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New apartments planned for highly visible former Concordia spot

The Troubadour will occupy long-vacant land in the central city

By Cindy Widner
Drawing of a six-story contemporary building with a flat roof overhanging and open floor, indicating a public rooftop space. The brick building has stacked, inset balconies on each floor, interrupting a horizontal flow of multipaned windows that runs across the floors. The building is on a corner, and there’s a small strip of greenery between the building and the streets below, on which there are cars and bikes.
The Troubador apartment complex (rendering)
Davies Collaborative

The long-vacant, 2.34-acre plot of land is familiar to thousands—probably millions—who have lived in, worked, in or frequented central west Austin, Cherrywood, and the University of Texas—or just driven on the stretches of IH-35 above or adjacent to it. Formerly part of the Concordia University campus and just north of the University Park building, the plot is highly visible and conducive to speculation as to what will be built there, when and if something’s finally built there. (Side note: Can we stop adopting Dallas place names—see: University Park—as Austin place names? It’s confusing.)

Now we have answers. The gap will be filled by the Troubadour, a 321-unit apartment complex that recently broke ground there. Developed by Austin-based Wayfinder Real Estate, the six-story project is part of the planned mixed-use redevelopment of the former 22-acre Concordia University campus area north of the University Park building, about a mile north of downtown. (Concordia University, founded as a high school at the site in 1926, relocated to a bucolic site in northwest Travis County, overlooking off FM 620 around 2008.)

The Troubadour will be on the southwest corner of Concordia Avenue and IH-35. It will be oriented toward Harmon Avenue to the west, with all units will facing away from I-35 and toward complex courtyards or the Hancock neighborhood.

The complex will offer one, two, and three-bedroom units at market rates. The complex will include a resort-style pool, a 24-hour fitness center, an indoor bike storage and maintenance facility, and two rooftop decks, including one equipped for outdoor movie screenings.

Drawing of a six-story apartment complex facing a busy, wet street. A vertical sign in the middle reads “Troubadour.” The brick building has both inset and cantilevered balconies and rows of windows on each floor. The flat roof hangs over an open top floor. Different portions of the bulding just out on the first floor—presumably the lobby and possibly the gym. The street and sidewalks have cars, pedestrians, a bicyclist, and a wheelchair user on them.
The Troubadour is expected to be completed in 2021.
Davies Collaborative

Interiors will be designed by Austin-based firm Peel Paulson Design Studio. The architect is Davies Collaborative, also locally based, which specializes in multifamily building design. It will be the first development for Wayfinder—founded by veteran Austin multifamily developer Mac McElwrath and real estate investor Chris Sipes.

The project is slated to open in late 2021.