Endeavor buys out affordable requirement on redevelopment of old American-Statesman HQ

Gets zoning green light on $23M in-lieu fee for site on South Congress

305 South Congress Avenue in Austin and Council Member Kathie Tovo (SOM, Tiwtter/@kathietovo, Getty)
305 South Congress Avenue in Austin and Council Member Kathie Tovo (SOM, Tiwtter/@kathietovo, Getty)

Plans to redevelop the former Austin American-Statesman headquarters are moving forward.

Endeavor Real Estate Group secured City Council approval to rezone the 19-acre site at 305 South Congress Avenue for a planned mixed-use development, the Austin Business Journal reported. The project, dubbed 305 South Congress, is one of the biggest real estate developments in Central Austin.

305 South Congress Avenue in Austin (SOM)

305 South Congress Avenue in Austin (SOM)

Once complete, the development will bring 1,478 residential units, 1.5 million square feet of office space, a 275-room hotel and 105,000 square feet of retail to the Travis Heights site along the Colorado River.

The project calls for six high-rise towers, the tallest of which could be as tall as 524 feet, or 47 stories. Each of the towers will have two to three levels of outward-facing retail and a restaurant space encircled by outdoor patios.

Endeavor is working for the Cox family, which bought the site in 2015.

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The development will include eight acres of open space where the public can observe the local bat colony that lives under the Congress Avenue Bridge. Endeavor will also include a third of a mile of hiking and biking trails as well as an acre of restored shoreline.

The vote ended a debate between the city and the developer over how much affordable housing to include. Endeavor ultimately agreed to pay the city $23.2 million in exchange for not marketing 55 of the residential units below market rate.

“I don’t think that is a real success in the South Central Waterfront,” Council Member Kathie Tovo, who voted against the rezoning, said at the meeting. “We will see a good development there but I wish we had those affordable units and not a fee in lieu. Our city’s policy is to try to have affable housing in all parts of town and we have a great opportunity to achieve that here.”

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— Victoria Pruitt