighborhood scaled, and serves neighborhood needs." Instead, the developer wants to build a high, dense "mini-downtown" on a regional scale, with 300,000 square feet of offices (largely medical), 400,000 square feet of retail, a hotel, and about 1,400 shops and condos. The Hancock neighbors (and Eastwoods Neighborhood Association) have opposed the proposed 20-story buildings, high-rises directly across from homes, and the intense traffic the project will generate, likely to overflow onto neighborhood streets.

City staff members have recommended less dense mixed-use zoning as being more compatible with the neighborhood plan. The Design Commission has recommended that the redevelopment be "regarded as a major transit-oriented development," with future streetcar and commuter rail. It also noted, "The PUD as presented is lacking the kind of detailed information upon which substantive recommendations and agreements can be made," and continued, "While current PUD application requirements may have been met, urban infill proposals such as this one may require greater information and detail, and this should be considered by council in the future."

Commentary: Engaging a knowledgeable urban designer to help shape a better project on such a significant urban infill site is a positive and, dare we say it, rather painfully obvious solution here.

As Meade observed, "It is such a shame this didn't happen months ago." (Where were Larry Speck and PSP?) "The work ROMA has done in such a short time is phenomenal. We're thrilled! And the developer is seeing some real benefit, too." While urban designer Jana McCann had said that four to five months should be allowed to properly design a site of this size and complexity, ROMA is fast-tracking the project to tailor a workable site plan before council meets again on March 1.

The other key issue here is the perennial problem with PUDs. While PUD zoning is intended to result in better, more holistically conceived projects on large sites, council is too often granting them without requiring sufficient detail to ensure a quality project. (Another prime example is the just-granted Fairfield PUD at the Hyatt on Town Lake, where the developer of the adjoining AquaTerra condominiums, Crescent Resources, footed the bill at the 11th hour for its own architect, Rhode:Hurt, to draw up a better PUD site plan.) ROMA's McCann and team now are working to fill in many of the blanks that had troubled neighbors for the Concordia site. Within the PUD, they're drawing internal roadways, laying out city blocks, siting smaller buildings adjacent to homes, and otherwise addressing specific issues of concern to the Hancock neighbors.

If the effort ends well, it could provide a useful new model for battle-beleaguered Austin. Clearly, something needs to change. With large-scale developments threatening to alter neighborhoods all over town, the city needs a more sophisticated approach to get the best possible projects on sites like Concordia, of significant size and sensitivity. Why not make it standard policy to provide – or at least require of the developer – an experienced urban designer to facilitate superior solutions for all such key sites? Engage experts – early on – to ensure that big projects reflect not only neighborhood plans and preferences but the city's design guidelines and sustainability goals. (Far more productive than expecting win-win solutions from lawyers, and far more fair and reasonable than putting the job on the backs of untutored volunteers at neighborhood associations.) Many other large sites, such as Northcross Mall, cry out for intervention by a top-notch urban designer. In adopting such a policy, the city would be executing its public responsibility to see that major developments on key sites are optimally conceived and executed. Good urban design has become an indispensable part of the infrastructure now necessary for Austin to grow, while remaining a great and livable city.

Noted Meade, "We're a special community, so these companies that want to do business in Austin need to give us equally special projects, just as they do in other cities that require them to think outside the box."


(I would propose more density for the project.)

[GoldenBoot]

East Avenue PUD wins first round approval

By Kimberly Reeves
IN FACT NEWS
March 2, 2007


Agreement between the developer and neighborhood over the conditions for redeveloping the Concordia University site, known as the East Avernue Planned Unit Development (PUD), was so complete at last night’s Council meeting that you could practically hear the crickets chirping outside the Council chambers.

That was not by happenstance. What seemed like an easy resolution was the product of hour upon hour of meetings, at least one of which began at 8am on a Saturday morning. Representatives of East Avenue Investment Group and the Hancock and Eastwoods Neighborhood Associations had help in resolving questions relating to height, density, mix of uses, traffic flow

Developer Andy Sarwal of East Avenue agreed to the intervention of planner Jana McCann of Roma and to pay for attorney Nikelle Meade to represent the neighborhoods. Attorney Richard Suttle represents Sarwal. Plans call for 250,000 square feet of retail, 1,250 residential units, a maximum of 1,750 square feet of medical office space and 135,000 square feet of general office, plus what everyone hopes will be a five-star hotel.

