By Kristen Berns/Austin Daily Herald
Senior housing construction begins – Austin Chamber of Commerce executive director Sandy Forstner waits to take a picture during a ground-breaking for the Village Cooperative senior housing complex held outside the Holiday Inn. Ceremonies were held at the hotel because of cold weather and unforeseeable terrain at the site of the complex.
Austin’s newest pioneers won’t have to worry about shoveling snow in the winter or mowing the lawn in the summer thanks to a multi-housing senior complex to be built soon.
Ground-breaking ceremonies were held Tuesday for the newest residents of Village Cooperative of Austin.
Held outdoors at the Holiday Inn of Austin due to cold weather and unforeseeable terrain at the future site of the housing complex, community leaders and builders were on-hand to greet the residents of Austin’s newest housing complex.
“The city helped us get started and moving the process,” Keith Jans, president of Real Estate Equities, said. “This is a great opportunity.”
He went on to thank the city leaders for help in bringing the 62-unit senior housing complex planned for northwest Austin.
The three-story complex will be finished by November 2007 and located north of land reserved for the Wal-Mart supercenter. The land was chosen for the area’s natural beauty.
The housing complex had to pass a few hurdles before the Austin City Council approved the rezoning and preliminary plat for the complex.
Real Estate Equities agreed to plant 8-foot coniferous trees as a buffer between the north side of its building and adjacent single-family homes in Murphy Creek. Also, the drive access to the north of the development will be for emergency vehicles only.
Residents near the planned site of complex came before the council and planning commission in early developments of the complex to try and keep it out of their neighborhood with failed efforts.
The plat includes a requirement to redesignate the wetland portion of the 15.5 acres as an outlot with a conservation easement, meaning it cannot be developed.
“I think everyone will be proud of the outcome,” Jans said.