The Future of Leander

WEBVTT
1
00:00:12.000 --> 00:00:17.559
Andrew Naudin, host of Lean in Leander and your friendly
2
00:00:17.760 --> 00:00:21.640
neighborhood Councilman at Place five. In case you didn't know that,
3
00:00:22.600 --> 00:00:26.839
I'm here in studio here at Lantern Media Studios for
4
00:00:27.039 --> 00:00:30.320
the latest episode of Lean and Leander, And for this one,
5
00:00:30.359 --> 00:00:32.960
I thought we would spend some time with something that's
6
00:00:33.039 --> 00:00:35.920
very topical for the city right now. And a friend
7
00:00:35.920 --> 00:00:40.640
of mine who I was able to convince for some
8
00:00:40.759 --> 00:00:43.840
strange reason five years ago to sit down with a
9
00:00:43.840 --> 00:00:49.479
guy with a couple of Apple iPhones recording this crazy
10
00:00:49.520 --> 00:00:53.119
idea of a podcast. So the gentleman to my left
11
00:00:53.240 --> 00:00:59.560
is Alex Teinberg. He is the principle behind the North
12
00:00:59.560 --> 00:01:03.359
Line of projects. So again it's been five years, but Alex,
13
00:01:03.399 --> 00:01:05.599
thanks for coming back around to have a little chat.
14
00:01:05.760 --> 00:01:07.680
Thank you very much. And I think we both are
15
00:01:07.719 --> 00:01:09.239
surprised it's been five years.
16
00:01:10.120 --> 00:01:13.159
Yeah, it's crazy because when we talked, like when we
17
00:01:13.239 --> 00:01:17.480
had the conversation, the conversation centered around what was going
18
00:01:17.519 --> 00:01:23.159
to happen right, And five years later we're actually talking
19
00:01:23.200 --> 00:01:26.680
about what is happening right because there was all sorts
20
00:01:26.680 --> 00:01:28.680
of things that happened and we'll get into that. But
21
00:01:29.560 --> 00:01:34.120
you know, the North Line development. You know, again, when
22
00:01:34.159 --> 00:01:37.280
I was talking to Alex about five years ago, what
23
00:01:37.359 --> 00:01:41.799
we were talking about was this this mixed use development
24
00:01:42.359 --> 00:01:46.359
next to the cap Metro rail station, you know. And
25
00:01:46.359 --> 00:01:48.120
if you're not familiar with exactly where it is, and
26
00:01:48.159 --> 00:01:50.959
you should be, but if you're not, it's north San
27
00:01:51.040 --> 00:01:53.359
Gabriel Parkway is north of it. To the east is
28
00:01:53.400 --> 00:01:56.560
the one to eighty three toll way, the west is
29
00:01:56.599 --> 00:01:59.439
the railroad tracks, and then on the southern border it's
30
00:01:59.480 --> 00:02:03.640
the Austin Community College, which will now expand to additional
31
00:02:03.760 --> 00:02:08.319
there's some additional residential in that area. There's a new
32
00:02:08.360 --> 00:02:11.400
apartment complex going up. For those of you who travel
33
00:02:11.840 --> 00:02:15.599
westbound on Hero right by the tracks, you know that
34
00:02:15.599 --> 00:02:18.639
that's going on. There's a crunch fitness, I think, is
35
00:02:18.639 --> 00:02:20.960
what's going in on the corner there. And then of
36
00:02:21.000 --> 00:02:24.680
course everybody's excited about the home depot project that's over
37
00:02:24.719 --> 00:02:26.879
there on the corner, but that's to the south of
38
00:02:27.000 --> 00:02:30.479
Alex's properties, which if you're familiar with them, I mean
39
00:02:30.520 --> 00:02:33.280
you kind of know where the Austin Community College is.
40
00:02:33.599 --> 00:02:39.599
You've already broken ground and have people living there in
41
00:02:39.800 --> 00:02:46.240
luxury apartments and town homes right and there's also there's
42
00:02:46.280 --> 00:02:50.120
a turnabout right and there's some art there.
43
00:02:50.240 --> 00:02:53.759
There's a civic space and what we've called North Line
44
00:02:53.800 --> 00:02:57.400
Circle that is positioned right in between the three hundred
45
00:02:57.400 --> 00:03:00.000
and forty three unit grammar Sy at North Line apartment
46
00:03:00.080 --> 00:03:03.719
complex and we've got twenty five town homes, four story
47
00:03:03.759 --> 00:03:08.280
attached rooftop terrace elevators really high end. Ye, they're super
48
00:03:08.439 --> 00:03:11.960
nice on the other side, on the west side, and
49
00:03:12.080 --> 00:03:17.360
so we have started our civic space development piece with
50
00:03:17.479 --> 00:03:21.400
that circle, and there's a significant art piece in the
51
00:03:21.439 --> 00:03:24.000
middle of that civic space which we're very proud.
52
00:03:23.759 --> 00:03:24.199
Of as well.
53
00:03:24.280 --> 00:03:27.319
Yeah. No, it's super super nice. And actually.
54
00:03:28.439 --> 00:03:33.599
I recommended that as the backdrop to our city council photo.
55
00:03:33.639 --> 00:03:36.159
We're going to take a photo with the new council
56
00:03:37.360 --> 00:03:40.479
after the special elections. We finally have everybody in their places,
57
00:03:40.879 --> 00:03:43.719
so we're going to do the picture, and that's what
58
00:03:43.800 --> 00:03:47.199
was my recommendation. We'll see, I don't know, I just
59
00:03:47.240 --> 00:03:50.199
thought that would be a good backdrop. But you know,
60
00:03:50.280 --> 00:03:53.840
the whole point of this, the concept was to create
61
00:03:53.960 --> 00:03:59.879
Leanders really the major urban core development project for the
62
00:04:00.039 --> 00:04:02.759
thirty nine right, so you know, through nine square miles
63
00:04:03.680 --> 00:04:06.599
that comprises leander from you know, east to west, north
64
00:04:06.680 --> 00:04:10.080
to south, and this to me has always been a keystone, right.
65
00:04:10.120 --> 00:04:11.960
This was this was the project that.
66
00:04:12.000 --> 00:04:15.560
In my mind, even as a civilian, I was looking
67
00:04:15.560 --> 00:04:17.480
at this and I was like, this could be something
68
00:04:17.639 --> 00:04:20.759
really really special and really different in the area, and
69
00:04:20.800 --> 00:04:22.680
a lot of people will equate it to like a
70
00:04:22.720 --> 00:04:25.040
domain type space or something like that, but I never
71
00:04:25.120 --> 00:04:27.079
saw it like that, Like that was never what I
72
00:04:27.240 --> 00:04:30.600
thought would come up in that build in that area,
73
00:04:31.120 --> 00:04:34.000
and I'm super happy that we've been able to get there.
74
00:04:34.040 --> 00:04:37.600
So for those of you who don't necessarily follow the
75
00:04:37.680 --> 00:04:42.800
news on a daily basis, you probably have heard something,
76
00:04:42.879 --> 00:04:45.040
or maybe you've heard rumors or maybe someone mentioned it
77
00:04:45.160 --> 00:04:46.160
or maybe in passing.
78
00:04:46.199 --> 00:04:47.720
I don't know, but you know, one of the things
79
00:04:47.720 --> 00:04:48.279
that I like.
80
00:04:48.240 --> 00:04:52.519
To do here at the podcast is obviously really focus
81
00:04:52.600 --> 00:04:55.800
in on what's moving the needle for the city, right.
82
00:04:56.680 --> 00:05:04.639
And my position as host is somewhat improved with my
83
00:05:04.720 --> 00:05:07.839
position as a council member, because you know, I do
84
00:05:07.959 --> 00:05:09.839
get to get a little bit more information and get
85
00:05:09.839 --> 00:05:13.040
a little bit more educated on these types of projects.
86
00:05:13.519 --> 00:05:15.279
And I was really really happy when I when I
87
00:05:15.319 --> 00:05:18.079
first came on council. You know, Alex was super nice.
88
00:05:18.560 --> 00:05:21.639
We had lunch when I talk about what was kind
89
00:05:21.639 --> 00:05:23.519
of in the works and where things were going and
90
00:05:23.639 --> 00:05:26.600
what we thought might be able to come because obviously, as.
91
00:05:26.480 --> 00:05:31.879
A strong advocate for the project, I wanted to definitely.
92
00:05:31.360 --> 00:05:34.720
Be aware of where we were when I took my
93
00:05:34.759 --> 00:05:38.199
place on council. And what's been really really nice about
94
00:05:38.199 --> 00:05:43.000
that is that in that ensuing ten months, eight ten
95
00:05:43.040 --> 00:05:46.480
months something like that, these projects have come to fruition
96
00:05:46.800 --> 00:05:48.920
and you know, I wasn't able to talk about it
97
00:05:48.959 --> 00:05:53.120
for a long time because of confidentiality agreements and things
98
00:05:53.240 --> 00:05:56.240
like that, but I knew what was happening, right, and
99
00:05:56.279 --> 00:05:58.439
it was super exciting, and I'd hear people and they'd
100
00:05:58.439 --> 00:06:00.079
be like, you know, if we could only blog bh
101
00:06:00.079 --> 00:06:02.199
blah blah, right, And I was like, if I could
102
00:06:02.199 --> 00:06:04.959
only tell you what we're doing, right, because it's super cool.
103
00:06:05.680 --> 00:06:08.439
But anyway, so for you in the audience who maybe
104
00:06:08.480 --> 00:06:10.560
e'ren out as aware or just to kind of clarify
105
00:06:10.560 --> 00:06:13.480
exactly what we'll be talking about here, this episode will
106
00:06:13.519 --> 00:06:17.240
focus on the newly approved partnership between the City of Leander,
107
00:06:18.040 --> 00:06:22.560
North Line Leander Development Company and Saint John's Properties and
108
00:06:22.839 --> 00:06:24.360
what we're really going to want to try to do
109
00:06:24.480 --> 00:06:27.600
here today is kind of explain the agreement, what we
110
00:06:27.639 --> 00:06:30.680
feel the economic impact is and will be, and what
111
00:06:30.720 --> 00:06:35.160
it means down for Leander's kind of downtown or city
112
00:06:35.199 --> 00:06:39.519
center strategies. Right, And we talked about this. What's ironic
113
00:06:39.519 --> 00:06:41.720
about this is this was the same conversation we were having
114
00:06:41.720 --> 00:06:44.399
about five years ago, right, And we were talking about
115
00:06:44.439 --> 00:06:47.439
at that time, water was a stronger concern because we
116
00:06:47.480 --> 00:06:50.439
hadn't really completed some of the Bruka improvements, and so
117
00:06:50.480 --> 00:06:52.480
there was a lot of conversation that we had that
118
00:06:52.639 --> 00:06:55.079
centered around the availability of water would be able.
119
00:06:54.920 --> 00:06:57.920
To support this infrastructure a little bit. We talked a
120
00:06:57.920 --> 00:06:58.720
little bit about that.
121
00:07:00.000 --> 00:07:02.560
I think there was still a pending conversation about you know,
122
00:07:02.600 --> 00:07:05.120
cap metro and just some of the things that would
123
00:07:05.399 --> 00:07:09.759
that would play into the puzzle that is development and
124
00:07:09.920 --> 00:07:13.040
economic development as a whole is very complex, and it's
125
00:07:13.079 --> 00:07:15.439
one of the things that I'm sure you can speak
126
00:07:15.480 --> 00:07:18.839
to more than me, is you know some of the
127
00:07:18.879 --> 00:07:23.240
complexities that come with that. So we knew where we
128
00:07:23.560 --> 00:07:25.639
know where we were about five years ago, which is
129
00:07:25.720 --> 00:07:28.040
kind of where we are right now. And we had
130
00:07:28.120 --> 00:07:32.680
COVID and that was the economic disruption and you know,
131
00:07:33.319 --> 00:07:40.040
uh shortages you know in wood and steel and concrete
132
00:07:40.079 --> 00:07:42.680
and all the things that transformers.
133
00:07:42.360 --> 00:07:45.480
In that transform in the in the last five years.
