The Statesman reported that the development team for the Seaholm Powerplant redevelopment has nearly reached an agreement with the City of Austin. The agreement and planning phase has taken about 3 years (not including the planning the city did beforehand), and it’s reported that the earliest construction will be completed is 2011. After that, they still have to finalize the how/when/where of adding a light rail stop with Capitol Metro. When all is said and done, the developers and city will have spent the better part of a decade on the redevelopment.
In the end, I think Seaholm will be a wonderful example of what can be accomplished when public and private entities collaborate throughout the planning, design and construction phases. However, I would be curious to know if the developers will feel it was worthwhile after the years of delays and additional costs of time, energy and capital invested in the project? It’s certainly wonderful to preserve something of historic significance and leave a legacy for the city, but I hope the new downtown master plan will institute processes and protocol to streamline the process and reduce delays for similar redevelopment in the future. That said, given the complexity of the project, it’s impressive that the city and developers have had the persistence and patience to see it through.
Seaholm development agreement proposal
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