33-Acre Site Primed for 238 High-End Condos

AUSTIN-Dirt will move, delicately, soon on Larry Peel’s latest multifamily project. Closing on the land should occur by the end of November and construction will start immediately, the Austin developer says. “We anticipate we’ll have units coming on probably very late next year and for certain in early ’04.”

Overlooking Lake Austin, Nalle Woods is a typical Peel project. “The tract is completely surrounded by heavily, heavily wooded land,” says Peel, adding extra emphasis to the second “heavily.” “That’s what’s so cool about it because it’s such an old undisturbed tract,” he says. “It has no undergrowth. It has these ancient cedars and oak trees.”

The project will have 238 units with an average 1,170 sf per unit, according to Peel. The units will be condominiums for lease.

Peel obtained development rights to the 33 acres for Nalle Woods from the Nature Conservancy. Situated at 4700 N. Capital of Texas Highway, the project will sit between Riverbend Church on the south and Plaza on the Lake on the north.

“It’s an environmentally sensitive site and our cup of tea,” Peel tells GlobeSt.com. “We don’t really go on a site unless it’s unique. This one being conservancy land and a tract of land that had been there undisturbed for 50 years is as good as you can get. All of our tracts have been like that in town.”

Peel said it took 13 months to get the various approvals needed for the project from the City of Austin. “There was zoning, some annexation we had to do, there was a principal roadway ordinance we had to comply with and extensive tree surveys,” he says. “We probably did 15 site plans.