134
00:07:45.600 --> 00:07:49.319
Right, So when people dream of projects like you've dreamed
135
00:07:49.319 --> 00:07:53.519
of this project, they don't take into account the well,
136
00:07:53.519 --> 00:07:58.120
I won't call them nightmares, challenges, challenges that come between
137
00:07:58.160 --> 00:07:59.959
the time you have the dream and kind of make
138
00:08:00.040 --> 00:08:01.759
and the dream come to fruition. So talk to us
139
00:08:01.759 --> 00:08:04.920
a little bit about that, because that was a challenging
140
00:08:04.959 --> 00:08:05.959
time for you, I'm sure.
141
00:08:06.079 --> 00:08:08.839
Yeah, thank you, Andrew, and thank you for the opportunity
142
00:08:08.879 --> 00:08:09.319
to be here.
143
00:08:10.040 --> 00:08:12.920
I think it's maybe helpful to sort of look at
144
00:08:12.920 --> 00:08:16.959
this from a from a sort of twenty thousand square
145
00:08:17.000 --> 00:08:23.360
foot view, you know, at this idea of developing a
146
00:08:24.600 --> 00:08:29.480
town center urban project in the suburbs in Austin, and
147
00:08:30.240 --> 00:08:32.519
it's a vision that the city of Leander has had
148
00:08:32.559 --> 00:08:35.360
for many many years, based upon the zoning that that
149
00:08:35.919 --> 00:08:42.279
the city created for this area. Obviously, it was spurred
150
00:08:42.279 --> 00:08:45.879
by the cap metro stop, and the city wanted this
151
00:08:45.960 --> 00:08:49.399
sort of development to happen around that that rail stop,
152
00:08:49.440 --> 00:08:51.320
and that was a part of the the sort of
153
00:08:51.320 --> 00:08:55.240
impetus behind bringing the rail up up to Leander. It's
154
00:08:55.320 --> 00:09:00.399
creating that that that transit oriented development concept. And so
155
00:09:01.879 --> 00:09:05.039
I think it's it's safe to say that the one
156
00:09:05.039 --> 00:09:07.240
thing I do want to relate to the to the
157
00:09:07.279 --> 00:09:09.679
audience here is this is really hard to do.
158
00:09:10.360 --> 00:09:11.600
It's very hard to do.
159
00:09:11.960 --> 00:09:15.799
It's it would have been a whole lot easier to
160
00:09:16.080 --> 00:09:22.279
have developed this project out in a much more less
161
00:09:22.320 --> 00:09:28.080
dense i'll call it horizontal mixed use, which which and
162
00:09:28.360 --> 00:09:31.000
there's parts of that that we're doing because that's the
163
00:09:31.000 --> 00:09:33.960
only way this stuff's going to get done. But we
164
00:09:33.960 --> 00:09:37.720
we definitely have held firm to the vision of a
165
00:09:37.840 --> 00:09:41.480
vertical mixed use in many aspects of the project, which
166
00:09:42.039 --> 00:09:47.320
create the important property tax benefits to the city long term,
167
00:09:47.440 --> 00:09:52.000
which is the whole original impetus behind the vision of
168
00:09:52.039 --> 00:09:54.960
this project is to create this tax benefit for the
169
00:09:55.000 --> 00:09:57.919
city and you get that through density.
170
00:09:58.080 --> 00:09:58.279
Yeah.
171
00:09:58.360 --> 00:10:00.519
No, absolutely, And we talked about that again. That was
172
00:10:00.559 --> 00:10:02.360
kind of one of the major points of our conversation
173
00:10:02.440 --> 00:10:06.360
five years ago about creating a dense urban center right
174
00:10:06.399 --> 00:10:11.879
and going vertical right, Because while there are tremendous benefits
175
00:10:11.919 --> 00:10:18.360
to diversification of the tax space, specifically in Leander, It's
176
00:10:18.399 --> 00:10:22.600
something that I've talked about, you know, a lot in
177
00:10:22.720 --> 00:10:26.440
just general conversations with folks and also you know, in
178
00:10:26.440 --> 00:10:28.440
in the last year or so that i've that I've
179
00:10:28.440 --> 00:10:31.159
been on on council, that's you know, what are we
180
00:10:31.279 --> 00:10:36.840
doing to ensure the long term stability and feasibility of
181
00:10:36.919 --> 00:10:43.799
supporting public services, you know, safety concerns, police fire ems,
182
00:10:43.960 --> 00:10:46.840
those types of things that you need to have a
183
00:10:46.960 --> 00:10:52.799
viable tax space that has flexibility in being able to
184
00:10:52.840 --> 00:10:57.559
address that. So Leander historically has been kind of a
185
00:10:57.600 --> 00:11:01.320
bedroom community sort of, and there was a decision right
186
00:11:01.360 --> 00:11:03.519
around the time that some of the things you're talking
187
00:11:03.519 --> 00:11:06.480
about with the rail and a couple other key decisions
188
00:11:06.480 --> 00:11:08.960
that were made within the last twenty twenty five years
189
00:11:09.639 --> 00:11:13.480
where Leander pivoted and said, you know what, we want
190
00:11:13.559 --> 00:11:16.200
to be a little bit more than just a residential area,
191
00:11:16.279 --> 00:11:20.399
and we moved away from that high you know, residential
192
00:11:20.440 --> 00:11:24.320
development process, right, and we made the decision we want
193
00:11:24.320 --> 00:11:28.159
a diversify our tax base. And so you can see
194
00:11:28.159 --> 00:11:30.879
it now like you you see a lot of the
195
00:11:30.879 --> 00:11:37.559
the retail centers or retail you know, transit centers, right,
196
00:11:39.200 --> 00:11:41.960
not necessarily I'll drive through, but there's that component in
197
00:11:42.000 --> 00:11:46.200
there right across from from where North Line will go
198
00:11:46.320 --> 00:11:49.360
up on one to eighty three. You know, we have
199
00:11:49.559 --> 00:11:54.279
like a Paris Paris bagel now and Crust pizza, and
200
00:11:54.320 --> 00:11:58.240
there's a there's there's cold Stone ice cream. I always
201
00:11:58.279 --> 00:12:00.600
want to call it Stone Cold ice cream. I still
202
00:12:00.600 --> 00:12:04.200
think that's a huge marketing opportunity that they missed, right, That.
203
00:12:04.200 --> 00:12:05.000
Would be so great.
204
00:12:05.279 --> 00:12:07.600
But anyway, so you kind of see it now, right,
205
00:12:07.679 --> 00:12:11.399
and people are getting the restaurants and the conveniences that
206
00:12:11.399 --> 00:12:14.679
they want to the reality of our economy right now
207
00:12:14.759 --> 00:12:17.879
is that we are driven by convenience. Yeah, and so
208
00:12:18.240 --> 00:12:20.320
that was a big component that there was a piece
209
00:12:20.360 --> 00:12:22.960
that was missing in Leander. It wasn't convenient. You couldn't
210
00:12:23.039 --> 00:12:26.039
drive five minutes to get to Jersey Mix. You'd have
211
00:12:26.039 --> 00:12:28.720
to drive twenty minutes. And that's an inconvenience in the
212
00:12:28.759 --> 00:12:32.879
modern world, right. But we're addressing that. But it's still
213
00:12:32.960 --> 00:12:39.279
this component. This this dense urban center that builds daytime traffic,
214
00:12:39.799 --> 00:12:43.799
that builds you know, you know, job centers and things
215
00:12:43.799 --> 00:12:46.480
of that nature. That does not happen without this type
216
00:12:46.480 --> 00:12:50.639
of project just doesn't or if it does, it takes
217
00:12:50.679 --> 00:12:53.879
you know, tremendously longer to get to that. To that
218
00:12:54.000 --> 00:12:56.840
So what you want is that dense urban center, which
219
00:12:56.879 --> 00:13:00.399
I've always advocated for, and then combine that a little
220
00:13:00.440 --> 00:13:03.639
bit with like the old Town Leander concept. So there's
221
00:13:03.639 --> 00:13:05.440
a number of things that will come together here, right,
222
00:13:05.519 --> 00:13:07.240
So let's kind of talk We'll take them on one
223
00:13:07.279 --> 00:13:09.840
at a time. So the first thing is, let's talk
224
00:13:09.879 --> 00:13:12.720
a little bit about some of the key highlights. The
225
00:13:12.720 --> 00:13:17.600
City of Leander is investing four million dollars. It's a
226
00:13:17.600 --> 00:13:22.639
performance based economic development loan, and that is going into
227
00:13:22.879 --> 00:13:25.960
and is part of the construction of a ninety five
228
00:13:25.960 --> 00:13:30.039
thousand square foot multi story commercial office building which will
229
00:13:30.679 --> 00:13:33.639
rise and if everything.
230
00:13:33.399 --> 00:13:35.519
Goes right, we'll have that up next year.
231
00:13:35.600 --> 00:13:35.759
Right.
232
00:13:35.879 --> 00:13:38.080
Is that a fair Absolutely?
233
00:13:38.159 --> 00:13:41.840
Absolutely, So I'd love to touch upon some of these
234
00:13:42.279 --> 00:13:47.639
points Andrew that you brought up. You talk about really
235
00:13:47.679 --> 00:13:53.480
the commercial aspect of development being critical to changing what
236
00:13:53.679 --> 00:13:59.240
Leander is from a bedroom community to something more daytime population.
237
00:13:59.600 --> 00:14:03.879
And I mean, really, what what my goal and and
238
00:14:03.600 --> 00:14:08.279
in creating this project is to create uh traffic into
239
00:14:08.279 --> 00:14:11.240
the city during the day, to create this this hub,
240
00:14:12.120 --> 00:14:15.399
this commercial hub for for the city representing it's it's
241
00:14:15.440 --> 00:14:19.440
really future downtown core, and there's a couple of really
242
00:14:19.480 --> 00:14:25.879
critical product types that that will help to realize this vision.
243
00:14:25.879 --> 00:14:28.600
One is retail that you mentioned. The second is office,
244
00:14:28.639 --> 00:14:33.240
which we're going to talk about. And I think there's
245
00:14:33.279 --> 00:14:35.720
a couple kind of three A and B s which
246
00:14:35.759 --> 00:14:41.879
I think are medical, office, and hotel. And so that's
247
00:14:41.919 --> 00:14:48.480
been the the The objective by bye By the north
248
00:14:48.480 --> 00:14:52.120
Line development is to is to bring those users to
249
00:14:52.200 --> 00:14:54.639
the project, but to develop them in a way that
250
00:14:54.639 --> 00:14:58.159
that allows for this this great density to happen. And
251
00:14:58.759 --> 00:15:01.600
we were very fortunate that you mentioned the Southbrook Station
252
00:15:01.720 --> 00:15:05.480
project which is just to our west with the Perry
253
00:15:05.480 --> 00:15:10.840
Baguette and these other really great users that was developed
254
00:15:10.879 --> 00:15:14.440
by the group that developed the domain, Endeavor real Estate Group,
255
00:15:14.879 --> 00:15:17.240
and I reached out to them when that project was
256
00:15:17.279 --> 00:15:21.840
really starting to sort of formulate, and they saw the
257
00:15:21.919 --> 00:15:27.440
demand for retail in this market being so strong, and
258
00:15:27.519 --> 00:15:31.360
they knew that that because of the early success that
259
00:15:31.600 --> 00:15:36.159
was taking place for Southbrook Station, that they could they
260
00:15:36.200 --> 00:15:40.799
could do something very special at north Line, and so
261
00:15:40.879 --> 00:15:44.320
we brought the Endeavor along board and we've talked about
262
00:15:44.320 --> 00:15:46.759
why is this taken so long. One of the things
263
00:15:46.759 --> 00:15:51.200
that Endeavor knowing that they understand vertical mixed use where
264
00:15:51.200 --> 00:15:54.519
it can happen, how retail needs to be developed. They
265
00:15:55.240 --> 00:16:00.840
obviously having done the domain and having developed some single
266
00:16:00.879 --> 00:16:07.840
story important development at the domain that's at the frontage sections,
267
00:16:08.639 --> 00:16:12.759
they felt that was very important to help facilitate the
268
00:16:12.799 --> 00:16:15.000
rest of this project. And so we had to go
269
00:16:15.039 --> 00:16:17.720
through a zoning change with the city to get there.
270
00:16:17.919 --> 00:16:19.919
And you know, what you see at the domain when
271
00:16:19.960 --> 00:16:22.000
you drive in is a whole foods on one, you know,
272
00:16:22.120 --> 00:16:24.840
with a surface parking lot, and then along Mopack you
273
00:16:24.879 --> 00:16:28.159
see all these restaurants that have surface parking. That's exactly
274
00:16:28.240 --> 00:16:32.120
the vision that they wanted to start with at North Line.
