Curbed Austin - Plaza Saltillo DevelopmentLove where you live2018-09-19T09:26:28-05:00http://austin.curbed.com/rss/stream/139996572018-09-19T09:26:28-05:002018-09-19T09:26:28-05:00The slow train to Plaza Saltillo
<figure>
<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/OwcKzuwZ4BXsFruBAVvwXzzbat0=/216x0:2616x1800/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/61462217/Andrea_Calo_1287.0.jpg" />
</figure>
<p>Will a development almost 20 years in the making still work for the neighborhood around it?</p> <p class="p--has-dropcap p-large-text" id="ieV4LW">A weeknight stroll around the construction site that will be the <a href="https://austin.curbed.com/2017/1/11/14235616/plaza-saltillo-development-news">Plaza Saltillo District</a>—a mixed-use development rising just east of downtown Austin—reveals the juxtapositions expected of a transitioning neighborhood. South of the 10-acre site, kids play basketball in a small corner park while 20-somethings whiz by on electric scooters. </p>
<div class="c-float-right"><div id="CwGYU6"><a href="https://curbed.com/2018/9/19/17841682/city-development-urban-planning-neighborhood-restaurant-economy"><img src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/13077695/EaterCurbed_RecircSquare_v2.0.png"></a></div></div>
<p id="d22hx1">Two men chat on a stoop of the <a href="https://www.hacanet.org/location/chalmers-courts/">Chalmers Courts</a> city housing authority apartments, surrounded by small-scale, closely spaced houses in various states of renovation. The historic <a href="https://austin.eater.com/venue/18098/scoot-inn">Scoot Inn</a> bar, the tiny modular <a href="https://www.curbed.com/2017/3/13/14899768/mobile-prefab-apartment-modular-kasita-homes">Kasita</a> house prototype, a coffee-roasting facility, a pedicab warehouse, and a mammoth metal scrap yard fill in the gaps.</p>
<p id="jklhxU">To the north is a slightly different story—a tale of change that’s further along on the gentrification timeline. Once-industrial buildings that now contain coffeehouses, architects’ offices, and a punk-rock bike shop face the construction zone. Adjacent streets are full of bars, food trailers, and restaurants with craft cocktails and small plates—businesses that replaced lively Tejano clubs and once-popular Mexican food joints in a methodical eastward progression—along with new, mid-rise condo and apartment buildings, boutique hotels, and the kind of barber shop where you get Shiner’s latest seasonal brew with your cut.</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " data-mask-text="false" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/av0Nwseb-WOw5Qd7FLSEDyqWEks=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/13112989/EaterCurbed_Linebreak.png">
</figure>
<p id="cDhsNc">The 10-acre tract between the two, where the planned development is going up, lies in the heart of a historically Latino neighborhood, called <a href="https://austin.curbed.com/neighborhood/113/e-cesar-chavez">East Cesar Chavez</a>, that was segregated from the rest of Austin in ways only slightly subtler than those directed at the city’s African-American communities: via deed restrictions and private covenants rather than outright legal mandate. As Austin grew and legally mandated segregation ceased, the city remained informally separated by IH-35, built along a north-south corridor where a wide avenue previously marked the divide between the neighborhoods of non-Hispanic white people and those of the city’s Latino and black populations.</p>
<div class="c-float-left c-float-hang"><aside id="TYcGB8"><q>“When we see the present, we must remember not only past structures, but the intents, attitudes, and communities that they represent.”—Emily Mixon, The End of Austin</q></aside></div>
<p id="19kfaX">The development site in question, which is separated from downtown on the west by the freeway, was originally a city rail yard. Abandoned in the 1980s, it became a storage area for electric transformers that were removed from all over the city because they leaked toxins known as PCBs. According to longtime East Cesar Chavez leader Lori Cervenak Renteria, the neighborhood worked with the city to clean up and remove deteriorating, empty warehouses from the site. Nevertheless, it stayed a bare plot of dirt, train tracks, and gravel for more than two decades. </p>
<p id="0zIpcw">The surrounding neighborhood remained largely Latino and continued to develop as a cultural community with strong bonds and generational ties. It incorporated a manageable influx of new residents and visitors to the area’s thriving restaurants and, to a lesser extent, bars. (It’s helpful to remember that Austin wasn’t always the “<a href="https://www.texasmonthly.com/the-culture/austin-and-the-city-of-the-eternal-boom/">City of the Eternal Boom.</a>”) Around 1990, the installation of underground fiber-optic cable on East Fifth Street attracted “fledgling high-tech business people,” said Cervenak Renteria. Along with artists and other creatives, they began converting “existing cheap and dilapidated warehouses,” to living and working spaces, kicking off the area’s transformation. At the same time, she said, neighborhoods around Saltillo worked with the Austin Police Department to be a “guinea pig for pioneering community policing.”</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " data-mask-text="false" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/2Nmpf6RuG77zhnSoGTEsNlH1IBU=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/10220325/365_Plaza_Saltillo_WF_Corner.jpg">
<cite>Courtesy of Michael Hsu Office of Architecture</cite>
<figcaption>Rendering of Plaza Saltillo development, currently under construction</figcaption>
</figure>