A number of neighbors praised the negotiation process. Council Member Mike Martinez, one of a number of Council members who noted the success, said he intended to take another look at how the negotiations were completed in order for Council to adopt some type of formal process for future PUD negotiations.

“We are seeing some fairly significant PUD requests coming down the pipeline,” Martinez said. “I think we’re going to need this as a part of the process. We need to see what we can come up with, and hopefully staff will help us as well.”

While last night’s compromise was not perfect – the developer has yet to concede to an affordable housing mix on the project – it did go a long way toward finding some middle ground between neighbors who didn’t want the encroachment of high-rise towers and a developer who wanted to make the best use of a 22-acre site on a freeway.

During her presentation last night, McCann led the Council through the particulars of the project:

-The road network, included a roundabout, creating block parcels;
-The almost-but-not-quite Great Streets concessions to streetscapes;
-The step-back heights that intended to step down to the road network and keep the tallest buildings close to the freeways; and
-The limitation of buildings, up to the foot, for the high-rise buildings on the project.

McCann also laid out the conditions of the PUD, which started out at 11 but grew to 21 during the three weeks of discussions between developer and neighborhood. As Neighborhood Planning and Zoning Director Greg Guernsey pointed out just before the vote – Council approved the neighborhood plan amendment on first reading only – some of the conditions will be folded into a covenant between the developer and the neighborhood and others will be part of ordinance.

The parts of the plan that McCann laid out – a conceptual drive and block plan, streetscapes and building height – were the first three conditions. Other conditions included a default zoning district designation, a maximum impervious cover limited to 85 percent, (as recommended by staff), a cap of 175,000 square feet of medical office space, a list of prohibited uses that must still be fine-tuned and an agreement to require urban core parking standards, which will allow for a 20 percent reduction in the overall parking requirements on the property.

Additionally, the developer and neighborhood agreed to compliance with city’s design standards; additional project-specific design guidelines, such as the appearance of parking garages orientated toward the freeway; a maximum footprint limit of 16,000 square feet per floor plate for the towers; limitations on certain retail uses, such as the size of a grocery store; the commitment of an acre of green space to a central “park” and plaza on the site; plus an additional $750,000 earmarked for neighborhood park development, as long as the developer is not required to pay park dedication fees.

The developer also agreed to on-site water quality measures; a sustainable 2-star green building rating; internal traffic controls; car sharing measures; community updates as the project develops; and, most recently, an architectural design review process; a neighborhood plan amendment to assess maximum heights; and a FLUM (future land use map) to reflect proposed zoning changes.

The one area where the two sides could not agree was the affordable housing component. Neighbors who addressed Council stressed the need to include affordable housing. Development representatives told In Fact Daily they had never considered such a requirement before Thursday.

Other issues also were raised, none of them big enough, however, to stop the approval on first reading. St. Paul’s Lutheran Church wanted better traffic controls for its on-site school. Other concessions were suggested, such as a limitation on billboards, a cross-walk near Lee Elementary, additional sidewalks and trails around the development, traffic calming devices on thoroughfares and a dedicated right-turn lane on the frontage road of Interstate 35 near 38 1/2 Street.

Mayor Pro Tem Betty Dunkerley suggested the city take the list and consider what the city could do to meet the neighborhood suggestions. The hearing on the project also was left open, in case there were additional comments at second reading.

[KevinFromTexas]

From the Austin American-Statesman
http://www.statesman.com/news/conten...concordia.html

AUSTIN CITY COUNCIL
Council sets special Monday meeting on Concordia project
Campus would include hotel, offices and university

AMERICAN STATESMAN STAFF
Friday, March 23, 2007

The Austin City Council postponed for a second time today the final zoning vote on the proposed multimillion dollar redevelopment of the Concordia University campus.

The Council has scheduled a special meeting Monday afternoon for the vote. That pushes action down to the wire for developers to be able to close on schedule Thursday on the purchase of the 22-acre campus at Interstate 35 and 32nd Street.