275
00:16:32.519 --> 00:16:34.519
And so we went through a process that took about
276
00:16:34.559 --> 00:16:38.559
a year to get approved, and now we're four months
277
00:16:38.559 --> 00:16:42.080
into construction and by the end of this year, this
278
00:16:42.200 --> 00:16:45.200
initial phase that Endeavors doing is eighty five thousand square
279
00:16:45.240 --> 00:16:48.519
feet of retail. It's going to be you know significant,
280
00:16:49.679 --> 00:16:52.799
that's we're going to have open, open retail restaurants and
281
00:16:52.799 --> 00:16:54.879
stores by the end of this year, and all of
282
00:16:54.879 --> 00:16:57.440
that building will be up and running by the first
283
00:16:57.519 --> 00:16:59.360
quarter of next year, which is basically a year from now.
284
00:16:59.440 --> 00:17:03.080
Yeah, super super exciting and it's a shot in the
285
00:17:03.200 --> 00:17:07.559
arm to the local economy, which you know, we're fortunate.
286
00:17:09.559 --> 00:17:11.400
The stewardship of.
287
00:17:12.000 --> 00:17:15.720
Leander prior to you know, the current administration and the
288
00:17:15.759 --> 00:17:19.680
current you know, uh city manager and things of that nature.
289
00:17:20.960 --> 00:17:22.920
You have to give them some credit in this whole
290
00:17:22.920 --> 00:17:25.680
process because they were very very conservative about the way
291
00:17:25.720 --> 00:17:31.279
that they did anything right and as a result, you know,
292
00:17:31.359 --> 00:17:35.119
Leander has excellent credit rating and and and is well
293
00:17:35.200 --> 00:17:37.920
positioned to do what it is that we're doing now.
294
00:17:37.960 --> 00:17:40.559
So you've got to get props where props are due, right.
295
00:17:41.000 --> 00:17:43.599
I don't know that I would argue that maybe that
296
00:17:43.759 --> 00:17:47.279
was not necessarily purposeful, right. I think it was a
297
00:17:47.400 --> 00:17:50.400
risk aversion, to be perfectly frank.
298
00:17:50.200 --> 00:17:52.519
But but you know, that's the reality.
299
00:17:52.640 --> 00:17:54.799
Sometimes things turn out a little bit different than what
300
00:17:54.880 --> 00:17:59.400
you really expect them to write. But that given again,
301
00:17:59.440 --> 00:18:01.319
we're in a really really good position to do this
302
00:18:01.480 --> 00:18:05.599
right now. And you know, without getting super political about it,
303
00:18:05.640 --> 00:18:08.240
I think one of the main things that this shows
304
00:18:09.039 --> 00:18:13.240
is that the city itself and as a representative for
305
00:18:13.359 --> 00:18:18.720
the community on the dais is listening to not only
306
00:18:18.759 --> 00:18:22.519
what it is that the community generally wants, but also
307
00:18:22.680 --> 00:18:28.440
listening to the economic indicators and realizing what is actually
308
00:18:28.559 --> 00:18:33.720
happening here. It's not it's not just guesswork. It's it's purposeful.
309
00:18:33.759 --> 00:18:34.759
It's with intention.
310
00:18:35.240 --> 00:18:35.440
Right.
311
00:18:36.039 --> 00:18:38.839
You mentioned the retail and endeavor and coming in and
312
00:18:39.119 --> 00:18:43.079
they recognize that there's this demand here. The demand is
313
00:18:43.160 --> 00:18:46.079
driven by things other than people just wanting the convenience.
314
00:18:46.160 --> 00:18:46.359
Right.
315
00:18:46.400 --> 00:18:49.200
I mean, if you look at Austin and you look
316
00:18:49.240 --> 00:18:52.119
at the cost it is to do business in Austin,
317
00:18:52.799 --> 00:18:58.480
it starts to push people beyond that city limits. Right.
318
00:18:58.519 --> 00:19:01.559
I saw it happen in Houston, right, And just the
319
00:19:01.599 --> 00:19:06.440
cost in Houston got so expensive and now they benefit
320
00:19:06.480 --> 00:19:08.000
from zero zoning.
321
00:19:07.759 --> 00:19:09.440
So it's easier to build stuff out there.
322
00:19:09.440 --> 00:19:12.119
But at the end of the day, it was pushing
323
00:19:12.160 --> 00:19:14.799
stuff out from the city center. And that's natural in
324
00:19:15.480 --> 00:19:21.359
major cities. And with Austin, San Antonio and the Central
325
00:19:21.400 --> 00:19:24.799
Texas Court or becoming what it is you add in
326
00:19:24.839 --> 00:19:27.480
the huddles and the tailors and the Samsung's and all
327
00:19:27.480 --> 00:19:28.559
that stuff that's going on.
328
00:19:29.119 --> 00:19:29.960
It pushes that.
329
00:19:30.079 --> 00:19:36.119
It pushes this economy and these economic drivers to areas
330
00:19:36.119 --> 00:19:39.039
that we'll be able to benefit if they're properly positioned,
331
00:19:39.039 --> 00:19:42.359
which again I think that's key is that Leander is
332
00:19:42.519 --> 00:19:46.640
properly positioned. We've been it's been a little long in coming,
333
00:19:46.880 --> 00:19:51.319
and I know people get a little you know, I
334
00:19:51.359 --> 00:19:55.160
don't want to say inconvenience, but you know, impatient with that, right.
335
00:19:56.160 --> 00:19:58.400
But you know, again, you and I we talked five
336
00:19:58.480 --> 00:20:00.000
years ago. It doesn't seem like it was five year
337
00:20:00.039 --> 00:20:03.440
as ago. It was just the other day. But that
338
00:20:03.519 --> 00:20:06.200
that's kind of the process, right. So the way that
339
00:20:06.240 --> 00:20:08.279
the city is approaching this is again I'm getting down.
340
00:20:08.440 --> 00:20:10.759
Let me get back to the investment. The investment is
341
00:20:11.000 --> 00:20:14.279
it's alone, right, and there's milestones and things of that
342
00:20:14.359 --> 00:20:16.720
nature that are tied into it. So there are there
343
00:20:16.759 --> 00:20:20.359
are guide guard rails to the process. But the primary
344
00:20:20.400 --> 00:20:23.000
thing is that the city is leasing forty thousand square
345
00:20:23.039 --> 00:20:27.240
feet for city offices where they're desperately needed. Council chambers
346
00:20:27.279 --> 00:20:29.920
are in there too, so we're going to kind of
347
00:20:29.960 --> 00:20:34.559
create a new city hall. It's not a permanent structure.
348
00:20:34.799 --> 00:20:38.240
We could potentially stay there, but the idea is that
349
00:20:39.240 --> 00:20:43.640
we literally have staff working out of closets right now. Right,
350
00:20:44.400 --> 00:20:47.559
you can't do what we're trying to do and and
351
00:20:47.680 --> 00:20:51.160
have that be the case, right, So we need we
352
00:20:51.160 --> 00:20:52.920
need to go somewhere where we can grow and and
353
00:20:52.960 --> 00:20:54.480
this allows us to be able to do so.
354
00:20:54.519 --> 00:20:56.440
And if I understand, and I want to get too far.
355
00:20:56.319 --> 00:21:02.240
On that, that building has some other interested parties.
356
00:21:01.839 --> 00:21:03.920
Right, absolutely, I'd love to talk about it.
357
00:21:03.960 --> 00:21:05.759
Yeahah, so let's talk a little bit about that. Let
358
00:21:05.759 --> 00:21:06.119
people know.
359
00:21:06.319 --> 00:21:09.000
Yeah. So, just to sort of back up a little bit.
360
00:21:10.559 --> 00:21:16.279
As the master developer, I bring on what I view
361
00:21:16.319 --> 00:21:19.440
as best in class vertical development partners to build the
362
00:21:19.480 --> 00:21:22.119
specific product types. So we have, you know, a great
363
00:21:22.119 --> 00:21:24.839
partner that built the multi family, a great partner that
364
00:21:25.160 --> 00:21:27.720
built the initial townhomes. We have another partner coming in
365
00:21:27.799 --> 00:21:30.839
juries Custom Homes to build more townhomes. We've got a
366
00:21:30.920 --> 00:21:34.440
senior living deal happening with a great partner called Verdo
367
00:21:34.519 --> 00:21:38.599
Capital Endevor obviously is a household name here, best in
368
00:21:38.640 --> 00:21:45.000
class retail developer. We found the same sort of best
369
00:21:45.039 --> 00:21:48.880
in class office development partner in Saint John Properties a
370
00:21:49.000 --> 00:21:51.559
number of years ago, and they actually designed a four
371
00:21:51.640 --> 00:21:54.880
story building there as one hundred and twenty thousand square
372
00:21:54.880 --> 00:21:59.000
feet and for fifty five years, this company, which is
373
00:21:59.000 --> 00:22:02.559
based out of Maryland, has built all on spec. They
374
00:22:02.559 --> 00:22:07.359
have a multi billionaire owner who guarantees these projects with
375
00:22:07.599 --> 00:22:13.039
his personal wealth. Banks would fall over the opportunity to
376
00:22:13.119 --> 00:22:17.119
be involved as a lender, and this was basically a
377
00:22:17.160 --> 00:22:21.119
no brainer early on bringing them in. They designed this building,
378
00:22:21.200 --> 00:22:26.240
they got it permitted, and they had a tremendous challenge
379
00:22:26.599 --> 00:22:29.880
getting it getting the debt even though they have the
380
00:22:30.240 --> 00:22:33.640
equity that they are in place and a guaranteur for
381
00:22:33.759 --> 00:22:38.000
the construction. Loan office was a dirty word for years,
382
00:22:38.599 --> 00:22:41.240
and we asked, you know, we talked about the delay,
383
00:22:41.720 --> 00:22:45.119
the delay factor in some of these projects. I mean,
384
00:22:45.319 --> 00:22:50.319
that's what delayed our office project. And so as things
385
00:22:50.359 --> 00:22:55.160
started to get better last year, Banks started to actually
386
00:22:56.480 --> 00:23:00.720
look into this potential. But they required a prelease requirement
387
00:23:00.799 --> 00:23:03.039
for the first time. This company has never dealt with
388
00:23:03.079 --> 00:23:07.160
that before, and so we needed to surpass a fifty
389
00:23:07.200 --> 00:23:08.640
percent prelease requirement.
390
00:23:09.960 --> 00:23:11.319
The decision was to.
391
00:23:13.880 --> 00:23:16.400
Basically take a floor off the building to make it
392
00:23:16.440 --> 00:23:20.240
more manageable at ninety five thousand square feet, and we
393
00:23:20.319 --> 00:23:24.079
started to get some interest. We being my partner Saint John,
394
00:23:24.319 --> 00:23:27.559
who's leading this process, got a couple Banks to even
395
00:23:27.720 --> 00:23:31.400
kind of take a look at it. And over the
396
00:23:31.519 --> 00:23:36.440
last twelve months, with the city coming in as the
397
00:23:36.519 --> 00:23:41.519
anchor tenant that basically enabled us and propelled us to
398
00:23:41.839 --> 00:23:46.240
be able to move forward. And so we have retail
399
00:23:46.240 --> 00:23:51.920
on the ground floor facing two frontages. And the retail
400
00:23:52.000 --> 00:23:54.640
is obviously a much easier product type to lease up
401
00:23:54.720 --> 00:23:57.480
at this point in time versus office and a suburban
402
00:23:57.519 --> 00:24:02.839
market like this, and so the retails easier and we
403
00:24:03.000 --> 00:24:06.920
have a really good momentum there. We've got the city
404
00:24:06.960 --> 00:24:09.400
coming in at forty thousand square feet. Saint john is
405
00:24:09.400 --> 00:24:12.519
going to move their offices to that location as well,
406
00:24:12.960 --> 00:24:18.279
and then we do have a third story, so the
407
00:24:18.319 --> 00:24:20.920
city is taking all of the second story, a portion
408
00:24:21.000 --> 00:24:23.279
of the first story. There's retail and some other users
409
00:24:23.440 --> 00:24:25.400
that we have lined up on the first story. The
410
00:24:25.440 --> 00:24:28.640
third floor was basically you know, the last piece, but
411
00:24:28.720 --> 00:24:33.519
we have a large twenty thousand square foot user that
412
00:24:34.079 --> 00:24:40.000
is in negotiation to lock that up. That leaves very
413
00:24:40.000 --> 00:24:43.799
little left. And it's my sense that and it's always
414
00:24:43.839 --> 00:24:47.680
been the mantra by Saint John is once you start
415
00:24:47.720 --> 00:24:50.240
construction and you have a timeline, that's when you get
416
00:24:50.240 --> 00:24:53.279
your lease is done. And we've been in this catch
417
00:24:53.359 --> 00:24:57.799
twenty two having to prelease a very challenging scenario. And
418
00:24:57.880 --> 00:25:01.559
so now that we have you know, timeline, and it
419
00:25:01.599 --> 00:25:04.920
looks like things are going to really propel ourselves here.