<p id="jlYZDT">Unfortunately, while bonds strengthened, roots deepened, and the neighborhood became more inviting, the new money didn’t necessarily make it to all of the area’s traditional residents. According to Cervenak Renteria, while a majority of East Cesar Chavez’s residents had always been “working class,” there was still enough of a low-income population (and enough public housing) to allow it to qualify for government-funded health, family, and community services—much of which it will lose, she said, now that people with higher incomes are migrating there. </p>
<p id="Zv3WjO">Nevertheless, the income gap between area residents and that of other Austinites persisted, though it has narrowed. Recent statistics published by Census Reporter (which uses U.S. census data) put the tract’s 2016 <a href="https://censusreporter.org/profiles/14000US48453000902-census-tract-902-travis-tx/#race">median family income</a> at $42,917, about two-thirds of what the site reports as a citywide median of $60,939.</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " data-mask-text="false" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/av0Nwseb-WOw5Qd7FLSEDyqWEks=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/13112989/EaterCurbed_Linebreak.png">
</figure>
<div class="c-float-right c-float-hang"><aside id="YrnZb4"><q>The development site was an abandoned city rail yard that was cleaned up in the 1980s but remained a bare plot of dirt for more than two decades after.</q></aside></div>
<p id="xl5WEN">In 1992, a group of neighborhood business owners called Olé Mexico came up with an idea to improve the neighborhood’s economy by promoting its popular Mexican restaurants and other attractions. Olé Mexico’s vision included a plan for a lively outdoor plaza with music, vendors, and a promenade. The latter part of the vision—a plaza that occupies a single block on East Fifth Street, now on the edge of the new development—was realized in 1998. Dubbed (now somewhat confusingly) Plaza Saltillo, it was built in 1998 in cooperation with Olé Mexico, its namesake town in Mexico (Austin’s sister city), and area transportation authority Capital Metro, which at that point had acquired the old rail yard from the city and had ambitious plans for an area-wide light-rail system that would make the plaza one of its stops.</p>
<p id="4sTZ6d">The structure, made of pink stucco with wrought iron, tile, and other regionally resonant embellishments, was designed to replicate Spanish and Mexican plazas, often hubs of activity and informal gathering spaces in the towns where they’re located. The infrastructure—it includes a central bandstand, vendor stalls, and large, shaded walkways with high ceilings and a series of arched wall openings—reflects the intent of Olé Mexico and other members of the group responsible for its creation and completion: the encouragement of economic development and activity that embraced what the neighborhood’s traditional culture had to offer. </p>
<p id="8ZnFqC">All that was very exciting—until Capital Metro’s light-rail plan was rejected by Austin voters in 2000, meaning the plaza would remain in a liminal, transitless locale for the foreseeable future. Envisioned as a commuter hub, it instead became a cheerful but little-used site overlooking the still-lifeless railyard, an increasingly conspicuous gap in a neighborhood experiencing rapid redevelopment on both sides.</p>
<p id="558mF4">By 2004, Capital Metro had managed to wrangle voter approval for the city’s single commuter line. After six years of construction, the plaza finally became a metro stop—a prime location for the kind of master-planned development the neighborhood had yet to see, as well as a repository for the hopes of different factions for the East Side’s future.</p>
<div><div class="c-image-grid c-image-grid__odd">
<div class="c-image-grid__item"> <figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " data-mask-text="false" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/NrnTOBdB4EvJvTTYr6OwaPcFnCE=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/13115377/Andrea_Calo_1205.jpg">
</figure>
</div>
<div class="c-image-grid__item"> <figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " data-mask-text="false" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/rGgaczjiNaet3dmOGd1AHTW3CbY=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/13109813/Andrea_Calo_1499.jpg">
</figure>
</div>
<div class="c-image-grid__item"> <figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " data-mask-text="false" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/p_GvFuCl-UNiRGrJ4mE487QgBCM=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/13109777/Andrea_Calo_1334.jpg">
</figure>
</div>
</div></div>
<p id="q7vRdP">Between the time the original plaza was built and when it became a working transit stop, the city adopted a neighborhood-based land-use planning system. Working with city staff members, formally designated neighborhoods and other kinds of districts created their own future land-use maps, which then went through a city approval process. The city adopted East Cesar Chavez’s plan in 1999. Over the next 10 years, it also worked with a development group and the neighborhood to create a master plan for the Saltillo District—including the speculative transit-oriented development. </p>
<p id="X1Tmx9">A station plan envisioned back in 2008 didn’t get going until 2013 (due to the recession and other factors). The Capital Metro board then issued a request for proposals that would meet four goals: 1) increase transit ridership, 2) generate long-term revenue and optimize value of assets, 3) create and promote equitable mixed-use and mixed-income communities around transit, and 4) respond to the community’s vision and values. </p>
