Austin Business Journal reports, "The Geyser Group is set to build infill housing in East Austin after securing a $28.5 million construction loan.
The development, known as The Arden, will rise on about five acres at 4908 Lott Ave., beside city-owned Springdale Neighborhood Park, said Matt McDonnell, partner at Austin-based Geyser Group.
“The idea is to create additional housing stock in a neighborhood (ZIP code 78721) that has exhausted its current supply,” McDonnell said. “When you see the Mueller neighborhood complete, you see some of the StoryBuilt projects that either didn’t get fully realized or have stalled out a little bit, so the idea is trying to fill that missing-middle housing that doesn’t really exist in enough quantities.”
Embattled infill housing developer StoryBuilt has been embroiled in a receivership that it voluntarily entered, and it has been fending off lawsuits from investors and condo owners, as it attempts gets its finances back in order.
The Arden is a 62-unit, for-sale townhome community, McDonnell said. The townhomes will range from about 1,300 to 2,000 square feet, and two- and three-bedroom floor plans will be available.
McDonnell estimated that the project would be sold out 27 months from now. Sale prices of the homes haven't been decided.
McDonnell said Geyser Group has two other infill housing projects in its pipeline, although he noted that infill development in East Austin specifically is becoming more difficult. He cited land prices that won't "make the math work for what it costs to build” as one of the reasons.
“It’s a little bit tighter in terms of some of the macroeconomic constraints, even though the local demand for housing is just as strong,” McDonnell said. “And some of the the good sights are not necessarily picked-over but they may have been developed 20 years ago in a way that doesn’t make sense to redevelop them. The value isn’t there, or they’re already slated to be developed and it’s just no longer an opportunity.”
Denver-based WelcomeLend's Austin-based team members Sean Borger and Garrett Newman arranged the construction loan. WelcomeLend launched in 2020 and has closed $1.7 billion in deals since then, Borger said.
The Geyser Group is a commercial real estate development and investment firm founded in 2018. It has over 1,000 housing units in development, $180 million in assets under management and a $300 million development pipeline, according to its website."
Source: Austin Business Journal
Written by: Cody Baird
Published: October 14, 2024
Posted by Grossman & Jones Group on
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