420
00:25:04.680 --> 00:25:08.880
We're in final permit process with the city. I hope
421
00:25:08.920 --> 00:25:13.359
and expect that we'll get permits released in March, if
422
00:25:13.440 --> 00:25:16.000
not April, and and be off to the races to
423
00:25:16.319 --> 00:25:21.160
start construction shortly thereafter. And I expect by the time
424
00:25:21.200 --> 00:25:24.400
this building is completed, it'll be one hundred.
425
00:25:24.160 --> 00:25:24.960
Percent least.
426
00:25:28.119 --> 00:25:34.079
The intentional effort here to provide the spark. Yeah, right,
427
00:25:34.599 --> 00:25:40.319
I think that that sometimes can be misunderstood and and
428
00:25:40.319 --> 00:25:44.400
and and not necessarily like the complexity of the deal, right,
429
00:25:44.440 --> 00:25:47.519
and what we're talking about. So that's what people don't know,
430
00:25:48.200 --> 00:25:50.440
right when you get into those that you don't think
431
00:25:50.440 --> 00:25:53.359
about that when you're reading a quick little blurb in
432
00:25:53.440 --> 00:25:58.200
community newspapers, right, it doesn't give you context. And so
433
00:25:58.279 --> 00:26:00.000
that's kind of what I'm trying to do here is
434
00:26:00.039 --> 00:26:03.559
to help people understand, Hey, this is super super exciting,
435
00:26:03.640 --> 00:26:07.680
like this is this is a milestone, huge in the
436
00:26:07.720 --> 00:26:12.720
development of the city. Right. And there's a few other
437
00:26:12.799 --> 00:26:16.359
things that are part of the deal that I kind
438
00:26:16.359 --> 00:26:18.839
of want to touch on a little bit. So part
439
00:26:18.880 --> 00:26:20.880
of the way that the city has structured that this
440
00:26:21.000 --> 00:26:24.160
is this again. The lease is the primary trigger, right,
441
00:26:24.200 --> 00:26:25.720
that's the thing that gets it started.
442
00:26:26.680 --> 00:26:28.759
And then you know, the.
443
00:26:28.559 --> 00:26:31.240
City, if I remember correctly, correct me if I'm wrong,
444
00:26:31.240 --> 00:26:33.039
But the city has an option if we want to
445
00:26:33.039 --> 00:26:34.960
extend the lease. There's a couple of things and there
446
00:26:35.160 --> 00:26:36.880
let us stay a little bit longer if we need to.
447
00:26:36.960 --> 00:26:41.839
But the intention is to build a city hall in
448
00:26:41.920 --> 00:26:46.880
the same area, like in the same urban district. And
449
00:26:46.960 --> 00:26:49.160
I know that that's already kind of part of the
450
00:26:49.200 --> 00:26:53.160
process and part of the project. And you know that'll
451
00:26:53.200 --> 00:26:55.880
probably happen a lot faster than when I think right now,
452
00:26:56.279 --> 00:26:58.359
like right, I'm being real conservative, right, but I think
453
00:26:58.400 --> 00:27:01.079
that that's going to happen a lot fast than what
454
00:27:01.119 --> 00:27:06.319
we think. And then, I believe, help me understand because
455
00:27:06.319 --> 00:27:08.240
this is one piece. I know that it's always you know, well,
456
00:27:08.279 --> 00:27:12.000
alex is gonna do this right, But help me and
457
00:27:12.200 --> 00:27:15.720
help the audience understand the dedication of the one acre
458
00:27:16.240 --> 00:27:23.559
right for municipal purposes. How is that part of this project?
459
00:27:23.559 --> 00:27:24.839
Help people understand what that is.
460
00:27:25.200 --> 00:27:29.720
And you described andrew all the pieces here, and you know,
461
00:27:29.799 --> 00:27:34.079
really this is giving the city tremendous flexibility with the
462
00:27:34.200 --> 00:27:39.400
vision that we all have to bring the city core
463
00:27:39.640 --> 00:27:43.759
to this project, to the city's downtown core. It makes
464
00:27:43.799 --> 00:27:46.839
a lot of sense, and frankly, it was the original
465
00:27:46.920 --> 00:27:50.160
vision years ago when this got passed by the city
466
00:27:50.240 --> 00:27:58.160
back in twenty eighteen. The city always had representations by
467
00:27:58.400 --> 00:28:02.119
leadership that it would eventually all want to be in
468
00:28:02.200 --> 00:28:04.960
the downtown. And that's not to say Old Town is
469
00:28:05.000 --> 00:28:07.920
not an important aspect of the city.
470
00:28:07.640 --> 00:28:09.640
And it is. It's something that will definitely touch on.
471
00:28:10.079 --> 00:28:14.000
Yeah, and so there's repurposement of those buildings. This is
472
00:28:14.039 --> 00:28:16.200
giving the city flexibility to do all that. It's a
473
00:28:16.279 --> 00:28:20.960
jigsaw puzzle with the city's facilities plan that this scenario
474
00:28:21.079 --> 00:28:23.599
is giving the city tremendous flexibility to be able to
475
00:28:23.599 --> 00:28:26.079
do a lot of different things in a timeframe that
476
00:28:26.160 --> 00:28:28.400
gives it flexibility to do so.
477
00:28:29.039 --> 00:28:29.400
And so.
478
00:28:30.839 --> 00:28:33.799
First and foremost, the city now can move into a
479
00:28:33.799 --> 00:28:35.720
brand new building in about a year and a half
480
00:28:36.720 --> 00:28:44.000
in a scenario where the city can showcase it's wonderful location,
481
00:28:44.680 --> 00:28:47.960
which frankly, from this is not coming from me, this
482
00:28:48.039 --> 00:28:49.839
is coming from the city representatives.
483
00:28:49.839 --> 00:28:52.000
It really doesn't have the ability to do so now.
484
00:28:52.240 --> 00:28:54.640
Right, Like I said, there's literally and I'm not even
485
00:28:54.720 --> 00:28:57.359
joking about this. Okay, this is not a joke. There
486
00:28:57.400 --> 00:29:01.880
are literally staff members who have who are working out
487
00:29:01.960 --> 00:29:06.119
currently in the current facility in rooms that were used
488
00:29:06.119 --> 00:29:08.759
to be closets, right, they've been converted so that they
489
00:29:08.759 --> 00:29:13.519
can actually house staff. And again that's.
490
00:29:13.359 --> 00:29:14.200
Kudos to them.
491
00:29:14.799 --> 00:29:17.920
Like if I take and they're like, hey, here's your closet,
492
00:29:17.960 --> 00:29:18.480
I don't know that.
493
00:29:18.440 --> 00:29:21.200
I'd necessarily be like what did I get myself into?
494
00:29:21.400 --> 00:29:26.720
But the excitement that this will bring not only for
495
00:29:26.759 --> 00:29:29.359
the city but for the city staff, like you now
496
00:29:29.400 --> 00:29:33.119
you're in this huge it's a supercharger, right for just
497
00:29:33.720 --> 00:29:35.440
how you feel about what it is that you're doing.
498
00:29:35.759 --> 00:29:39.160
And I mean just like it's a human it's human nature,
499
00:29:39.319 --> 00:29:42.480
like when you're working on something. It's it's so much
500
00:29:43.000 --> 00:29:46.359
easier to work on projects where there's a tangible output, right.
501
00:29:47.480 --> 00:29:50.000
And it'll be a great benefit for the city, for
502
00:29:50.039 --> 00:29:53.680
the city and the cha, the Council, the Chamber, you know,
503
00:29:53.799 --> 00:29:57.160
all of this is going to be a significant benefit
504
00:29:57.240 --> 00:29:59.279
for the city and and and so just to kind
505
00:29:59.279 --> 00:30:04.160
of again touch upon the deal here, this was a
506
00:30:04.200 --> 00:30:08.240
three party deal. It was mainly between the city and
507
00:30:08.319 --> 00:30:13.839
Saint John Properties, who will own a significant block and
508
00:30:14.079 --> 00:30:18.920
basically an eight acre block, and the city negotiated quite
509
00:30:19.279 --> 00:30:25.880
quite intelligently the ability to be able to create its
510
00:30:25.960 --> 00:30:32.799
own chamber and office building that it can own. Just outright,
511
00:30:34.000 --> 00:30:37.599
obviously it's moving into a lease situation. It's a mixed
512
00:30:37.640 --> 00:30:40.359
use building. There'll be retailed, there'll be other tenants upstairs,
513
00:30:40.599 --> 00:30:43.839
there'll be other tenants on the first floor. And now
514
00:30:43.880 --> 00:30:48.240
the city has the ability, with a flexible timeframe, to
515
00:30:48.279 --> 00:30:53.960
be able to acquire another section of that block to
516
00:30:54.039 --> 00:30:57.960
build its own building and park its own building and
517
00:30:58.079 --> 00:31:03.839
have a permanent owned facility. And the city didn't stop
518
00:31:03.920 --> 00:31:11.400
right there. They also worked with me to fulfill another vision,
519
00:31:11.480 --> 00:31:16.640
which is to create a what is most likely a
520
00:31:16.680 --> 00:31:22.920
public library, museum, and or cultural center facility adjacent to
521
00:31:23.000 --> 00:31:27.160
that future city hall location. And if you look to
522
00:31:27.279 --> 00:31:29.960
our south, you know the two cities to our south,
523
00:31:30.000 --> 00:31:35.880
which are great examples of municipalities that put effort and
524
00:31:36.400 --> 00:31:42.720
and dollars into their municipal library facilities, which are really
525
00:31:42.759 --> 00:31:48.799
showcase showcase, not only showcase buildings, but also big drivers
526
00:31:48.960 --> 00:31:53.440
of the community to those locations. The folks I'm close
527
00:31:53.480 --> 00:31:58.279
with who are building out the Bell Boulevard project in
528
00:31:58.559 --> 00:32:04.440
nearby Cedar Park. We're very surprised at the level of
529
00:32:05.240 --> 00:32:09.880
activity generated by the library and and and it just
530
00:32:10.240 --> 00:32:17.599
it really highlighted the the wonderful beneficial nature of that
531
00:32:17.839 --> 00:32:22.319
use in a mixed use downtown, you know, urban center.
532
00:32:22.880 --> 00:32:26.279
And so we are all aligned that that that is
533
00:32:27.160 --> 00:32:32.359
a wonderful approach that the city is taking here, and
534
00:32:32.960 --> 00:32:38.279
I voluntarily agreed to donate an acre for that purpose
535
00:32:39.440 --> 00:32:42.119
to help collectively realize this vision.
536
00:32:42.440 --> 00:32:45.400
No I I And I love the way that you
537
00:32:45.640 --> 00:32:48.599
said that, the way that you frame that, because I
538
00:32:48.640 --> 00:32:52.119
think people need to understand that, right and it's a
539
00:32:52.119 --> 00:32:56.359
gift and you know that for me and in not
540
00:32:56.400 --> 00:32:58.960
only as a member of the Leander community, but for
541
00:32:58.960 --> 00:33:01.440
for somebody who is in a position right now where
542
00:33:01.680 --> 00:33:03.559
you know, we can kind of help steer some of
543
00:33:03.559 --> 00:33:08.039
that vision. That is that is to me, the central
544
00:33:08.079 --> 00:33:10.960
tenet of this entire agreement personally. That's why I look
545
00:33:11.000 --> 00:33:13.200
at it. It's like, look, all these other things are
546
00:33:13.240 --> 00:33:15.880
kind of business arrangements and and and not that this
547
00:33:16.039 --> 00:33:17.079
isn't but you.