<p id="4NBUjA">In the decade that it took Capital Metro to take root in what became the Plaza Saltillo District, the East Cesar Chavez neighborhood had gotten hot, attracting more tourists and locals who had never crossed the freeway with its grassroots entertainment district. Real estate heated up as well, and continues to do so: <a href="https://www.realtyaustin.com/east-cesar-chavez.php">August MLS numbers</a> put the median price of homes on the market at $599,000, compared to the Austin Board of Realtors’s <a href="https://www.abor.com/market-stats/market-reports/">July 2018 estimate</a> of a $320,000 median for the metro area. Activists and longtime residents have pushed back against the increase in living costs and the loss of central community members, and many of the neighborhood contact team’s members, including Cervenak Renteria, spent years working with development groups and Capital Metro to create a plan that would incorporate and serve the longstanding community. Neighbors who were active in the process knew that, legally speaking, there was a limit to how much impact they could have over property owned by the metro authority, she said; the neighborhood’s best bet was to work with the Plaza Saltillo team to get what benefits it could from plans to fill its longstanding, long-studied void. </p>
<div class="c-float-left c-float-hang"> <figure class="e-image">
<img alt="Old one-story wooden building painted white with red skirting and trim." data-mask-text="false" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/f8mLAKJ_mjLe_xTYU4t7CJHIZfE=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/13109847/Andrea_Calo_1552.jpg">
<cite><a class="ql-link" href="https://www.andreacalo.com/" target="_blank">Andrea Calo</a></cite>
</figure>
</div>
<p id="3s1lYg">In 2014, the Capital Metro board of directors selected a developer for the project: <a href="https://www.endeavor-re.com/">Endeavor Real Estate</a> Group, a local company best known for developing the <a href="https://www.simon.com/mall/the-domain">Domain</a> and its offshoots in north Austin, a group of mixed-use complexes that some labeled “Austin’s second downtown.” Two years later, the board approved Endeavor’s master plan, for which influential local firm <a href="http://hsuoffice.com/">Michael Hsu Office of Architecture</a> is lead architect.</p>
<p id="dOIgeD">Those plans, which morphed significantly over the years, ultimately included 800 apartments, 120,000 square feet of office space, and 110,000 square feet of retail space, as well as wide paths intended to make public areas more bicycle- and pedestrian- (and now, one assumes, scooter-) friendly. The plan reserved 25 percent of the apartments for low-income units, some of which would be “floating units”—filled by qualified applicants regardless of location in the building.</p>
<p id="tNvphk">While that plan received the neighborhood team’s blessing, what happened next did not. In March 2017, Endeavor and Capital Metro proposed a zoning change to allow a 125-foot-tall office building, as well as taller residential buildings, doubling the density (from 112,500 square feet to 259,000 square feet), and the scaling back of affordable housing units—all significant changes to the originally approved plan. </p>
<p id="KKHuUp">As the proposed changes moved forward to a City Council vote, neighborhood opposition to the revisions grew; representatives and council members also clashed over the number of two-bedroom affordable units—the smallest reasonable size for families with children—in the plan.</p>
<p id="daMfdy">In the end, due to arcane details in the city’s density rules, Endeavor got whatever the opposite of Sophie’s choice is. If it wanted to, it could build an office building as tall as 125 feet and offer 141 affordable rental units (17.6 percent of the total 800 units—the city would be responsible for the 59 additional affordable units that would meet density bonus requirements). Forty-one of those would be “floating” units, 25 percent of which would be two-bedrooms.</p>
<div class="c-float-right c-float-hang"><aside id="QdwiWB"><q>In the end, the developer and Capital Metro got whatever the opposite of Sophie’s choice is.</q></aside></div>
<p id="BzxJAy">On the other hand, if the developers decided <em>not</em> to increase density, it would forgo a city density bonus and pay $600,000 to the city of Austin’s affordable housing fund—rather than add 40 more affordable units that would be required by the zoning change and modified plan approval. In the final agreement on the zoning change, Endeavor <a href="https://www.endeavor-re.com/news/exclusive-contract-reveals-final-terms-for-plaza-saltillo-deal/">agreed to pay </a>an additional $540,000 to the affordable-housing fund. Capital Metro will also pay $540,000 into the fund.</p>
<p id="69Fg34">In a more neighborhood-friendly development, in February it was announced that Plaza Saltillo would be home to Austin’s first <a href="https://austin.curbed.com/2018/2/13/17009132/austin-whole-foods-365-first-when-where-plaza-saltillo-hsu">Whole Foods Market 365</a>—the chain’s lower-cost alternative to its original brand.</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " data-mask-text="false" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/av0Nwseb-WOw5Qd7FLSEDyqWEks=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/13112989/EaterCurbed_Linebreak.png">
</figure>
<p id="Z9tMMg">By the time bulldozers broke ground on the project last year, the vision of the original Plaza Saltillo—a place to celebrate as well as sell the products of a place with a strongly identified Latino culture—had been almost completely abandoned. The 20 years that passed between its construction and that of the current development saw an unprecedented level of growth (in concert with that of Austin as a whole), one that included the establishment of businesses and housing targeted at young, single people or couples without children; college students and graduates; and those with higher incomes than that of the community’s more traditional demographic. </p>
<p id="yfUFXK">As <a href="https://www.austinchronicle.com/news/2018-06-22/city-council-the-race-is-on/">Sabino “Pio” Renteria</a>—the Austin City Council member who represents the district that East Cesar Chavez is in (and who is married to Lori Cervenak Renteria)—has put it, “now the gentrifiers are being gentrified.”</p>
