4 Acre Hill-Top Retail Site - $13 sq/ft
 
Pleasant Site for an Office Building
 Convenience Store
Fast food or Strip Mall

Hard Corner - Traffic Signal - Elevated - Commercial Zone

Sarita Valley Ranch

PRESS RELEASE
Wednesday, 4 July 2009
For Immediate Release
Contact:  Ms. Melissa Taboda
Austin American-Statesman ; 512.912.2942 
 
 
 
Leander Rail Stop Attracts Big-Time Development

Multiple Transit-Oriented Projects are Being Announced as Boom Gets Under Way
 
Leander TX - 4 July 2007 - Developers are beginning to announce significant transit-oriented projects near the proposed rail stop in Leander.
Bob Wunsch, chief executive officer of Waterstone Development, said Tuesday that he plans to turn two tracts totaling 240 acres into mixed-use projects that will include single-family homes, multifamily units, a hotel, retail and restaurants. The site is where U.S. 183 and the 183-A toll road converge.

Leander Transit Development has won a Capital Metro contract to develop the land surrounding the first rail stop on the line. 'We're building a new urbanist community that is different, where people relate together and work together, play together,' said Lance Hughes, one of the Leander Transit Development partners.

The mixed-use projects being planned around the Leander commuter rail station represent a substantial bet that the new rail line will be a powerful magnet for residential and commercial development.

"You have an open-minded city in Leander that is progressive," Wunsch said. "Not many places have two highways come together" to create a prime location.

Wunsch's projects are two of several in the works for a 2,300-acre transit-oriented site in Leander. They also represent a substantial bet that the new rail line will be a powerful magnet for residential and commercial development, just as rail lines have in Dallas and other cities.

In a related project, the Leander Transit Development LLC recently landed a Capital Metro contract to develop the 14 acres surrounding the first rail stop on the line, and secured another contiguous 150 acres for a mixed-use development, the Leander Transit Village.

The transit-oriented district "at this point is slowing evolving," said Kirk Clennan, the city's director of economic development. "We're building on the momentum that we've generated over the past three years. Leander continues to be open for business. We invite everyone to come along for the party and enjoy the possibilities."

Also in the works is the nearby Villages of Messina. The W.Y. Atlantis project, a 342-acre mixed-use development, will have 750 homes priced from the mid-$200,000s to the upper $600,000s. The project will also have 90 acres of retail and office space, as well as multifamily units. An elementary school site is proposed for the project.

"We're excited about the area and all the energy and all the things happening in the area," said Wyatt Henderson, principal with Dallas-based W.Y. Atlantis. "Growth follows where the roads are and where utilities are going to be."

In the new Wunsch project, ground will be broken in September on 150 single-family homes to be built by the Joseph Rutledge Co. Inc., with prices expected to be from $180,000 to $260,000. The plans also include up to 1,200 apartments, 500,000 square feet of retail and a 22-acre church site.

Wunsch is well known in Austin business circles, having co-developed the Avery Ranch community near Cedar Park. He is also planning to build 2,400 homes in Somerset Hills, a new Georgetown master-planned community.

Already in place on Wunsch's Leander property is Jim Plain Elementary School. The development will include 36 acres of open space and a community park, four lakes with fountains and waterfalls surrounded by pedestrian walkways, and a hotel with at least five stories. Up to 400,000 square feet of office space also is designated for the project.

As for the restaurant, Wunsch said, "I'd love for it to be a Salt Lick."

"The big thing was all this was going to be residential," Wunsch said. "We're changing it to a much denser project. With the success of H-E-B (a store south of the project), people are knocking our doors down."

Capital Metro, which reviewed bids from other developers, selected Leander Transit Development for the land around the Leander rail stop.

"We're building a new urbanist community that is different, where people relate together and work together, play together," said Lance Hughes, one of the Leander Transit Development partners, noting that putting dense development near the rail will encourage residents to ride the train. "This type of community is an alternative to sprawl."

The developers and Capital Metro's staff will work out details of the project over the next few months, which will include financial arrangements as well as what the development will include. "The station itself and the TOD concept and the planning guidelines that have been adopted will all combine to make this a successful development in the long run," said Charles Heimsath, president of Capitol Market Research, an Austin real estate analysis firm, who is consulting on the Leander project.

