Austin Business Journal writes, "While South Congress Avenue was undergoing its trendy evolution 10 years ago, St. Elmo was a sleepy, urban industrial center just a few miles down the road.
Previously populated by low-slung buildings, used car lots and heavy machinery, this South Austin hub has rebranded in recent years to the St. Elmo Arts District — the new, cool place to be in Austin that could perhaps help maintain some of the city's "weird" reputation.
It’s a smorgasbord of newly minted condos and apartments, restaurants, warehouse buildings spraypainted with eclectic art that house anything from a brewery to a sake tasting room, and even Propaganda Headquarters, a creative command center. The district is also home to what was supposed to be Austin’s public market, which never came to fruition and later turned into an entertainment venue.
Much of the old St. Elmo is still there today, but the district is rapidly transforming as developers, property owners and the city of Austin itself continue working to transform St. Elmo into a live-work-play hub south of State Highway 290. The city aims to structure the growth in St. Elmo — bounded to the north and east by SH-290 and I-35 — which it views as a major part of the fabric of South Austin. A big chunk of it falls within the boundaries of a transit station vision plan adopted earlier this year.
Apartment developments like United Properties’ Bishop Momo and condo projects like Intracorp’s South Congress Lofts have opened up new residential options for the district. Pins Mechanical — formerly planned to be the St. Elmo Public Market — has introduced more entertainment to the district, and Veloway Threads — owner of The Yard and other properties where businesses such as Icon, Tesla, Still Austin and St. Elmo Brewing lease space — owns a huge bulk of the district’s properties and intends to maintain its original charm.
“I think the next five years are going to be exciting,” said Brad Stein, president of Intracorp Texas. “It makes me think about the growth that happened in Rainey Street — not so much these high rises but just the amount of residential and commercial development in a really dense area.”
Though retail typically follows rooftops, Stein said he’s seen the inverse in the district, where The Yard was an early adopter of retail that helped developers see the area as ripe for residential growth.
How retail is being shaped
The St. Elmo Arts District began fermenting with tap rooms around 2016, from breweries to sake tastings to a whiskey tasting room. Food trucks and other retail soon followed, and it seems that the growth is still getting started.
The district has grown to include Padel Club Austin — one of the few clubs dedicated to the up-and-coming racquet sport called padel — pickleball venue The Kitchen, a THC dispensary and more. And residential projects are also bringing retail into the fold. Quickie Pickie — a convenience store with one location in East Austin — will be a tenant at Congress Lofts and will include a grill and bar. Bishop Momo lists 6,000 square feet of available ground-floor retail.
About 60% of properties in the district are owned and managed by The Yard, which is part of Veloway Threads. The Yard has about 50,000 square feet of space coming online over the next six to nine months, according to Priscilla Sauceda, vice president of operations and community at Veloway Threads. The spaces available for lease are mostly considered creative flex space that can be used for retail, creative studios, office and more.
Existing retail, such as The Austin Winery, Texas Sake and others, have proven that the area can draw a lot of patrons, Sauceda said.
“We are eager to attract more food and beverage, traditional restaurants to the area,” Sauceda said. “We've been speaking with some local giants that are in the restaurant and dining space that everybody knows very well in the Austin area. So we're optimistic that we'll be able to continue to attract even more of that.”
The Yard is also working with La Wagyeria to move the wagyu beef restaurant into a long-term lease, Sauceda said. The district has plenty of food trucks, but there’s a bit of a move to brick-and-mortar stores. For example, Mo Pittle, owner of JewBoy Burgers and JewBoy Sliders food trucks, will move his JewBoy Sliders concept from a food truck and into Pins Mechanical. Texas Sushiko also started as a food truck and transformed into the brick-and-mortar model by opening inside Texas Sake.
Aside from food, Monks Jazz Club, a music venue, recently signed a lease in the district, Sauceda said, plus Tumble Tech, a family-friendly tumbling gym with two locations in the Austin metro.
Health and wellness businesses, such as niche gyms, Pilates groups and experiential spa groups, are also on The Yard's radar. It also wants to carve out some real estate for local artists and creators.
“We care a lot about diversifying the areas as well,” Sauceda said. “For a long time, we had a lot of our brands focused on adult beverages.”
How St. Elmo can develop in the years to come
As St. Elmo grows, it has become an increasingly important piece of South Austin, and the city has taken note.
“This area has gained recognition as a cultural hub for the city, so it’s important that we continue to cultivate the new types of spaces that are sprouting in the area,” said Ana Villareal, principal planner at the city’s planning department. “But also, we want to make sure that we support the needs of those established businesses and residents that were there prior to this new development.”
But what could those new types of spaces be? According to Villarreal, a bit of everything, including more dense housing, office development, entertainment venues and more restaurants and retail opportunities.
A large chunk of St. Elmo actually falls within the South Congress Transit Center Station Area Vision Plan, a circular overlay centered at the South Congress Transit Center that was passed and approved on May 22. The overlay has a 0.5-mile radius, and the vision plan is intended to provide a comprehensive framework for developing and enhancing the area around the transit station, which includes the St. Elmo Arts District.
The vision plan includes a future land use map that is intended to illustrate how each area in the overlay should evolve and to be used to help guide decisions about proposed zoning cases.
That future land use map includes three distinct “character district designations” in St. Elmo, Villareal said.
Along South Congress Avenue, it's designated as high-density mixed-use, and new development should encourage ground-level storefronts. Existing developments include the completed Bishop Momo apartment project, the Congress Lofts condo development and a big mixed-use development from Redcar Properties that will see around 200,000 square feet of retail, restaurant and office space in multiple mid-rise buildings at the intersection of South Congress Avenue and Industrial Boulevard.
To the east is a moderate-density mixed-use character district. This district is intended to complement existing residential development in St. Elmo, including income-restricted housing and will have a focus on maintaining and enhancing the area, plus providing additional neighborhood amenities and services.
Pins Mechanical is one of the more recent new properties in that area, and Redcar Properties is also building a creative office development there.
The final character district is employment-focused. This is the farthest east of the three districts and is designated around existing light industrial and small business nodes to promote workforce development and may contain uses that are less complementary to housing.
Because the districts address future use and are not for zoning, it does not address the heights of future development.
“The height limits on a development will vary depending on your base zoning, but generally the typical height allowed by right on a (transit-oriented district) mixed-use district will be around 60 feet,” Villarreal said. “The maximum height in both the mixed-use industrial and neighborhood transition districts range between 35 and 60 feet, depending on the specific zoning of the parcel and the location of the parcel.”"
Source: Austin Business Journal
Written by: Cody Baird & Sahar Chmais
Published: September 29, 2025
Posted by Grossman & Jones Group on
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