<p id="a2uU0A">And while low-income housing and, to a lesser extent, social services are still available—in addition to the Chalmers Courts, the historic <a href="https://livingnewdeal.org/projects/santa-rita-courts-austin-tx/">Santa Rita Courts</a>, the first federal housing project completed under the 1937 Housing Act, is still active and a few blocks away—how older and newer residents will interact, if they do at all, is anyone’s guess.</p>
<div class="p-fullbleed-block"><div class="c-image-grid">
<div class="c-image-grid__item"> <figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " data-mask-text="false" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/-n7xArbHC-hebaXn4BIM08Nc-Qk=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/13109853/Andrea_Calo_1568.jpg">
</figure>
</div>
<div class="c-image-grid__item"> <figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " data-mask-text="false" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/w9UAf1rFHRZwDhcQRLYJRMJNXjI=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/13109863/Andrea_Calo_1643.jpg">
</figure>
</div>
</div></div>
<p id="RzDc3R">In light of the master plan, it’s worthwhile to consider whom Saltillo Plaza is ultimately meant to serve. While Endeavor has not released details of prospective office or retail tenants, it signed leases with such food and beverage establishments as <a href="https://www.barcelonawinebar.com/">Barcelona Wine Bar</a>, <a href="https://austin.eater.com/2018/5/23/17384390/ginger-man-closed-downtown-austin-baked-by-amys-moving-northland-drive">the Ginger Man</a>, <a href="https://austin.eater.com/venue/21219/tarka-indian-kitchen">Tarka Indian Kitchen</a>, <a href="https://austin.eater.com/venue/16369/epoch-coffee">Epoch Coffee</a>, <a href="https://austin.eater.com/venue/23614/snooze">Snooze</a>, and gelato-maker <a href="https://austin.eater.com/venue/12169/dolce-neve">Dolce Neve</a>, most of which have a proven track record in other parts of town among the same demographic that has moved into the East Cesar Chavez neighborhood over the past two decades.</p>
<p id="btLdAb">On the other hand, the grocery store could be a hit, depending on how low the prices really are. As Endeavor principal Jason Thumlert pointed out in an emailed response to questions, “One of the most consistent things we heard a wide range of community members say was that they wanted access to healthy, fresh, high-quality food at great prices. That’s exactly why the local Whole Foods Market 365 concept is such a stellar fit for the surrounding neighborhood.”</p>
<p id="1OO6Tc">In addition, he stated that the “pedestrian- and bicycle-friendly infrastructure,” which is slated to open in June 2019, is intended to create a “well-designed, engaging, pedestrian- and bicycle-friendly community”—one with expansive sidewalks, pocket parks, and an extension of the Lance Armstrong Bikeway, which will connect East Austin to downtown. There will be an acre of open space “woven throughout, offering ideal places for picnics, fitness, rest and recreation,” he wrote.</p>
<p id="og8hRQ">Perhaps that space will help fulfill the intent of the original Plaza Saltillo, now an active metro stop adjacent to the development, creating a gathering space for the surrounding community. And, in truth, a planned community with designated affordable housing, community facilities, and a grocery store will likely better serve neighborhood needs than whatever a free-for-all of buildings and businesses with private owners would have come up with. </p>
<p id="UTraWc">“The neighborhood is going to get a good chunk of affordable rental housing, family units, very low-income senior housing, small businesses, which are the real job-generators in Austin. We’re going to have a grocery store.” said Cervenak Renteria. In addition to retail and restaurants, she said it will also get professional services, such as doctors and dentists, that have been there for residents who qualified as low-income but not for people with incomes and insurance that allowed them to pay providers directly. </p>
<p class="c-end-para" id="Ax5jSZ">In an optimistic vision for Plaza Saltillo, it would become a place that brings in some longtime neighborhood shops and restaurants, welcomes people who don’t necessarily live or work there to enjoy its public spaces, and includes some acknowledgement of—rather than attempts to replicate—past and present neighborhood qualities and traditions. As then-UT-student Emily Mixon wrote in an essay on <a href="https://endofaustin.com/2014/05/21/austins-plaza-saltillo-place-practice-and-growth/">The End of Austin</a> website, “[r]edevelopment is always occurring—centuries upon centuries of it—but it is equally built on histories torn to the ground. When we see the present, we must remember not only past structures, but the intents, attitudes, and communities that they represent.”</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " data-mask-text="false" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/i9HIEnUnejnp_7AcHFAlkhFRF2E=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/13112197/EaterCurbed_Linebreak.png">
</figure>
<div id="nWYElL"><a href="https://curbed.com/2018/9/19/17841682/city-development-urban-planning-neighborhood-restaurant-economy"><img src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/13077699/EaterCurbed_RecircLong_v2.0.png"></a></div>
<p id="5A5Gai"> </p>
<aside id="Em2gSe"><div data-anthem-component="newsletter" data-anthem-component-data='{"slug":"curbed_national"}'></div></aside><p id="rSjKS9"></p>
https://austin.curbed.com/2018/9/19/17861438/plaza-saltillo-neighborhood-developmentCindy Widner2018-02-13T15:15:29-06:002018-02-13T15:15:29-06:00Whole Foods signs lease for Austin’s first 365 store
<figure>
<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/SDS1JSUIgMn84vkoaa7QY8YYvn0=/250x0:1751x1126/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/58681843/365_Plaza_Saltillo_WF_Corner.0.jpg" />