Heimsath said there is a strong demand for higher-density apartments and condominium developments, as well as office use and some retail. However, because it might take time for the market to accept high-density development in a suburban location, the most prudent approach would be to start with lower-profile development and move to higher density as the market proves itself, he said.  Leander invites you to come along for the ride.

Kirk Clennan
Director of Economic Development, City of Leander.
(512) 528-2852
kirk@ci.leander.tx.us

PRESS RELEASE
Friday, 6 July 2007
 For Immediate Release
Contact:  Ms. Kate Harrington, ABJ Staff kharrington@bizjournals.com;
 
Leander Gets More Retail

Lowe's, Kohl's Planned for Project on U.S. 183
 
(two headlines in one week, thanks!)
Leander TX - 6 July 2007 - Soon HEB won't be the only large-scale retailer in Leander.
A new development planned in Leander will bring 350,000 square feet of retail to the city, and could usher in a string of retail and commercial development to a heavily trafficked, but so far undeveloped, area, city officials say.
 
Gateway at Leander, a $24 million project, is planned to occupy 42 acres on the corner of Crystal Falls Parkway and U.S. Hwy. 183. The project will be anchored by a 150,000-square-foot Lowe's, and is scheduled to break ground in October. Tyler Buckler, an associate with The Whitfield Co., the company marketing the project, says Lowe's will likely open in the fourth quarter of 2008. Kohl's, another tenant that has signed a letter of intent, is tentatively scheduled to open by 2009.
 
The development will hold retail, banks and restaurants, Buckler says. Taco Bell, IBC Bank and Regent Bank have also signed letters of intent on the smaller pad sites.
To Kirk Clennan, director of economic development for the city of Leander, 350,000 square feet of retail is significant to the city for a host of reasons, not least of which is the fact that HEB currently provides most of the city's retail needs.
 
"It's the second in a long series of steps that Leander is taking toward increasing retail and commercial service for residents and visitors," Clennan says. "The first was HEB. I believe that this development continues to reinforce confidence in the real estate development community that Leander is becoming an increasingly attractive place to do business."
 
For Jerry Reed, the development represents a perfect confluence of developers, city officials and engineering.  Reed, president of Austin-based Development 2000 Inc., created the ownership entity Gateway 2000 along with partner Jody Hagemann to purchase and develop Gateway at Leander. Reed says Leander's combination of rooftops and sparse retail made the corner of Crystal Falls Parkway and 183 an attractive site.
But it's a site that has provided hurdles for many developers before Reed and Hagemann. Gateway 2000 put an initial 20 acres under contract 14 months ago and immediately set out, with the city's help, to solve the massive drainage issues that have flooded parts of 183.
 
More daunting than the drainage work was finding a way around deed restrictions on the adjacent 22 acres that limited use to residential development. Reed says the land had been under contract three times in the past few years, but developers, including Trammell Crow Co. and Alberston's, let it go after failing to lift the deed restrictions.
 
That 40 acres had about eight acres of floodplain in it that had been a thorn in the side of the city for years," Reed says. "Part of our challenge was to redesign the drainage not only on our 42 acres, but on the land downstream, so we could capture floods and move [water] offsite to city of Leander's detention pond."
 
That work should pay off by attracting more developers, says Vic Villarreal, Leander's mayor pro-tem.  "It's extremely important that we found a match," Villarreal says. "It's such a valuable area, the right use for it is retail."
 
Leander plans to see myriad retail projects in other parts of the city, near the intersection of 183 and recently-opened toll road 183A.  The city has identified 2,300 acres for a transit oriented development, which is planned to hold a dense mixture of housing and commercial. In January, Dallas-based WY Atlantis secured 342 acres within the planned TOD, and plans to build single family homes and up to 400,000 square feet of retail and office space.
 
http://www.bizjournals.com/austin/stories/2007/07/09/story3.html?hbx=
 
Leander appreciates the development community's interest.  Our politics are sound, philosophy is sustainable, professionals are in place and policies developed to encourage public-private partnerships.  We look forward to your creativity and imagination being a part of Leander's future.  Thanks for the ongoing investment and continued interest.
 
SO BRING IT ON!
 
 

For more exciting information about the plans and growth of the fastest growing city in Texas please contact:

Kirk Clennan
Director of Economic Development, City of Leander.
(512) 528-2852
kirk@ci.leander.tx.us