Juno mass timber apartments join East Austin fray

Juno, a mass-timber multifamily project developed by a Silicon Valley real estate startup of the same name, is nearing completion on East Fourth and Comal.

The five-story, 24-unit apartment community at 400 Comal Street had a sort of soft preview at a SXSW-connected open house today to showcase the sustainability and carbon-sequestering properties of the mass-timber building.

Located on a 0.17-acre lot near the Plaza Saltillo MetroRail station and Austin design firm Cielo's Foundry office and residential buildings, Juno East Austin was designed according to what the company calls its "unique productization platform."

Co-founders Jonathan Scherr and BJ Siegel, the latter a former Apple design director, aim to integrate technology and design to create "adaptable building components and processes to shorten key aspects of the design timeline and construction schedule," with adaptable components that can be used for variety of structures. Juno throws appealing design into the mix and focuses on mass timber in part for its carbon-sequestering qualities.

Juno East Austin's studios are 457 square feet and one-bedroom apartments are 685 square feet. Six of the units are priced for households making 50 percent or less of the area median family income due to the builders' participation in the city's SMART housing program. Half the total units are preleased, with market-rate studios renting for $2,000 and one-bedrooms for $2,500 per month.

The 14,724-square-foot building has 1,1956 square feet of commercial/retail space on the lobby level, half of which is rented to F45 Training fitness studio.

Juno's partners on the project include Ennead Architects, IE2 Construction, Holmes Fire and Structures, Seagate Mass Timber, Freres Engineered Wood, and Bathsystem.

Note: This article was updated to remove event-related information and to update pricing.