<figcaption>Rendering of Whole Foods 365 Market planned for Plaza Saltillo | Courtesy of Michael Hsu Office of Architecture</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Michael Hsu to design 30,000-square-foot project</p> <p id="gSCE1W">Plaza Saltillo, the 10-acre, multiuse <a href="https://austin.curbed.com/2017/1/11/14235616/plaza-saltillo-development-news">development</a> under construction along the rail tracks just east of I-35, will be the home of Austin’s first Whole Foods 365 store, according to a Tuesday joint announcement from the grocery chain and Endeavor, one of the site’s two developers. </p>
<p id="P9ssZT">According to a press release, Whole Foods recently signed a lease for approximately 30,000 square feet of the development,where it will open its first Market 365—the grocery monolith’s branch of stores meant to offer more affordable, high-quality food along with the highly branded experience and events typical of a conventional Whole Foods store. The Plaza Saltillo location will be the first for a Market 365 in Austin, although nearby Cedar Park <a href="https://austin.eater.com/2017/4/24/15409926/365-whole-foods-cedar-park-easy-tiger-juiceland-photos">acquired one</a> in 2017.</p>
<p id="pPhflS">Developers tapped the lauded local Michael Hsu Office of Architecture, which is already extensively involved in the development of the Saltillo site, to design the new store. Hsu is renowned for his local residential and restaurant design, as well as more recent, larger projects that manifest a vision to weave multiuse developments into existing neighborhoods, including such spaces as <a href="http://www.canopyaustin.com/">Canopy</a>, <a href="http://hsuoffice.com/project/lamar-union-2/">Lamar Union</a>, and <a href="https://austin.curbed.com/2017/11/27/16703428/austin-development-springdale-general-east">Springdale General</a>.</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " data-mask-text="false" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/2ochE8f-IrbY6RoQH5bDOkCwA8w=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/10220341/Saltillo_Aerial_4.jpg">
<cite>Courtesy of Endeavor Real Estate Group</cite>
<figcaption>Plaza Saltillo under construction</figcaption>
</figure>
<p id="7qfntI">Austin City Council Member Sabino “Pío” Renteria, whose district includes Saltillo Plaza, expressed support for the Whole Foods 365 store, noting that “access to fresh healthy fruits and vegetables was a major request” from the beginning of public discussion about the development.</p>
<p id="QG3MJu">The Plaza Saltillo Market 365 is expected to open in the second half of 2019.</p>
<p id="OVzCO0">• <a href="https://austin.eater.com/2017/4/24/15409926/365-whole-foods-cedar-park-easy-tiger-juiceland-photos">Step Inside Whole Foods’ First Affordable Supermarket in Texas</a> [Eater ATX]</p>
<aside id="gTeQW2"><div data-anthem-component="newsletter" data-anthem-component-data='{"slug":"austin-curbed"}'></div></aside>
https://austin.curbed.com/2018/2/13/17009132/austin-whole-foods-365-first-when-where-plaza-saltillo-hsuCindy Widner2017-06-29T19:05:02-05:002017-06-29T19:05:02-05:00Plaza Saltillo development finally underway, with expected 2019 completion
<figure>
<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/r4WPGBjiDrT9KjFE1Nd9khRXU24=/222x0:3778x2667/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/48740115/curbed_placeholder.54.0.jpg" />
</figure>
<p>Groundbreaking follows work begun earlier in June</p> <p id="rrHwAz">Plaza Saltillo, the long-debated and -awaited development on several blocks bordering IH-35 in the East Cesar Chavez neighborhood, finally broke ground Wednesday (and, judging by a late-afternoon drive-by, has been quickly razed and denuded of any detritus that might have remained on the entire grounds).</p>
<p id="XQJdjs">According to a Wednesday <a href="http://www.bizjournals.com/austin/news/2017/06/28/work-starts-on-plaza-saltillo-development-office.html">report</a> in the <em>Austin Business Journal, </em>that<em> </em>razing/grading work had actually begun earlier this month, but major players on the project—including developers Endeavor Real Estate Group and Columbus Realty Partners, as well as landowners Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority—got together on hump day to make things official.</p>
<p id="fZPspR">The <em>Journal</em> also reported that construction is expected to last 30 months and be finished by 2019, which would make it much faster than the planning process for the project has been.</p>
<p id="IKfBCI">Plans for transforming the 11-acre tract into a mixed-used, transit-oriented development with a complex array of uses have been several years in the making and have involved a number of major changes, debates, and debates over changes along the way.</p>
<p id="5ZLLjE">The final plan for the development, which will occupy the area betwen Fifth and Fourth streets on the north and south and run six blocks east from IH-35, includes 800 apartments (18 percent of them for low-income renters), 140,000 square feet of office space, 110,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space, and 1.4 acres of public space, the <em>Journal</em> reported.</p>
<p id="wi9fSs">The plan includes an 11th hour proposal by Endeavor to build a four-story office building on the west end of the development, with an option to increase the building height to eight stories if it contributed money for neighborhood affordable housing. The proposal required, and received, <a href="https://austin.curbed.com/2017/3/6/14825802/austin-development-plaza-saltillo-plan">rezoning</a> approval from the Austin City Council, which it received in March. </p>
<p id="MtkcBh">The Capital Metro board in April approved the Plaza Saltillo master development agreement, including incentives for Endeavor to build the taller version of the office tower, according to the <em>Journal</em>.</p>
