Development

We have endeavored to assert ourselves in the marketplace. Rather than rely solely on commission work, we have developed our own projects. From multi-unit, single family developments, to mixed-use commercial/residential projects, a substantial amount of our business is speculative work. This has been achieved in some cases with public/private partnerships utilizing the assistance of federally funded, municipal programs providing subsidies for affordable housing. Our first two-unit housing project under the City of Austin’s S.M.A.R.T. Housing program (Cedar Avenue Houses) was so well received that the housing authority went on to offer financing not only for the construction of our next eight-unit project but for the land acquisition as well. We were the first design firm to utilize the program, which previously had been exploited primarily by tract homebuilders and multi-family developers utilizing tax credit programs.

Our SOL Austin project was our most ambitious project to date.  The 40 unit, $10M  project on 5.5 acres, 3 miles from downtown, was developed in partnership with the Guadalupe Neighborhood Development Corporation (http://www.guadalupendc.org/) and procured $1.5M in buy-down subsidies for the 40% affordable housing provided across the project (8 units of rental and 8 units of owner occupied).  KRDB and Beck-Reit (http://www.beckreit.com/) took the project through a development process that included a zoning change from SF3 to SF4A (small lot) and had full support of the neighborhood organization.  All of the homes were rated under the Austin Energy Green Builder program and all received 4 or 5 starts. The next iteration of this model of holistic sustainable development is being developed, and in Site Plan approval, with our MLK mixed use project.