548
00:33:17.000 --> 00:33:19.440
Know, and there's something to it. There's some there's some
549
00:33:19.480 --> 00:33:23.119
give and takes with reimbursements that are happening that you know,
550
00:33:23.200 --> 00:33:27.640
I definitely want to be clear, it's part.
551
00:33:28.000 --> 00:33:29.160
It's still a step.
552
00:33:29.200 --> 00:33:31.839
It's a step, it's an extra step, it's a And
553
00:33:31.880 --> 00:33:34.119
one of the things that I wanted to kind of
554
00:33:34.119 --> 00:33:37.000
circle back around to is that when you and I
555
00:33:37.039 --> 00:33:38.759
met five years ago, one of the things that I
556
00:33:38.839 --> 00:33:42.160
really emphasized in that episode was like, you know, you're
557
00:33:42.200 --> 00:33:45.319
not just a developer, You're someone who's investing in our
558
00:33:45.400 --> 00:33:50.359
city right now. To me, that is indicative of just
559
00:33:50.519 --> 00:33:53.319
how far you've gone and how far you're willing to
560
00:33:53.359 --> 00:33:57.319
go to invest in this city. Because that municipal plot
561
00:33:57.400 --> 00:34:00.759
that one acre, right, you know, I have my dithers
562
00:34:01.039 --> 00:34:04.240
things that I'm advocating for, you know, and the cultural
563
00:34:04.319 --> 00:34:07.319
center aspect of that is something that I think would
564
00:34:07.440 --> 00:34:10.760
really be a tremendous benefit not only to Leander but
565
00:34:10.800 --> 00:34:15.599
to the region right because it's a component that I
566
00:34:15.639 --> 00:34:18.039
feel is kind of underserved, you know, and I think
567
00:34:18.039 --> 00:34:20.039
that that's something that could really elevate what we do
568
00:34:20.079 --> 00:34:23.039
in the city. But with that said that none of
569
00:34:23.039 --> 00:34:26.679
that is possible without you know, your willingness to take
570
00:34:26.719 --> 00:34:27.400
the extra mile.
571
00:34:27.440 --> 00:34:28.599
So I do want to thank.
572
00:34:28.400 --> 00:34:31.320
You for thank you, And this is a problate private partnership.
573
00:34:31.440 --> 00:34:34.719
It has been since twenty eighteen. This is a second
574
00:34:35.400 --> 00:34:41.639
sort of call it a threshold to that partnership. Is
575
00:34:41.679 --> 00:34:47.199
the city providing a three eight agreement to our vertical
576
00:34:47.239 --> 00:34:50.400
development partner. And one thing I think we haven't quite
577
00:34:50.440 --> 00:34:54.920
talked about is the loan aspect and why is that happening?
578
00:34:55.119 --> 00:35:01.320
And as part of the loan that was being being
579
00:35:01.360 --> 00:35:05.360
coordinated by my partner, Saint John Properties, with these these banks,
580
00:35:06.880 --> 00:35:12.199
the level of of debt that they were willing to
581
00:35:12.239 --> 00:35:17.440
give also was significantly reduced from the typical norm. So
582
00:35:18.039 --> 00:35:21.519
not only were banks not willing to to to loan
583
00:35:21.559 --> 00:35:24.599
at all, but that when they did get to the
584
00:35:24.679 --> 00:35:27.280
sort of table to say we're willing to do something,
585
00:35:27.760 --> 00:35:34.599
they said, well, we need much lower leverage. Uh, you
586
00:35:34.679 --> 00:35:36.760
need to you need to bring more equity to the table,
587
00:35:36.880 --> 00:35:43.559
right And you know this is this is more iffy
588
00:35:43.639 --> 00:35:47.119
of a proposition than in the past because Office is
589
00:35:47.440 --> 00:35:50.239
going through what Office has been going through with post
590
00:35:50.320 --> 00:35:53.039
COVID and all that that. You know, you guys need
591
00:35:53.039 --> 00:35:56.840
to p release this thing. And so the loan was
592
00:35:56.880 --> 00:36:03.639
to address the unique market scenario that we were dealing with.
593
00:36:03.719 --> 00:36:07.079
That the amount of equity that needed to be brought
594
00:36:07.079 --> 00:36:10.360
to the table was significantly more than has been the
595
00:36:10.400 --> 00:36:13.159
case for Saint John Properties, and the city stepped in
596
00:36:13.199 --> 00:36:16.320
and said, we can provide that loan. We have obviously
597
00:36:16.559 --> 00:36:21.119
access to, you know, to debt that that can be
598
00:36:21.159 --> 00:36:27.320
done at certain levels, and that was a huge driver
599
00:36:27.559 --> 00:36:30.920
to being able to kind of move this project forward.
600
00:36:31.239 --> 00:36:34.039
And I think the city's risk here, which is I
601
00:36:34.119 --> 00:36:37.679
think something you also wanted to get into, is extraordinarily low,
602
00:36:38.000 --> 00:36:41.679
you know, just given who Saint John Properties is, where
603
00:36:41.719 --> 00:36:44.679
we are with the lease up of this building, and
604
00:36:44.760 --> 00:36:49.280
the level of you know, default potential that Saint John
605
00:36:49.360 --> 00:36:54.159
would would have here is so minor on the grand
606
00:36:54.159 --> 00:36:56.079
scale of things. This is a company that has never
607
00:36:56.199 --> 00:37:00.159
defaulted on a loan in fifty five years. So the
608
00:37:00.159 --> 00:37:05.599
city vetted that very very thoroughly, and you know, decided
609
00:37:05.599 --> 00:37:07.599
to move forward in what I feel is a very
610
00:37:07.679 --> 00:37:08.559
intelligent manner.
611
00:37:08.840 --> 00:37:12.199
Yeah, And and I think that again, that's a very
612
00:37:12.199 --> 00:37:17.239
important point and I'm glad you're making it, because the
613
00:37:17.320 --> 00:37:19.760
thing is is that when you look at these types
614
00:37:19.760 --> 00:37:21.760
of projects, and this is true pretty much anything that
615
00:37:21.800 --> 00:37:24.519
the city does to be perfectly frank and and it's
616
00:37:24.559 --> 00:37:27.360
one of the things that get lost in the in
617
00:37:27.440 --> 00:37:29.960
the in the mix of stuff that happens when people
618
00:37:29.960 --> 00:37:33.480
talk about what's going on in your city. Right, there
619
00:37:33.559 --> 00:37:37.119
are a few people who will dig into the details
620
00:37:37.199 --> 00:37:40.079
and really understand some of those components, and and and
621
00:37:40.119 --> 00:37:41.719
that's great, you want those people.
622
00:37:42.400 --> 00:37:44.039
But by and large, it's like.
623
00:37:45.559 --> 00:37:48.559
Average Joe is asking, you know, hey, is this a
624
00:37:48.559 --> 00:37:51.360
good deal for us? Right? And and and what I'm
625
00:37:51.400 --> 00:37:55.239
really trying to stress today and in this conversation is this, Yeah,
626
00:37:55.280 --> 00:37:58.639
this is a really good deal for us. Right, we
627
00:37:58.880 --> 00:38:04.559
are are really well positioned. This the the city manager,
628
00:38:04.599 --> 00:38:07.400
Todd Parton, deserves a lot of credit because a lot
629
00:38:07.440 --> 00:38:10.960
of credit he was he was instrumental in putting together
630
00:38:11.719 --> 00:38:14.920
the components that we've been discussing and how they would
631
00:38:15.000 --> 00:38:19.000
work together, and really kind of working through that complexity
632
00:38:19.039 --> 00:38:21.239
and the and the and the convoluted state of a
633
00:38:21.280 --> 00:38:24.760
lot of the moving pieces, because to your point, you're
634
00:38:24.760 --> 00:38:28.119
dealing with multiple partners here, right, And then you add
635
00:38:28.119 --> 00:38:31.320
in banks and and and their needs and.
636
00:38:31.320 --> 00:38:35.519
Their private right private decision making that no one can control.
637
00:38:35.679 --> 00:38:38.519
Yeah, it's and and so when you can align all
638
00:38:38.519 --> 00:38:40.239
of those things in the way that we have, it's
639
00:38:40.320 --> 00:38:44.519
it's it's celebration worthy. It really is and and I'm
640
00:38:44.679 --> 00:38:49.199
super excited about this project on that note, and and
641
00:38:49.239 --> 00:38:51.679
on on just what it will mean for the long term.
642
00:38:51.679 --> 00:38:53.639
So you talked a little bit about the flexibility that
643
00:38:53.719 --> 00:38:57.079
this gives a city. So what people will miss in
644
00:38:57.119 --> 00:38:59.159
the conversation it's like, Okay, great, you're building in your
645
00:38:59.199 --> 00:39:00.960
city hall. That's where my text dollars are going in
646
00:39:00.960 --> 00:39:04.280
that kind of conversation, Like, yeah, and we're also looking
647
00:39:04.280 --> 00:39:05.960
at all these other things that we can do now,
648
00:39:06.039 --> 00:39:10.760
right because the city owns the current city Hall and
649
00:39:11.119 --> 00:39:16.320
municipal hall there that that's unbrushy and has been i think,
650
00:39:16.360 --> 00:39:21.039
frankly struggling with how to activate Old Town Like it's
651
00:39:21.039 --> 00:39:24.360
has been a very very difficult process, and I've been
652
00:39:24.440 --> 00:39:27.639
involved in such a way both inside and outside of
653
00:39:27.639 --> 00:39:31.039
that process that you can see there's a vision for
654
00:39:31.119 --> 00:39:32.800
what it is that we want that to be, and
655
00:39:32.840 --> 00:39:40.760
there's a there's a very purposeful economic sentiment behind how
656
00:39:40.800 --> 00:39:44.199
that needs to come together, right because it is part
657
00:39:44.239 --> 00:39:47.519
of that larger diversification of attack space, It's also it
658
00:39:47.559 --> 00:39:49.599
needs to be a driver and it leads needs to
659
00:39:49.719 --> 00:39:53.840
lend itself to the component and the overall structure that
660
00:39:53.920 --> 00:39:57.639
is that will be comprised between you know, Crystal Falls
661
00:39:57.679 --> 00:40:02.639
and San Gabriel like that of land needs to do.
662
00:40:02.719 --> 00:40:05.000
Something needs to be activated in a way that becomes
663
00:40:05.280 --> 00:40:08.440
very central to what it is the city can point to,
664
00:40:09.599 --> 00:40:14.320
can use as an example, can really activate the economy
665
00:40:14.360 --> 00:40:17.480
out here in Leander in such a way that those
666
00:40:17.519 --> 00:40:18.719
tax dollars stay here.
667
00:40:19.360 --> 00:40:21.239
Right, So there's going to be a little bit of
668
00:40:21.239 --> 00:40:22.559
a bleed over to Liberty Hill.
669
00:40:22.639 --> 00:40:25.000
I recognize what they're doing there with the costco and
670
00:40:25.039 --> 00:40:28.320
the target and all that stuff, right, but that bleed
671
00:40:28.400 --> 00:40:30.880
is going to probably be essentially the same as it
672
00:40:30.920 --> 00:40:35.039
would have been with the existing facilities in Cedar Park, Right,
673
00:40:35.079 --> 00:40:38.599
So we're kind of bookend with that large box retail stuff.
674
00:40:38.639 --> 00:40:41.840
So I don't know that the dollars necessarily bleed more.
675
00:40:42.000 --> 00:40:44.079
I think it's just a split where the dollar goes. Now,
676
00:40:44.480 --> 00:40:46.000
is it easier to drive to Liberty Hill, Is it
677
00:40:46.000 --> 00:40:49.599
easier to drive to Cedar Park? Right? That being the case,
678
00:40:50.239 --> 00:40:53.760
we as a city need that stickiness to get people
679
00:40:53.920 --> 00:40:56.400
to stay here and be here and spend their tax
680
00:40:56.480 --> 00:40:58.800
dollars here. And obviously the retail piece of that is
681
00:40:58.840 --> 00:41:04.840
a big component, but the economy of scale and the
682
00:41:04.960 --> 00:41:08.519
job creation is another really big piece of that. And
683
00:41:09.000 --> 00:41:11.800
as we continue with some of the light industrial and
684
00:41:12.079 --> 00:41:15.480
BioMed and the things that we're targeting for the city,
685
00:41:16.079 --> 00:41:18.599
they need office space, they need somewhere to go. And
686
00:41:18.639 --> 00:41:21.800
that's where I think and I felt this way from
687
00:41:21.880 --> 00:41:24.400
the minute I moved out here, like in eighteen Like
688
00:41:24.440 --> 00:41:25.960
when I moved out here, I saw it and I
689
00:41:26.000 --> 00:41:29.599
was like, wow, this is really well positioned for these
690
00:41:29.639 --> 00:41:31.039
things to potentially happen.
