Republished from Austin Business Journal
August 17, 2007
A.J. Mistretta
A Baltimore-area developer of senior communities has secured the 50-acre balance of the Schlumberger tract in Far Northwest Austin adjacent to the future Concordia University campus.
Andrew Aldi of Aldi Development Partners LLC plans to build Independence Square at Austin, a phased, 750-unit senior housing complex that would be one of the largest of its kind in Central Texas. The property is already zoned appropriately for the project and the developer is now seeking site plan approval and a state license to operate a continuing-care retirement community.
Aldi declined to give an investment figure on the project, but did say that entrance fees alone on the project are expected to total more than $200 million.
Independent living will encompass the vast majority of the development, with 650 units spread among apartment homes and townhome-like casitas. There will be another 100 units in the assisted living and skilled nursing portion. Community amenities will include a health club, pool, walking paths, courtyards, a putting green, gardening area, at least two dining venues, a pub, chapel, branch bank and a billiard room.
Aldi, who developed 10 senior housing communities in his previous role with another real estate firm, launched Aldi Development Partners LLC in June as a joint venture with a Wall Street investment banking firm. The company has opened an Austin office.
The local project is the second for the developer, following the announcement last month of the 700-unit Independence Square at Louisville community in Kentucky. Aldi is working on getting a zoning change needed for that project set on 50 acres adjoining a country club. The company will next set its sights on the Princeton, N.J., market.
Aldi says he spent some time working with Austin's Commercial Texas LLC to find the right location for what he wanted to do, but it wasn't until the Schlumberger site came up that the project really began to gel. He sees the proximity of the Concordia campus as ideal -- the perfect synergy between two very different developments.
"Seniors want educational and fine arts opportunities handy, and [the adjacency of Concordia] is about as handy as it gets," he says. And it's not one-sided. Students at Concordia will have access to full- and part-time jobs in various areas of the senior community, Aldi says.
Aldi says his company is concentrated on building projects that middle-income seniors will be able to afford. Residential entry fees in the Austin development will range from about $237,000 to $475,000 along with a monthly fee ranging from $1,750 to $4,625 that includes one meal a day.
"We want to make it so that living expenses [for residents] do not increase, but actually decrease," he says.
Senior housing developments like Aldi's are growing in popularity among today's retirees not yet ready to settle into the rocking chair.
"Austin is a market that several senior housing developers are looking at right now," says Michael Hargrave, vice president with the National Investment Center for the Seniors Housing & Care Industry, an Annapolis, Md.-based consulting firm. Because retirement income is not taxed in Texas, the state has gained a reputation as retirement-friendly. And with a limited number of senior communities already on the ground, Austin has garnered the attention of national developers who see the market as relatively untapped. There are only 1,941 independent living units in the metropolitan area, according to NIC. The last significant building period for senior housing here occurred in the late 1990s and only a handful of properties have been built since. But a new boom is looming, Hargrave says.
Set to open in summer 2009, the Longhorn Village project was the first major senior community associated with a university to be announced in Central Texas. Going up on 56 acres at Steiner Ranch in Northwest Austin, the project is being developed in association with the Texas Exes Alumni Association of the University of Texas, though it's obviously not in close proximity to the UT campus.
Another community which opened in June, the 167-unit Querencia at Barton Creek, is 92 percent reserved. Construction continues on the assisted living portion of that $112 million development and demand is strong, says Leslie Dominguez, director of marketing. "People love living in Austin and they want to retire here," she says. "I think we're seeing a definite trend toward this type of living." |