Officials of Concordia said any delay wouldjeopardize their deal to buy the former Schlumberger office campus in North Austin, which they want to make the university's new home. That deal also is set to close Thursday.

The Council was scheduled to vote Thursday on the East Avenue project, which had made its way through all of the city approval steps and preliminary Council approval.

But the vote was tabled because some key documents were not ready. The documents still weren't complete this afternoon.

Some council members said they didn't like the fact that they were under pressure to rush through a vote on such a major project without all the pieces in place.

The East Avenue developers are proposing to build 1,400 residences, several hundred thousand square feet of office and retail space and a hotel on the campus. Some neighbors said that level of density is out of place near residential neighborhoods, and raised concerns about the increased traffic the project would generate.

[GoldenBoot]

REAL ESTATE

Plans firm up for costlier Concordia site

Developer will show renderings and hold neighborhood party on Saturday.


By Shonda Novak
AUSTIN AMERICAN-STATESMAN
Friday, June 08, 2007

The vision is now complete for East Avenue, a major mixed-use project that has become bigger and more costly than initial estimates.

Plans call for 1,450 condominiums and apartments, 600,000 square feet of office space, 325,000 square feet of retail and a soon-to-be-announced 250-room luxury five-star hotel, said Andy Sarwal, head of East Avenue Investment Group LP.

East Avenue is leading the team behind the redevelopment of the Concordia University campus at Interstate 35 and 32nd Street, just north of downtown.

The price tag has grown from a reported $500 million to $750 million.

Envisioned as a dining, shopping and entertainment hub, the project would be one of the tallest and densest outside downtown.

Rents for apartment units will start at $1,350 a month, and the condos will start at $600,000, Sarwal said.

He said 80 of the condos will be atop the hotel.

Although the total square footage remains unchanged at 2.75 million, the current combined office and retail space, 925,000 square feet, has increased from earlier estimates, which varied from 545,000 square feet to 700,000 square feet.

Construction is expected to begin late this year, sooner than earlier estimates of mid-2008.

The project is expected to take three to five years to complete.

Sarwal will show renderings and offer the public a chance to learn more at an event he is billing as a "neighborhood appreciation party" from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday at the site.

The party coincides with the kick-off of marketing efforts for the project, which aims to transform Concordia's 22-acre campus into a chic, pedestrian-oriented urban village.

Lehman Brothers funded the site-acquisition loan; the East Avenue Investment Group owns all of the equity in the project.

Concordia, a private Lutheran university, plans to relocate within two years to the former Schlumberger Ltd. business campus off RM 620 in far Northwest Austin.

Although Sarwal declines to identify the individual developers who make up East Avenue Investment Group, he said the team includes a diverse group of business people with more than 50 years of development experience, including in the hotel and apartment sectors.

The team is led by Sarwal, the former senior vice president of business development and real estate for San Marcos-based Grande Communications, who has a background in venture finance and real estate.

The initial vision for the project included a USA Swimming training center for Olympic hopefuls and other swimmers, but those plans never materialized.

East Avenue will feature "many forward-thinking land planning concepts, in addition to many of the latest 'green' technologies," Sarwal said.

They include green-building planning and architectural concepts to minimize land consumption, traffic, and energy and water use. The residences will be built within walking distance of the shops, stores and public transportation to prevent sprawl and minimize traffic, Sarwal said.

Walkways and public spaces, including a sun calendar plaza, are being designed to create a community-friendly environment. High-tech lighting will face downward to keep the night skies dark.

The Austin City Council approved new zoning for the project in late March, capping nearly a year of often tense talks between the developer and residents of the nearby Hancock and Eastwoods neighborhoods.

Residents were concerned with such issues as traffic and building heights of up to 20 stories. Negotiations ultimately yielded reduced heights, contributions for park improvements and requirements to provide some affordable housing units.

After the zoning passed, Bart Whatley, president of the Hancock Neighborhood Association, said the two sides were "light-years from where we began."

Sarwal said the party is his way of thanking the surrounding neighborhoods for their "constructive approach to tackling tough issues" and their ultimate support of the project.


snovak@statesman.com; 445-3856

[METALMiKE]

WOW.Impressive.

[JAM]

Sweet. Looks like the north-east corner of this development is ~1000 ft of the rail line. Maybe they should move that MLK station up towards this development.

