The Project

The developer

The developer is “an investment and development group dedicated to creating value for stakeholders and shareholders on infill and high barriers markets” with project like “360-unit luxury residential tower in CBD Austin”, multiple “Class A infill office development”, and no advertized affordable housing projects.

Sunset Ridge Apartments

The Sunset Ridge Apartments project aims to build 220 affordable housing units and 218 market-rate units. Considering the developer’s experience and the location, the market-rate units are likely to be “Class A” with priority given to them at all stages of the project.

This project is too dense

  • 440 units on 18 acres is ~4.4 times the density of newly opened complex across the road.
  • Average impervious cover of 43% is ~2.15 times the value of similar projects in the area (affordable or not).
Plan of the project site

The density is to maximize profits at the expense of residents and neighbooring communities.

This project is too expensive

This project requires twice the help from City of Austin on a per-unit basis compared to other affordable housing projects that are more affordable. In other words:

  • the City of Austin helps more for units that are less affordable.
  • the City of Austin could help build twice the number of more affordable units.
  • the City of Austin is using affordable housing funds to subsidize a project building high-end market-rate units.