691
00:41:31.280 --> 00:41:33.719
Right.
692
00:41:33.800 --> 00:41:36.440
Rail plays a big component of that because it moves
693
00:41:36.480 --> 00:41:42.719
people between a large metropolitan center and a suburban urban development. Right,
694
00:41:42.800 --> 00:41:48.000
so you have ease of access, multiple points of access.
695
00:41:48.400 --> 00:41:51.199
As we continue to develop hero Way, as we continue
696
00:41:51.199 --> 00:41:53.440
to develop twenty two forty three, and we get that
697
00:41:53.519 --> 00:41:56.880
connection over to thirty five, now you have east west
698
00:41:56.880 --> 00:42:00.079
traffic as well as north south traffic. So it's just
699
00:42:00.199 --> 00:42:03.039
all of those components coming together and really being like, Okay,
700
00:42:03.400 --> 00:42:05.719
these are the things that really make for a diversified
701
00:42:06.639 --> 00:42:09.960
tax space. And and and as long as we're able
702
00:42:10.000 --> 00:42:13.000
to get all these components together, and your's is a keystone.
703
00:42:13.039 --> 00:42:14.239
It's a key piece of the puzzle.
704
00:42:14.280 --> 00:42:17.199
It's not the only piece, right, but it becomes that
705
00:42:17.280 --> 00:42:21.800
one fixture. It gives us the commercial momentum that we need.
706
00:42:23.199 --> 00:42:27.360
You know, Saint John's is a national uh property that
707
00:42:27.519 --> 00:42:32.159
you know, they have national visibility. So there there's it's
708
00:42:32.199 --> 00:42:34.760
a validation for for what it is that we're doing
709
00:42:34.800 --> 00:42:39.039
out here. You know it it lends into that that
710
00:42:39.639 --> 00:42:43.800
strategy where we can we can have a complementary old
711
00:42:43.800 --> 00:42:47.000
town strategy, you know that we have uh. You know
712
00:42:47.039 --> 00:42:50.119
when you when you're talking about density in an urban center,
713
00:42:50.159 --> 00:42:52.800
and what I imagine that probably ends up looking like
714
00:42:52.880 --> 00:42:56.000
at the end of the day is that you need space.
715
00:42:56.159 --> 00:42:59.760
There's there's always a need for space for congregation and
716
00:42:59.760 --> 00:43:04.679
and community and and and and whether it be events
717
00:43:04.840 --> 00:43:08.320
or you know, anything along those lines, right, but to
718
00:43:08.400 --> 00:43:11.079
have it close by is key.
719
00:43:11.320 --> 00:43:13.840
That is such a that's such a difference.
720
00:43:14.360 --> 00:43:16.079
You know, you can point to our neighbors to the
721
00:43:16.119 --> 00:43:20.920
south right and and we recently did the MLK project
722
00:43:21.280 --> 00:43:24.719
event with with Cedar Park, which was new this year.
723
00:43:24.760 --> 00:43:26.320
We've normally done it here in Leander.
724
00:43:27.079 --> 00:43:30.119
And one of the things that that that was driven
725
00:43:30.159 --> 00:43:33.079
by was the facilities. Right, Cedar Park has these really
726
00:43:33.119 --> 00:43:38.679
really nice facilities right from a city perspective, but I
727
00:43:38.800 --> 00:43:40.199
was looking at that and I was saying, you know,
728
00:43:40.480 --> 00:43:43.760
this is nice, but I really had to drive like
729
00:43:43.960 --> 00:43:47.880
all the way over here, right, And I imagined, what
730
00:43:47.960 --> 00:43:52.679
if MLK was in an old town and you're, you know,
731
00:43:53.480 --> 00:43:56.880
less than a mile right away from the dense from
732
00:43:56.920 --> 00:43:59.960
city hall, Right, does that create a parade route all
733
00:44:00.159 --> 00:44:02.519
things that you could possibly think about, right, And you're like,
734
00:44:03.079 --> 00:44:06.440
that's different. That's way way different than I think anything
735
00:44:06.480 --> 00:44:07.239
else in the region.
736
00:44:07.920 --> 00:44:12.239
Once once the north line vision is realized there there
737
00:44:12.280 --> 00:44:13.679
won't be anything like it up here.
738
00:44:13.760 --> 00:44:14.000
Yeah.
739
00:44:14.039 --> 00:44:19.519
No, it will be so outstandingly unique to the municipalities
740
00:44:19.599 --> 00:44:22.920
in Williamson County that surround us, yep, that I just
741
00:44:22.960 --> 00:44:23.880
can't wait for that to help.
742
00:44:24.079 --> 00:44:25.880
No, I can't wait either, I think to me, I've
743
00:44:25.880 --> 00:44:28.840
always kind of like thrown out like that becomes a gateway, right,
744
00:44:29.280 --> 00:44:31.320
and then the way the Leander's position in will Co.
745
00:44:32.119 --> 00:44:34.480
That is the gateway, right, that's how you get into
746
00:44:34.559 --> 00:44:37.000
Williamson County. So you have to go through the hander
747
00:44:37.599 --> 00:44:41.719
and to be able to raise the economic power that
748
00:44:41.840 --> 00:44:45.639
the city has. Just positions are so much better for
749
00:44:46.079 --> 00:44:49.559
future growth and future the long term stability of the
750
00:44:49.599 --> 00:44:51.360
tax space for the for the city.
751
00:44:51.480 --> 00:44:53.159
Right, So.
752
00:44:54.880 --> 00:44:57.880
I think, I mean, I don't know have have Have
753
00:44:57.960 --> 00:45:01.119
I missed anything? Have we missed anything? I want to say,
754
00:45:01.159 --> 00:45:02.000
we've talked about everything.
755
00:45:02.039 --> 00:45:02.960
We've talked about a lot.
756
00:45:03.159 --> 00:45:07.440
I mean, I feel like it's it would be prudent
757
00:45:07.440 --> 00:45:09.320
for me to explain a couple of things just in
758
00:45:09.440 --> 00:45:13.800
terms of like where we are today from you know,
759
00:45:14.320 --> 00:45:15.519
our last conversation.
760
00:45:15.719 --> 00:45:19.559
And as you're jumping ahead of my prompt, Okay, so
761
00:45:19.599 --> 00:45:20.599
I had something set up.
762
00:45:20.559 --> 00:45:22.159
For Okay, Well, then I'll let you go.
763
00:45:22.920 --> 00:45:26.320
So okay, so we were sitting together five years ago, right, Yeah,
764
00:45:26.360 --> 00:45:28.679
So now if we're sitting here and I have you
765
00:45:28.760 --> 00:45:31.760
back ten years from now, where it's twenty thirty six,
766
00:45:32.480 --> 00:45:36.079
what does success look like for North Line and the
767
00:45:36.119 --> 00:45:37.000
city's presence.
768
00:45:37.119 --> 00:45:39.639
Yeah, well I wanted to go back first, okay, and
769
00:45:39.639 --> 00:45:41.480
then and then and then and then I'll go forward.
770
00:45:42.639 --> 00:45:44.760
I think I just want to give kudos to the
771
00:45:44.800 --> 00:45:50.119
city about the effort and work it's done over the
772
00:45:50.199 --> 00:45:55.039
last five years to position the city for the type
773
00:45:55.079 --> 00:45:58.480
of growth and development that we all hope continues to happen,
774
00:45:58.840 --> 00:46:00.119
you know, whether it be.
775
00:46:00.159 --> 00:46:02.880
Water or roads or waste water.
776
00:46:02.960 --> 00:46:07.960
I mean, I've always been able to get a dedicated
777
00:46:08.760 --> 00:46:12.639
commitment from the city that it will support the vision
778
00:46:12.760 --> 00:46:15.559
of North Line, and that came back in twenty eighteen
779
00:46:15.639 --> 00:46:19.719
when the city may maybe wasn't able to give that
780
00:46:19.719 --> 00:46:22.880
that commitment, but it's been able to stay ahead of
781
00:46:22.920 --> 00:46:27.119
the demand and so that that's that's great, and.
782
00:46:27.079 --> 00:46:30.159
The city is super well positioned right now for.
783
00:46:32.199 --> 00:46:37.360
You know, realizing the type of uh, you know, development
784
00:46:37.559 --> 00:46:42.639
that we all expect and want to see and that
785
00:46:42.760 --> 00:46:46.599
and that really played into you know, just the North
786
00:46:46.599 --> 00:46:50.079
Line development in terms of the original agreement that we had,
787
00:46:50.159 --> 00:46:55.920
which was that North Line would would would would spend
788
00:46:56.039 --> 00:47:01.360
a lot of its money on public infrastrutructure to support
789
00:47:01.440 --> 00:47:04.760
future development, and then there was a reimbursement component to that,
790
00:47:04.800 --> 00:47:07.039
and I just wanted to also kind of just highlight
791
00:47:07.400 --> 00:47:10.119
that the reimbursements that are happening are all just for
792
00:47:10.320 --> 00:47:15.840
public dollars and only based upon increment that the city
793
00:47:16.320 --> 00:47:20.400
is has received, whether it's permit fees or wastewater and
794
00:47:21.880 --> 00:47:25.880
water impact fees or increment to the to the property tax.
795
00:47:26.239 --> 00:47:31.679
So it was very smartly intelligently structured that original agreement,
796
00:47:31.800 --> 00:47:35.159
as has been this more recent you know scenario.
797
00:47:35.519 --> 00:47:40.039
So you're saying that there's some some smart people involved
798
00:47:40.599 --> 00:47:41.480
at the city level.
799
00:47:42.519 --> 00:47:45.239
If you look at the if you really understand these agreements,
800
00:47:45.519 --> 00:47:46.480
they were well crafted.
801
00:47:46.840 --> 00:47:49.159
Yeah, yeah, and that's good.
802
00:47:49.199 --> 00:47:52.079
I mean, I'm glad you mentioned that because again as
803
00:47:52.119 --> 00:47:56.039
a citizen and then you know by extension representing citizenry,
804
00:47:56.880 --> 00:48:03.239
it's important to understand that that how well that has
805
00:48:03.360 --> 00:48:05.840
been done right. And and again I said it at
806
00:48:05.880 --> 00:48:07.559
the top. I was like, you have to give credit
807
00:48:07.599 --> 00:48:12.079
where credit is due. And you know, this has been
808
00:48:12.119 --> 00:48:16.599
a keystone to to it is the it is the
809
00:48:16.679 --> 00:48:18.920
key in the lock. I think if you unlock this
810
00:48:19.039 --> 00:48:24.880
unlocks the the capabilities and the and the potential for
811
00:48:25.000 --> 00:48:25.559
the city.
812
00:48:25.360 --> 00:48:28.920
Of they're all performance based. Is really the way to
813
00:48:28.960 --> 00:48:31.840
classify these and that and that's the way smart you
814
00:48:31.880 --> 00:48:36.000
know municipal agreement should be drafted.
815
00:48:36.119 --> 00:48:36.320
Yep.
816
00:48:36.639 --> 00:48:39.400
It's due diligence and it protects the city because again,
817
00:48:39.519 --> 00:48:42.280
in the long term, what you have to do and
818
00:48:42.440 --> 00:48:44.440
again I don't want get too political, but when you
819
00:48:44.480 --> 00:48:46.519
when you what you want to do is you want.
820
00:48:46.400 --> 00:48:48.519
To protect the city's best interests.
821
00:48:48.719 --> 00:48:48.880
Right.
822
00:48:49.320 --> 00:48:50.119
Sometimes that's not.
823
00:48:50.119 --> 00:48:53.840
As easy to do because it can be kind of flashy,
824
00:48:53.960 --> 00:48:58.079
it can be very persuasive at times. Some of the
825
00:48:58.159 --> 00:49:01.840
arguments that are made, and there are challenges that we
826
00:49:02.000 --> 00:49:05.880
have as a city to the way that we can
827
00:49:05.960 --> 00:49:09.199
negotiate and the way that we we work through.