[MichaelB]

I am curious as to time lines. The article says Concordia plans to relocate within 2 years, yet construction is to begin within the next 6 months. Can anyone venture a guess as to what this means? I would if one of the #'s is inaccurate? Or if Concordia is planning to have some areas available in 6 mths for demo?????

[TDoss]

Right on. This is good real estate.

The leasing/sales agent who got Ritz Carlton to do a deal beneath the I-35 freeway will forever be a stone-cold-bad-ass-mofo if in fact that is the hotel that lands there.

I would hope that the different ownership groups of "Highland Mall" are taking some notes. - Any thoughts from the forum?

[JAM]

Originally Posted by TDoss

The leasing/sales agent who got Ritz Carlton to do a deal beneath the I-35 freeway

Would you mind elaborating?

[TDoss]

Originally Posted by JAM

Would you mind elaborating?

In the article, it references "a soon-to-be-announced 250-room luxury five-star hotel"

The rumor I heard months and months ago is that it is Ritz Carlton.

Have you heard anything JAM?

[Jdawgboy]

Impressive, some buildings up to 20 stories, will be interesting to see where they will place the towers maybe more westward so as to not block the capital?

[Double L]

Definently a high-end development. Since we are trying to keep downtown built in a large scale of price ranges, it's a good thing to soak the upper-scale demand in this project, which is it's own neighborhood and away from downtown. Also, as always, it's always good to hear about a developer working well and closely with a neighborhood association to achieve positive results.

Great project.

[Jdawgboy]

Yea he has tried to work with them but remember most of these people in those neighborhoods near by are NIMBYs and they don't care about anything other than to not have anything so big or anything that supposedly would increase traffic through their neighborhoods wich is a reasonable concern as far as the traffic is concerned but they shouldnt be upset over the building heights I think thats just stupid.

[Double L]

Yes and this is what I'm refering to, which is that in this case, it worked.

After the zoning passed, Bart Whatley, president of the Hancock Neighborhood Association, said the two sides were "light-years from where we began."

Sarwal said the party is his way of thanking the surrounding neighborhoods for their "constructive approach to tackling tough issues" and their ultimate support of the project.

[GoldenBoot]

Originally Posted by MichaelB

I am curious as to time lines. The article says Concordia plans to relocate within 2 years, yet construction is to begin within the next 6 months. Can anyone venture a guess as to what this means? I would if one of the #'s is inaccurate? Or if Concordia is planning to have some areas available in 6 mths for demo?????

Partial relocation will be complete by spring semester (January) 2008. Full relocation is expected to be complete by fall semester (August) 2008.

Site preparation and finish-out construction has already begun out at the new site.

[78705]

Originally Posted by Jdawgboy

Impressive, some buildings up to 20 stories, will be interesting to see where they will place the towers maybe more westward so as to not block the capital?

The towers will all be on the eastern side of the development so that they are as far from the Hancock neighborhood (where I live) as possible.

For a while there, I was really scared that my neighborhood was going to screw this whole thing up! I'm not sure if the association could have really put a monkey wrench in the whole thing, but I am sure glad it is moving forward. The designs I have seen show 5 or 6 60-90 foot tall plinths with tall towers coming out of the eastern side. In addition to the retail and restaurant amenities this project will bring, I'm also excited about the prospect of the development blocking I35 noise. Sweet!

[78705]

Also, for the record, part of the neighborhood issue around this project had to do with St. David's plans to expand the hospital on the other side of 32nd. Between the two projects, I believe it was found that the 32nd st. exit off of I35 will see thousands of additional car trips per day.

[Jdawgboy]

So these towers will be close to I-35 then? How interesting, I look forward to seeing the construction.

[MichaelB]

Originally Posted by GoldenBoot

Partial relocation will be complete by spring semester (January) 2008. Full relocation is expected to be complete by fall semester (August) 2008.

Site preparation and finish-out construction has already begun out at the new site.

I knew you would know! Thanks!

[JAM]

Originally Posted by TDoss

In the article, it references "a soon-to-be-announced 250-room luxury five-star hotel"

The rumor I heard months and months ago is that it is Ritz Carlton.

Have you heard anything JAM?

no, but was wondering what was going on under I-35??