<p id="uB0t7U">The <em>Austin American-Statesman</em> <a href="http://www.mystatesman.com/news/local/exclusive-contract-reveals-final-terms-for-plaza-saltillo-deal/Cldioy0LdniYlS1X50npDO/">reported</a> last week that Capital Metro’s 100-year lease with Endeavor will bring in approximately $19 million to the agency in its first 10 years.</p>
<p id="P6p8ao">• <a href="http://www.mystatesman.com/news/local/exclusive-contract-reveals-final-terms-for-plaza-saltillo-deal/Cldioy0LdniYlS1X50npDO/">Contract reveals final terms for Plaza Saltillo deal</a> [<em>AAS</em>]</p>
<p id="27w39o">• <a href="http://www.bizjournals.com/austin/news/2017/06/28/work-starts-on-plaza-saltillo-development-office.html">Work starts on Plaza Saltillo development — office tower, hundreds of apartments to rise in East Austin</a> [<em>ABJ</em>]</p>
https://austin.curbed.com/2017/6/29/15896540/austin-development-plaza-saltillo-startedCindy Widner2017-03-06T14:56:21-06:002017-03-06T14:56:21-06:00Plaza Saltillo development deal approved in close vote
<figure>
<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/r4WPGBjiDrT9KjFE1Nd9khRXU24=/222x0:3778x2667/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/48740115/curbed_placeholder.54.0.jpg" />
</figure>
<p>Council passes modified version of proposed plan changes </p> <p id="qQDBQv">After a long and often agonizing debate that went late into the night, the Austin City Council last Thursday approved a slightly amended version of changes to the Plaza Saltillo project proposed by developer Endeavor Real Estate. Endeavor and its partner, Columbus Realty, were chosen in a bidding process almost two years ago to develop the property, which is owned by public transportation provider Capital Metro.</p>
<p id="VKQQOi">The project will cover eight city blocks—almost 11 acres—of the East César Chavez neighborhood, on both sides of the the rail tracks from Interstate 35 to Saltillo Plaza between East Sixth and East Cesar Chavez streets. The plan calls for a mixed-use development that includes apartments, retail, and office space (and, originally, a grocery store, which disappeared along the way). </p>
<p id="bhe4Yb">Endeavor recently put forth proposals for a zoning change to allow a 125-foot-tall office building not previously included in the plan, as well as taller residential buildings and the scaling back of affordable housing units. As the proposed changes moved forward to a City Council vote, neighborhood opposition to the revisions grew; the <a href="http://eastcesarchavez.org/">East César Chavez Neighborhood Planning Team</a> voted to oppose the changes, and Community group <a href="https://www.facebook.com/eastcesarchavezneighbors/">East Cesar Chavez Neighbors</a> went on record supporting the planning team’s position.</p>
<p id="jOjEjD">The planning team opposed the proposed allowable height increase, doubling of density (from from 112,500 square feet to 259,000 square feet), a decrease in affordable housing, and an insufficient number of apartments that have more than one bedroom, which could unduly limit the number of families able to live there.</p>
<p id="tR5usI">By the third and final reading before council, it had approved the provision that 141 of the proposed 800 units—17.6 percent—would be designated as affordable, including 41 “floating units,” which could be any open unit in the development (rather than confined to a specific area or specific units).</p>
<p id="Qp3ewY">According to a Monday Community Impact <a href="https://communityimpact.com/austin/central-austin/city-county/2017/03/03/plaza-saltillo-passes-7-4-hours-late-night-debate-austin-city-council/">story</a>, Thursday’s council hearing almost killed and then revived the deal a number of times. After much debate over the proposed office tower height (125 feet, which at one point Council Member Sabino Renteria got down to 70 feet), number of affordable units, and—relatively late in the game, a clash over the number of affordable units that would be viable for families (i.e., two-bedroom apartments), Endeavor agreed to make 25 percent of the initial 41 affordable units two-bedrooms, contingent on whether or not it chooses to build the 125-foot office building.</p>
<p id="WspuYV">That proposal passed 7-4, which, barring unforeseen developments, will allow the project to go forward.</p>
<p id="Y0iPTj">• <a href="https://communityimpact.com/austin/central-austin/city-county/2017/03/03/plaza-saltillo-passes-7-4-hours-late-night-debate-austin-city-council/">Plaza Saltillo passes 7-4 after hours of late-night debate by Austin City Council</a> [<em>CI</em>]</p>
https://austin.curbed.com/2017/3/6/14825802/austin-development-plaza-saltillo-planCindy Widner2017-02-27T16:34:31-06:002017-02-27T16:34:31-06:00Opposition to Plaza Saltillo plan changes grows
<figure>
<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/r4WPGBjiDrT9KjFE1Nd9khRXU24=/222x0:3778x2667/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/48740115/curbed_placeholder.54.0.jpg" />
</figure>
<p>East César Chavez Neighbors group weighs in</p> <p id="sf7MOn">As proposed plan changes to the Plaza Saltillo development on Austin’s Eastside moves forward to a City Council vote, neighborhood opposition to the revisions continues to grow.</p>
<p id="d9z44m">The project will cover eight city blocks of the East César Chavez neighborhood, on both sides of the the rail tracks from Interstate 35 to Saltillo Plaza between East Sixth and East Cesar Chavez streets.</p>
<p id="iA3aZx">Endeavor Real Estate and Columbus Realty Partners, chosen developers for the 10.5-acre, mixed-use development on the land owned by public entity Capital Metro, recently put forth proposals for a zoning change to allow a 125-foot-tall office building not previously included in the plan, as well as taller residential buildings and the scaling back of affordable housing units.</p>
<p id="nOfMTG">The proposed changes would allow the reduction of the number of affordable apartment units from the originally agreed-upon 200 to 141, with 41 available in the project’s first phase and the remaining 100 to be completed five years later.</p>
