la Frontera In the News
Austin Business Journal
Commercial Real Estate Awards
March 28 - April 3, 2003
Buyer and seller win with Lakeside project
by Kate Hourin
It turned out to be a win-win situation for the buyer and seller of the 10.4-acre site in Round Rock where Lakeside at La Frontera now stands.
Multifamily developer Martin Fein of Houston-based Martin Fein Interest Inc. wanted to build another urban-style apartment complex at the La Frontera subdivision -- similar to the fully-occupied Enclave at La Frontera -- but he did not have the zoning or a suitable site. The owner of the 328-acre La Frontera development, 35/45 La Frontera LP, held an office tract with no office market in sight, yet wanted to sell the land for the higher "office" price.
In stepped the City of Round Rock.
The city rezoned the 10-acre site for higher-density, multifamily use, allowing the seller to achieve the same price per-square-foot on the land originally slated for a mid-rise office building -- and Martin Fein could begin building his second apartment complex at La Frontera.
Lakeside at La Frontera is a $27.3 million project begun in April 2001 and completed at the end of last year. It contains a 336,000-square-foot complex with 367 one-, two-, and three-bedroom units. It's considered a relatively high-density urban apartment complex with 35.1 units per acre.
And the project was selected as a finalist in the 2002 Commercial Real Estate Awards in the multifamily category.
"Residents are professional people who are working for the major corporations in North Austin," Fein says. "The site is unique with its beautiful rolling terrain with quite a bit of a drop and a lake."
Those employers include, among others, Dell Computer Corp., Farmer's Insurance Group, National Instruments Corp., Abbott Laboratories, IBM Corp., and Cisco Systems Inc. Texas Guaranteed Student Loan Corp. is scheduled to move to office space at La Frontera in June. The location offers easy access to major roadways including I-35, SH-45, and MoPac Expressway.
Fein says Lakeside at La Frontera is 65 percent leased and offers six-month or 12-month leases. Monthly rents start at $750 for a one-bedroom unit, $1,150 for a two-bedroom unit, and $1,395 for a three-bedroom apartment.
The steep topography of the site was worked into the project by tucking a parking garage into the hillside and wrapping the buildings around the garage. The garage is positioned so that tenants' apartments are on the same level as their garage parking area.
All units have a view of the five-acre, man-made lake, courtyards, gardens and a jogging trail that borders the complex as it meanders around the lake. Fein says by clustering the units around the internal garage the site has no surface parking other than the few spaces for the leasing center. And the sewer easement was used as a promenade with a park-like setting, complete with walkway and benches.
The facility also includes a billiards room, outdoor living room with fireplace, 24-hour Internet café, a clubhouse with a heated indoor/outdoor pool and a fitness center. What was once a water quality collection pond became the five-acre lake, where visiting wildlife can be seen every day.
Fein says he would not have been able to capitalize on his marketing success with Lakeside at La Frontera without the highly innovative solution of the re-use of a planned office site. In the process, a project came to life with density and site amenities that allowed him to pay the higher office land price.
