A 6-acre Related Companies-owned site at South Congress Avenue and West Riverside Drive is slated to be redeveloped as a mixed-use district. The New York developer's plans for the site include 800 residential units, 225-room hotel, 200,000 square feet of office space, 90,000 square feet for retail, 30,000 square feet for restaurants, and a 25,000-square-foot grocery store.
The site is known primarily as the home of karaoke bar Ego’s, which be the only business incorporated into the new development. Other current occupants, including an Austin-Travis County mental health facility and the South Congress Square apartment complex, will not be coming back.
The apparently yet-unnamed development will have an elevated boardwalk and trails connecting South First Street and South Congress Avenue, a pedestrian bridge to provide access to the Texas School for the Deaf, a habitat for bees and other local pollinators, and a vertical green wall to reduce the urban heat island effect. It will also have entirely below-ground parking and charging stations for electric vehicles.
Related plans to submit a Planned Unit Development application — the approval of which would allow more zoning flexibility — and is aiming for final approval of the plans by 2026. Construction is projected to take three to four years following approval.
Related Companies bought the site at 500 S. Congress Avenue, once owned by World Class Holdings, for $65 million in a sale approved by a bankruptcy judge in 2022.