<p id="gm3Lxd">The proposed changes met strong opposition from the <a href="http://eastcesarchavez.org/">East César Chavez Neighborhood Planning Team</a>, the city’s official point of contact for the neighborhood, and continue to do so. </p>
<p id="AJWVof">On February 25, the team issued a press release listing the reasons for its continued opposition and noting that District 7 Council Member Leslie Pool is attempting to “broker a compromise between Endeavor, local residents, and affordable housing advocates.”</p>
<p id="jOjEjD">The statement opposes the proposed allowable height increase, doubling of density (from from 112,500 square feet to 259,000 square feet), a decrease in affordable housing, and an insufficient number of apartments that have more than one bedroom, which could unduly limit the number of families able to live there.</p>
<p id="Go7n7O">Community group <a href="https://www.facebook.com/eastcesarchavezneighbors/">East Cesar Chavez Neighbors</a> has now also taken an official position on the matter, voting to support the decision by the East Cesar Chavez Neighborhood Plan Contact Team to oppose the proposed project changes. </p>
<p id="r2dt61">The council is scheduled to take up the matter again on March 2.</p>
https://austin.curbed.com/2017/2/27/14755532/austin-development-plaza-saltillo-oppositionCindy Widner2017-02-15T16:06:12-06:002017-02-15T16:06:12-06:00Plaza Saltillo development plan gets preliminary thumbs up
<figure>
<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/r4WPGBjiDrT9KjFE1Nd9khRXU24=/222x0:3778x2667/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/48740115/curbed_placeholder.54.0.jpg" />
</figure>
<p>Discussion on Eastside project will continue</p> <p id="sf7MOn">A modified version of plan changes for the Plaza Saltillo development on Austin’s Eastside received approval on first reading from the Austin City Council, the <em>Austin American-Statesman</em> <a href="http://www.mystatesman.com/news/local/city-council-gives-initial-plaza-saltillo-but-more-talks-ahead/ZgNcq6H5up1aMjSDohm5qO/">reported</a> Thursday.</p>
<p id="iA3aZx">The council approved a zoning change required for the inclusion of an office building and taller residential buildings in the plan but reduced its maximum height from the 125 feet proposed by Endeavor Real Estate Group and Columbus Realty Partners, the property’s developers. Capital Metro owns the land and is negotiating with the city over a proposed 99-year lease of the property to the developers.</p>
<p id="E4Xwpx">The vote was 8 in favor and 3 against. Council Members Alison Alter, Jimmy Flannigan, and Kathie Tovo opposed the plan.</p>
<p id="nOfMTG">The proposed changes would also allow the reduction of the number of affordable apartment units from the originally agreed-upon 200 to 141, with 41 available in the project’s first phase and the remaining 100 to be completed five years later. </p>
<p id="gm3Lxd">The proposed changes met strong opposition from the East César Chavez community, where the project is located.</p>
<p id="4JZ9W6">Members of nonprofit Friends of Austin Neighborhoods, which issued a statement supporting the proposal, spoke in favor of the proposal.</p>
<p id="lnOiPo">A variety of East César Chavez residents spoke on both sides of the issue.</p>
<p id="RR1JWY">Council will continue to discuss the matter and hear more public communication next week. </p>
<p id="nJLaA1">• <a href="http://www.mystatesman.com/news/local/city-council-gives-initial-plaza-saltillo-but-more-talks-ahead/ZgNcq6H5up1aMjSDohm5qO/">City Council gives initial OK to Plaza Saltillo, but more talks ahead</a> [AAS]</p>
https://austin.curbed.com/2017/2/10/14582040/austin-development-plaza-saltillo-councilCindy Widner2017-02-09T11:52:22-06:002017-02-09T11:52:22-06:00Neighborhood opposes Plaza Saltillo plan changes
<figure>
<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/r4WPGBjiDrT9KjFE1Nd9khRXU24=/222x0:3778x2667/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/48740115/curbed_placeholder.54.0.jpg" />
</figure>
<p>East César Chavez against Plaza Saltillo proposal</p> <p id="6HslmX">Proposed changes to the developing Plaza Saltillo project just east of IH-35 between East Fourth and East Fifth streets are meeting opposition from the East César Chavez community, where the project is located. The city’s Planning Commission voted to recommend the changes at a meeting in January. </p>
<p id="7Qc6iA">The East Cesar Chavez Neighborhood Planning Team, the official community contact group for the area, announced in a press release Wednesday that the neighborhood, which supported the plan before the most recent proposed changes, would voice its opposition when the commission’s recommendation is presented to the Austin City Council at Thursday’s meeting.</p>
<p id="r9heC1">The new plan, which would require zoning changes and modification of the neighborhood plan, was proposed by developer group Endeavor Real Estate Group and Columbus Realty Partners and presented in conjunction with the city’s Neighborhood Housing and Community Development programs administrators. The land is owned by Capital Metro.</p>
<p id="dHGjp3">The proposed changes would allow the addition of a 125-foot office tower and a reduction of the number of affordable apartment units from 200 to 141, with 41 available in the project’s first phase and the remaining 100 to be completed five years later. Planning Commission approved this request, which now goes before Council.</p>
<p id="DcZI63">Endeavor’s original design included 800 apartment units, 25 percent of which were to be affordable. The company offered to build the 200 affordable units in exchange for a height increase that would be capped at 60 feet. </p>
<p id="AhJ9gI">ECCPT summarized its opposition in a media advisory: </p>