828
00:49:09.039 --> 00:49:10.400
Deals and structure things.
829
00:49:11.199 --> 00:49:16.360
That said, those challenges do provide us with I think
830
00:49:16.480 --> 00:49:20.559
the guidelines that help us to create those types of agreements, right.
831
00:49:20.639 --> 00:49:23.079
It just you know, they're kind of like we I
832
00:49:23.079 --> 00:49:24.840
don't want to say we don't have any other choice,
833
00:49:24.920 --> 00:49:27.920
but the fact that we have to work within those
834
00:49:27.960 --> 00:49:30.159
constraints really lets us be very creative.
835
00:49:30.920 --> 00:49:31.159
Right.
836
00:49:31.960 --> 00:49:36.679
So, yeah, twenty thirty six, I guess it'll be here
837
00:49:36.719 --> 00:49:38.639
before we know it.
838
00:49:37.559 --> 00:49:39.079
But my.
839
00:49:41.360 --> 00:49:45.559
Vision for twenty thirty six is looking back on a
840
00:49:45.599 --> 00:49:49.440
really remarkable downtown community that the city's very proud of.
841
00:49:50.159 --> 00:49:52.000
You know, I'm hoping that the city is able to
842
00:49:52.039 --> 00:49:56.400
move forward on its future owned city hall, that the
843
00:49:56.440 --> 00:50:00.639
city can create a wonderful you know municipal library and
844
00:50:00.679 --> 00:50:04.920
cultural center and museum across the street that Saint John,
845
00:50:05.280 --> 00:50:08.119
you know, has winded its back right now and you know,
846
00:50:08.280 --> 00:50:11.320
moves forward and build second, third, and fourth, you know,
847
00:50:11.400 --> 00:50:15.039
office buildings that it has the ability to do and
848
00:50:15.719 --> 00:50:19.440
endeavor continues to build out its retail area. They have
849
00:50:19.480 --> 00:50:22.639
some option sections that we have some really interesting users
850
00:50:23.119 --> 00:50:24.400
that that are in the mix.
851
00:50:26.320 --> 00:50:28.639
It's international, so then.
852
00:50:28.760 --> 00:50:32.239
Well that then there's a whole different section on the
853
00:50:32.280 --> 00:50:35.840
west side of the project. But before we get to
854
00:50:35.880 --> 00:50:38.599
the west side, there's a hotel and convention piece that
855
00:50:39.880 --> 00:50:42.679
we're miss that we're that we're also working on right
856
00:50:42.679 --> 00:50:46.960
now that is subject to twenty twenty one legislation that
857
00:50:49.000 --> 00:50:51.559
North Line and the city partnered together back in twenty
858
00:50:51.599 --> 00:50:55.360
twenty one to get the city on the list of
859
00:50:55.400 --> 00:50:59.119
about forty five municipalities across Texas that can qualify for
860
00:50:59.239 --> 00:51:03.519
this reimbursement from the state, which when the when there's
861
00:51:04.159 --> 00:51:07.079
a certain caliber of hotel, which is at least a
862
00:51:07.119 --> 00:51:10.920
limited full service built with a minimum of ten thousand
863
00:51:10.920 --> 00:51:15.199
square feet of convention space, then the city, once that
864
00:51:15.199 --> 00:51:19.880
that project is completed for ten years, receives back all
865
00:51:19.920 --> 00:51:22.719
of the hotel occupancy tax and all of the retail
866
00:51:23.079 --> 00:51:25.719
sales tax six and quarter percent collected by the state
867
00:51:26.039 --> 00:51:29.800
within a thousand linear feet of that facility. They get
868
00:51:29.840 --> 00:51:34.039
that back, and they can use that that state money
869
00:51:34.519 --> 00:51:39.000
in many respects to help generate this project with a
870
00:51:39.079 --> 00:51:43.000
hotel developer. And so we're having discussions right now about
871
00:51:43.000 --> 00:51:46.440
that potential, which is very exciting because that obviously is
872
00:51:46.519 --> 00:51:50.880
one of the key additional uses that we envision should
873
00:51:50.960 --> 00:51:55.280
should happen within North Line. In fact, the city did
874
00:51:57.599 --> 00:52:02.800
create a report or that it had done a few
875
00:52:02.840 --> 00:52:05.800
years ago where it hired a third party to determine
876
00:52:05.800 --> 00:52:08.679
where that that hotel location should be and has some
877
00:52:08.800 --> 00:52:12.840
metrics around that, and the only location from that report
878
00:52:13.000 --> 00:52:15.800
is should be in North Line. So we're excited to
879
00:52:15.840 --> 00:52:19.920
try to move that forward. We're also very excited for
880
00:52:20.000 --> 00:52:24.679
Saint David's across the street to commence their full hospital.
881
00:52:25.480 --> 00:52:30.079
That's been another when you ask, you know, why is
882
00:52:30.239 --> 00:52:34.280
things why have things taken so long? You know, post COVID,
883
00:52:34.320 --> 00:52:39.719
we've had you know, interest rates and you know inflationary
884
00:52:39.800 --> 00:52:45.480
issues and delays with construction materials, and challenges with you know,
885
00:52:45.559 --> 00:52:50.559
financial institutions, banks not lending, and oversupply of multifamily. That's
886
00:52:50.599 --> 00:52:54.880
been another another factor with which which with why we
887
00:52:54.920 --> 00:52:59.880
only have one project in place at this point in time.
888
00:53:00.360 --> 00:53:03.159
Another big piece to that is the delay in the
889
00:53:03.199 --> 00:53:07.840
hospital across the street, and St. David's originally had three phases.
890
00:53:07.880 --> 00:53:11.679
The first was going to be the emergency room, which
891
00:53:11.719 --> 00:53:16.559
was completed in twenty eighteen or nineteen. The second phase
892
00:53:16.639 --> 00:53:18.119
was going to be the full hospital and the third
893
00:53:18.159 --> 00:53:20.599
phase was going to be this medical office building. Somehow
894
00:53:20.639 --> 00:53:23.719
they flipped and built the medical office building during COVID
895
00:53:24.360 --> 00:53:29.000
and that has not filled up because the hospital hasn't started.
896
00:53:29.480 --> 00:53:31.400
And originally the hospital is going to be thirty beds,
897
00:53:31.400 --> 00:53:32.760
and then it was going to be sixty beds and
898
00:53:32.760 --> 00:53:37.800
then Sat David's HCA announced in summer of last year.
899
00:53:37.840 --> 00:53:40.320
It's now one hundred beds because of all the unprecedented
900
00:53:40.400 --> 00:53:43.800
growth this is their word, the unprecedented growth of Leander.
901
00:53:44.360 --> 00:53:48.039
But the community needs this hospital absolutely, and so I
902
00:53:48.079 --> 00:53:51.599
know the city is working to see how they can
903
00:53:51.639 --> 00:53:55.199
influence that commencement start. But that's going to also help
904
00:53:56.400 --> 00:53:59.880
a lot of medical components to our project. We've had
905
00:54:00.079 --> 00:54:03.960
multiple development partners who want to build medical office who
906
00:54:04.000 --> 00:54:07.079
have gotten to certain points and just said, we can't
907
00:54:07.079 --> 00:54:09.320
start till we know in this this hospital campus is
908
00:54:09.400 --> 00:54:10.360
going to commence.
909
00:54:10.719 --> 00:54:12.960
So yeah, you actually so we did have other things
910
00:54:12.960 --> 00:54:15.039
that we need to talk about. So I was a
911
00:54:15.079 --> 00:54:18.440
little premature in the twenty thirty six, but we'll go
912
00:54:18.519 --> 00:54:23.559
back to that. Yeah, you're spot on right, I want
913
00:54:23.599 --> 00:54:24.960
to get to let's talk a little bit about the
914
00:54:24.960 --> 00:54:29.280
hotel thing because as as a former hotelier myself and
915
00:54:29.320 --> 00:54:31.440
I worked in the city of Houston, and I understand
916
00:54:31.440 --> 00:54:33.400
the compression issues and all that kind of stuff that
917
00:54:33.480 --> 00:54:38.199
comes into play with that. Again at a very very
918
00:54:38.239 --> 00:54:41.840
critical period with where we are right now, and it's
919
00:54:41.880 --> 00:54:43.960
hard to understand unless you really kind of understand all
920
00:54:43.960 --> 00:54:46.599
the components. But you know, just to make it simple,
921
00:54:47.159 --> 00:54:49.320
the city of Austin has decided that they are going
922
00:54:49.360 --> 00:54:52.320
to rebuild their convention center, so they knocked it down.
923
00:54:52.400 --> 00:54:57.000
It's gone, right, and so that creates a fragmentation of
924
00:54:57.039 --> 00:55:02.400
the hospitality and the convention business that normally would come
925
00:55:02.440 --> 00:55:06.440
to Austin. Austin is a destination location similar to San Antonio,
926
00:55:06.760 --> 00:55:10.559
has a different vibe, right, and San Antonio is very
927
00:55:10.840 --> 00:55:12.400
uh tranfixed on.
928
00:55:12.639 --> 00:55:14.039
The on the riverwalk.
929
00:55:14.119 --> 00:55:14.280
Right.
930
00:55:14.320 --> 00:55:17.199
There's there's that's you're there or you're not anywhere, right,
931
00:55:17.280 --> 00:55:19.760
and Austin really doesn't. Kind of they kind of resemble
932
00:55:19.840 --> 00:55:21.920
that a little bit, but not necessarily. There's a lot
933
00:55:21.960 --> 00:55:23.840
more to Austin's a little bit more diverse, a little
934
00:55:23.880 --> 00:55:26.880
more spread out. So now you have this fragmentation of
935
00:55:26.920 --> 00:55:30.400
the hospitality component and all these hotels and they're and
936
00:55:30.400 --> 00:55:33.000
they're taking up all of this extra business that can't
937
00:55:33.000 --> 00:55:35.840
go into the convention centers, but it opens up a
938
00:55:35.880 --> 00:55:38.800
gap for additional hotel property within the.
939
00:55:39.679 --> 00:55:40.639
Metro, right.
940
00:55:41.239 --> 00:55:44.320
And I've always said this from the from the get go,
941
00:55:44.599 --> 00:55:47.400
Like literally the day that my wife and I decided
942
00:55:47.400 --> 00:55:50.159
to buy our house in the Ender because we knew
943
00:55:50.199 --> 00:55:53.519
we could ride the train into downtown, right, and I
944
00:55:53.559 --> 00:55:55.079
was always like, you know, would be really cool if
945
00:55:55.079 --> 00:55:58.719
there was a if there was a a driver at
946
00:55:58.719 --> 00:56:00.679
the end of the line. Let's something that would bring
947
00:56:00.719 --> 00:56:04.280
people from the city out here, right, And hotel becomes
948
00:56:04.320 --> 00:56:06.599
a really big component of that's it's a big.
949
00:56:06.440 --> 00:56:08.079
Piece of that process, right.
950
00:56:08.679 --> 00:56:12.840
So you know, it's nice to see what they're doing
951
00:56:12.840 --> 00:56:16.800
in Cedar Park with the Shiels project and that Mary
952
00:56:16.840 --> 00:56:21.800
out that's going there be fantastic to have that Marriotte
953
00:56:22.599 --> 00:56:25.440
at Northland, that would be that would be so fantastic,
954
00:56:25.440 --> 00:56:27.360
But that's not going to be the that's not a reality.
955
00:56:27.679 --> 00:56:31.000
So that shifts what we can do, right, But there's
956
00:56:31.000 --> 00:56:33.000
still the same issues are going to are going to
957
00:56:33.079 --> 00:56:35.039
come to play, and I think it still bodes well
958
00:56:35.079 --> 00:56:37.679
for Leander because of the rail line. You have an
959
00:56:37.719 --> 00:56:41.480
ease of access for hotel years in the city center
960
00:56:41.960 --> 00:56:46.199
to push out to the Leander area, right. You know, hey,
961
00:56:46.239 --> 00:56:49.079
you know, while we need an extra fifty rooms or
962
00:56:49.079 --> 00:56:51.320
whatever it might be, and that's okay, we're gonna put
963
00:56:51.360 --> 00:56:53.159
you on the train and we're gonna send you Leander
964
00:56:53.199 --> 00:56:54.360
to our other property over there.
