Austin City Council Member Leslie Pool says the community is frustrated with the lack of progress on the Ryan Drive redevelopment project after the city awarded, then canceled the contract of a developer chosen to take on the job.
“The feeling is the community is probably just going to have a lot of fatigue about giving input on the project," Pool told the Austin Monitor. "People have come out to meetings, have done online surveys for years ... We’re showing our support, and now it’s just like, 'jeez. I’m sure people are wondering if anything is ever really going to happen here.'”
The city decided in June to restart development of the North Austin property after terminating an agreement with 3423 Holdings LLC, led by developers Ben and Peter Barlin. Now, the city plans to republish its initial request for proposals to engage local developers, the Austin Monitor reported. In addition, the City Council is scheduled to vote on transferring the Ryan Drive project from the Economic Development Department to the Austin Housing Finance Corporation and the Austin Economic Development Corporation, the report stated.
“The Barlin brothers won the (request for proposal) about two years ago because their vision for the development in their proposal for Crestview Village just aligned perfectly with what the neighbors wanted, and it was like all boxes were ticked,” Pool said. “And then issues started coming up about 18 months ago or so within the team and the staff hung in there, because we all really wanted this to work, and it just clearly was not possible.”
Despite the termination of the 3423 Holdings contract, Pool said the city is still in a good position to find a developer.
“We think that AHFC and Austin Economic Development Corporation are really well positioned to lead on these sorts of big economic development projects in the city … with more focus on deals that have complexities,” she said. “This puts (the project) into a situation where there is just more laser focus.”
Pool said she understands the public frustration, adding that “people have been coming out trying to be like, 'yes, we’re trying to be involved. We support this, we support this, we want affordable housing, we want parkland, we want better transit access.' We want this flexible, creative space there,” she added.