<blockquote><p id="Yt4iHE">While residents support the development, they say the proposed changes represent a major reversal on Endeavor’s promise of affordable housing. They further assert that no added community benefit can result from the proposed 125-foot tower. Moreover, the height increase will set a troubling precedent for downtown encroachment into East Austin. Neighbors want to hold Endeavor to its original promises of affordable housing and community-compatible, human-scale building height. </p></blockquote>
<p id="09xaYs">Council is scheduled to discuss the recommendation after 2 p.m. Thursday.</p>
https://austin.curbed.com/2017/2/9/14557832/austin-development-plaza-saltilloCindy Widner2017-01-11T20:14:35-06:002017-01-11T20:14:35-06:00Developer gets nod for Plaza Saltillo height increase, zoning change
<figure>
<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/r4WPGBjiDrT9KjFE1Nd9khRXU24=/222x0:3778x2667/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/48740115/curbed_placeholder.54.0.jpg" />
</figure>
<p>Planning Commission recommends changes Endeavor requests</p> <p id="c8DmU7">After extended discussion that kicked off with a question of whether or not there is a “compelling reason” to do so, the Austin Planning Commission on Tuesday night approved extra building height, as well as a zoning change, for the developing Plaza Saltillo project just east of IH-35 between East Fourth and East Fifth streets.</p>
<p id="GOkWeg">The commission’s 9-4 vote in favor will send its recommendation for the changes, proposed by developer group Endeavor Real Estate Group and Columbus Realty Partners in conjunction with the city’s Neighborhood Housing and Community Development programs administrators, to the Austin City Council for consideration. </p>
<p id="a2HWhM">The additional height approved—up to 125 feet, almost three times what is currently allowable at the site—is necessary primarily to accommodate an office building that is part of the plan, although its approval would also allow an increase from 60 feet to up to 70 feet on other parts of the tract.</p>
<p id="OaF5Iz">Some commissioners expressed concern that the increase—which allows a significant jump from what is currently present along the east side of I-35 from East Fourth Street to Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard (not to mention in the area immediately surrounding Saltillo Plaza)—would set a precedent for approval of more towers on the central Eastside. Others pointed to that inevitability and maintained, essentially, that the planning process could result in more resident/neighborhood-friendly buildings.</p>
<p id="LdGYCl">Under Endeavor’s current plan and design by Michael Hsu Office of Architecture, the 11-acre project includes 110,000 square feet of retail space, 120,000 square feet of offices, and 1.4 acres of open space that includes “paseos” (pedestrian and bicycle thoroughfares) connecting East Fourth and East Fifth streets and park space. </p>
<p id="xjmD3B">Commissioners brought up concerns with the traffic study, which shows a failure to meet acceptable standards at several intersections, while city officials and developers’ representatives explained that the plan relied on decreased vehicle traffic in the area due to increased pedestrian and bike connectivity.</p>
<p id="jvVABk">The plan also includes 800 apartments, currently 90 percent one-bedroom and 10 percent two-bedroom, with 141 of them to be set aside as affordable units. The affordable rates go to residents who earn from 30 to 60 percent of median family income for Travis County.</p>
<p id="tfNvKJ">Part of the plan that was originally attractive to most involved parties is that the affordable units will be “floating” units, rather than ones perpetually designated as affordable, so that any apartment in the building will potentially be an affordable one if it becomes available and is needed to fulfill the planned percentage of such units.</p>
<p id="4wHqen">In addition, Endeavor will pay approximately $600,000 to the city of Austin’s affordable housing fund rather than add 40 more affordable units that would be required by the zoning change and modified plan approval. Opponents of the changes argue that the “fee in lieu” arrangement, not uncommon in such cases, is not nearly enough to create 40 equivalent affordable units offsite.</p>
<p id="CQfWpw">The arrangement is what prompted the question of whether or not there is a “compelling reason” to grant it, as the precedent is that it is primarily applied to commercial projects that are required to provide affordable residential space for various zoning reasons to do so offsite, not to projects that already contain residential elements.</p>
<p id="JOZkFO">The affordable housing provided by the current Saltillo plan is required if a developer wants to access the city’s density bonus and is not required if the developer chooses not to do that—something Saltillo developers could do if they can’t get the zoning change and the fee-in-lieu arrangement they are requesting.</p>
<p id="Gfxf7D">Some commissioners also expressed concern over the lack of three- and four-bedroom apartments, which are generally considered more attractive to families with children. Endeavor reps assured them that they know the market for that area, and one- and two-bedroom apartments are what most renters in the neighborhood desire.</p>
<p id="uHLeFS">There was also discussion of how many of the market-rate units could be used as short-term rentals; the number would be limited by STR rules in general, which restrict the percentage allowed in buildings, neighborhoods, and census tracts.</p>
<p id="FuPjI5">While the president of the East César Chavez neighborhood planning team conveyed the group’s vote to oppose the zoning change and the neighborhood’s concerns about the project (versions of which it has supported in the past), there were very few other speakers who opposed the project during the citizen communication portion of the meeting, and a few neighbors and others spoke in favor of the plan.</p>
<p id="dlYSnB"></p>
https://austin.curbed.com/2017/1/11/14235534/austin-development-plaza-saltillo-affordable-housing-towerCindy Widner