965
00:56:54.400 --> 00:56:55.960
Whatever. How that it looks, right.
966
00:56:56.639 --> 00:57:00.719
I think that's something that if we have it. Again,
967
00:57:00.840 --> 00:57:03.800
not to quote movies, but if you build it, they
968
00:57:03.800 --> 00:57:05.679
will come. And I honestly think that's the case. Like
969
00:57:05.760 --> 00:57:09.199
I think if you have that component there, it lends
970
00:57:09.280 --> 00:57:15.360
to additional transient use, right, So I'm.
971
00:57:15.239 --> 00:57:16.840
Super excited about that, right.
972
00:57:16.880 --> 00:57:18.840
And there's a couple of things you can't really talk about,
973
00:57:18.880 --> 00:57:21.960
but I think those are the ideas of prospects there
974
00:57:21.719 --> 00:57:23.320
are really really fantastic.
975
00:57:23.320 --> 00:57:26.079
I think they fit right in with the vision. And
976
00:57:26.159 --> 00:57:27.199
then you know.
977
00:57:27.199 --> 00:57:31.360
The additional development with a hospital. Again, all that does
978
00:57:31.440 --> 00:57:35.119
is solidify the process and the direction that we're taking
979
00:57:35.159 --> 00:57:38.760
as a city by concentrating our efforts on building you know,
980
00:57:38.760 --> 00:57:42.480
the employment centers that are going to help facilitate I
981
00:57:42.480 --> 00:57:45.079
think there's three key things that are happening in the
982
00:57:45.119 --> 00:57:50.559
region right BioMed Then you have obviously tech right, and
983
00:57:50.639 --> 00:57:53.079
AI and all of that stuff that's going on. And
984
00:57:53.119 --> 00:57:58.079
then you have the Department of War, Department of Defense.
985
00:57:58.119 --> 00:58:00.360
Depending on who you talk to, there's a com there's
986
00:58:00.360 --> 00:58:01.440
a new calm in Austin.
987
00:58:01.519 --> 00:58:01.679
Right.
988
00:58:01.719 --> 00:58:04.719
So all of the space create the need for office
989
00:58:04.719 --> 00:58:07.280
space and the need for places to go. And I
990
00:58:07.480 --> 00:58:11.760
argue consistently the people who are facilitating those small businesses
991
00:58:11.800 --> 00:58:14.440
that will be feeders into the larger players in that
992
00:58:14.599 --> 00:58:18.159
in that echo, in that environment, in that economy, they
993
00:58:18.199 --> 00:58:19.760
can't afford to be in Austin.
994
00:58:20.280 --> 00:58:22.079
They can't. It's too expensive.
995
00:58:22.440 --> 00:58:26.840
Yeah, the rental rate in the class A office building
996
00:58:26.840 --> 00:58:31.280
that Saint John is building, in many cases it's you know,
997
00:58:31.440 --> 00:58:34.679
fifty percent of what you'll get in downtown Austin and
998
00:58:35.480 --> 00:58:37.800
a big discount to the domain.
999
00:58:38.000 --> 00:58:40.840
That's a that's a that's a driver, big time.
1000
00:58:40.960 --> 00:58:44.960
That that helps people make the decision to come here, right,
1001
00:58:45.000 --> 00:58:47.880
It helps them. It gives them incentive. We always talk about,
1002
00:58:47.920 --> 00:58:50.159
well what can the city do you as an incentive, Well, hey,
1003
00:58:50.360 --> 00:58:53.519
this is what the city's doing to create incentives. The
1004
00:58:53.639 --> 00:58:57.000
investment in this property, the investment in this process. Right,
1005
00:58:57.079 --> 00:58:59.880
the city is literally and I think you can say
1006
00:58:59.880 --> 00:59:04.840
that the cities literally putting four million dollars down so
1007
00:59:04.880 --> 00:59:08.239
that people can have a fifty percent discount on their rent.
1008
00:59:08.880 --> 00:59:10.519
I think it's a fair statement.
1009
00:59:10.840 --> 00:59:13.519
And and and the city is getting that four million back,
1010
00:59:13.760 --> 00:59:16.599
I mean, and the interest that it's paying, it's making
1011
00:59:16.639 --> 00:59:18.920
money off of the four million investment.
1012
00:59:19.039 --> 00:59:20.079
Yeah, so that's important.
1013
00:59:20.280 --> 00:59:20.960
It is important.
1014
00:59:21.000 --> 00:59:23.800
It is And again, this is what I love about
1015
00:59:23.800 --> 00:59:26.480
the conversations with you, Alex, is that you're first of all,
1016
00:59:26.920 --> 00:59:27.639
as a businessman.
1017
00:59:27.719 --> 00:59:30.199
You're very gracious and helping people understand that.
1018
00:59:30.239 --> 00:59:33.360
Like, I really have always enjoyed our conversations because I'm
1019
00:59:33.400 --> 00:59:37.039
not you know, I'm not a subject matter expert necessarily.
1020
00:59:37.079 --> 00:59:39.639
I've learned a lot of things. And I stayed at a.
1021
00:59:39.599 --> 00:59:42.280
Holiday and a few weeks ago, so you know, I've
1022
00:59:42.360 --> 00:59:44.000
kind of picked up a few extra things.
1023
00:59:44.039 --> 00:59:45.840
But I love that line anyway.
1024
00:59:46.920 --> 00:59:49.000
But I really do appreciate you being as open and
1025
00:59:49.719 --> 00:59:53.239
transparent about some of the process steps that are their
1026
00:59:53.280 --> 00:59:57.239
components of this of this this type of development. And
1027
00:59:57.280 --> 01:00:00.239
I know you have a vested interest. I'm not pretending
1028
01:00:00.280 --> 01:00:02.760
that you don't. You do, like you take the risk
1029
01:00:02.920 --> 01:00:06.239
right and you know, I want you to have the
1030
01:00:06.320 --> 01:00:09.239
benefit of you know, all of that risk paying off
1031
01:00:09.239 --> 01:00:12.840
for you, and and and again when we get together
1032
01:00:12.880 --> 01:00:16.719
in twenty thirty six, hopefully you're you're like, Okay, I'm
1033
01:00:16.760 --> 01:00:20.119
retiring now, right, because it's been a long road, and
1034
01:00:20.159 --> 01:00:24.960
that's you know, that's that. I I like you as
1035
01:00:25.000 --> 01:00:29.599
a person. I've always appreciated your your your courtesy to me.
1036
01:00:30.559 --> 01:00:33.119
But I do wish that upon you. Thank you, I mean,
1037
01:00:33.159 --> 01:00:33.960
because that's important.
1038
01:00:34.000 --> 01:00:34.639
Yeah, thank you.
1039
01:00:34.639 --> 01:00:36.400
You're you're you're the type of person who takes that
1040
01:00:36.480 --> 01:00:38.480
kind of risk and you deserve.
1041
01:00:38.199 --> 01:00:39.440
The success that they thank you.
1042
01:00:40.000 --> 01:00:41.920
And this is all I've been working on for eight
1043
01:00:42.000 --> 01:00:46.000
years so and nothing's paid paid back yet. So it's
1044
01:00:46.039 --> 01:00:52.320
a very very long term proposition, and to the extent
1045
01:00:52.400 --> 01:00:54.559
it works out the way we all hope, it's going
1046
01:00:54.639 --> 01:00:56.079
to be a wonderful thing for the city.
1047
01:00:56.159 --> 01:00:58.840
Yeah, no, I agree. I agree.
1048
01:00:59.360 --> 01:01:02.000
So I think we should reserve a room at the
1049
01:01:02.039 --> 01:01:06.559
hotel when they open four twenty thirty six, and well,
1050
01:01:06.599 --> 01:01:08.440
actually we'll do the interview in the hotel room.
1051
01:01:08.559 --> 01:01:11.519
That's great, that's great, all.
1052
01:01:11.480 --> 01:01:13.320
Right, thanks Alex.
1053
01:01:13.480 --> 01:01:16.719
I really really do appreciate this, And for you who
1054
01:01:16.920 --> 01:01:19.880
listen and watch the podcast, I hope this is helpful.
1055
01:01:20.760 --> 01:01:24.440
To you and your greater understanding of exactly what the
1056
01:01:24.480 --> 01:01:28.840
city's doing and how these things are moving along and
1057
01:01:29.039 --> 01:01:31.480
what moves the needle in the city. When I first
1058
01:01:31.519 --> 01:01:34.480
started doing the podcast, the idea was to introduce you
1059
01:01:34.559 --> 01:01:36.800
to the people, in the places and the things that
1060
01:01:36.920 --> 01:01:41.000
make a difference for our city. This is all three
1061
01:01:41.039 --> 01:01:43.840
of those, right. He's a person, he's the place, and
1062
01:01:43.880 --> 01:01:47.039
he's the thing. So it's a very very important piece
1063
01:01:47.079 --> 01:01:50.039
of our economic puzzle. I want to thank Alex for
1064
01:01:50.159 --> 01:01:54.079
his due diligence and his and his stick toutiveness over
1065
01:01:54.079 --> 01:01:56.519
the years. Like you just said, it was eight years
1066
01:01:56.519 --> 01:01:58.719
for him and he still hasn't seen the light at
1067
01:01:58.719 --> 01:01:59.440
the end of the tunnel.
1068
01:01:59.599 --> 01:02:00.760
I think it's starting to see the light.
1069
01:02:00.880 --> 01:02:02.440
I think that things are really coming together.
1070
01:02:02.559 --> 01:02:05.079
Yeah, so we're both excited about that. And I really
1071
01:02:05.079 --> 01:02:07.159
really appreciate your time here today. Thank you. I think
1072
01:02:07.199 --> 01:02:10.559
we went way over what we thought, but we'll edit down.
1073
01:02:11.400 --> 01:02:13.280
Thank you, all right, I appreciate it. Thanks so much,
1074
01:02:13.320 --> 01:02:16.039
Thank you, and thank you all for tuning in. And
1075
01:02:16.400 --> 01:02:18.159
you know, I'll try to be a little bit more.
1076
01:02:19.679 --> 01:02:22.039
I won't space the episodes out quite so much. I
1077
01:02:22.079 --> 01:02:24.480
know it's been since November we haven't really had a talk,
1078
01:02:24.960 --> 01:02:27.239
but I've been a little busy, but yeah, trying to
1079
01:02:27.239 --> 01:02:29.360
get back to it and trying to bring you again
1080
01:02:29.440 --> 01:02:34.079
the important items for discussion in our community. If you
1081
01:02:34.119 --> 01:02:36.039
have any ideas, or if there's anything that you'd like
1082
01:02:36.119 --> 01:02:38.880
me to address by all means, feel free to reach out.
1083
01:02:39.400 --> 01:02:41.800
You can reach me through the website.
1084
01:02:41.400 --> 01:02:44.559
Or on any of the social media channels and we'll
1085
01:02:44.559 --> 01:02:47.320
see you next time. Thanks a lot, folks, appreciate your time.
1086
01:02:51.480 --> 01:02:54.039
All right, I hope you enjoyed this episode. I'm sure
1087
01:02:54.039 --> 01:02:56.320
you can tell that I did. But as always, we
1088
01:02:56.360 --> 01:02:58.800
want to know what you think, so drop us a
1089
01:02:58.840 --> 01:03:04.159
line at Lee Leander dot net, slash contact, or you
1090
01:03:04.159 --> 01:03:07.559
can leave a message on either Facebook or Instagram.
1091
01:03:08.079 --> 01:03:11.039
Once you're done with that, please go ahead, rate, review.
1092
01:03:10.960 --> 01:03:13.639
And subscribe to the show. It helps us reach more people.
1093
01:03:14.440 --> 01:03:17.719
This episode was recorded and engineered at Lantern Media Studios
1094
01:03:17.760 --> 01:03:21.199
by Morgan Tuttle, produced and edited by Yours Truly, and
1095
01:03:21.239 --> 01:03:25.320
our theme music was licensed from Bensounds. Episodes of Lean
1096
01:03:25.360 --> 01:03:28.840
and Leander drop on a fairly regular basis, so listen
1097
01:03:28.920 --> 01:03:31.840
and subscribe to stay in the loop. You can watch
1098
01:03:31.880 --> 01:04:02.000
episodes of Leananleander at YouTube dot com slash at leananleannent
1099
01:04:02.280 --> 01:04:03.920
Us a marriage