Major project is proposed for Brackenridge campus
Hotel, housing, medical services, shops, eateries and bars envisioned.
A proposal to reshape the publicly owned University Medical Center Brackenridge campus includes space for a hotel, housing, medical services, businesses and an indoor-outdoor market that would sit right in the middle of the 14.3 acres.
“It’ll be a mixture of things,” Juan Garza, Central Health’s vice president of finance and development, said at a preview of a master plan for the prime downtown property. “You’ll probably also see restaurants, a gym, a dry cleaners, coffee shop and you’ll probably see some bars. It’ll be a place where people live, shop and learn.”
Garza described the concept, based in part on community feedback, at one of two open house events Central Health held Monday at which members of the public could individually discuss the proposal with Central Health staff. The property stretches from Interstate 35 to Red River Street and from 15th Street to a block south of 14th Street.
It will be developed over the next 15 to 20 years as part of a district that includes a new medical school, research building and related facilities.
A Central Health official said earlier this year that the land is worth up to $115 million and includes the hospital, a parking garage, a medical office building and education center.
After UMC Brackenridge closes in 2017, it will be razed and Central Health will lose most of the $32 million a year it receives in rent from the hospital’s operator, the Seton Healthcare Family. Seton is building a new teaching hospital across 15th Street, and Central Health hopes to recoup some of the lost rental income by leasing space to developers.
“One of the challenges we have is how to make the housing affordable,” Garza said of
the planned residential housing. He said some of it could be used by medical students and faculty with the University of Texas Dell Medical School, which is opening next year.
The redevelopment cost to taxpayers isn’t known, Central Health officials said Monday.
About 100 community leaders, representatives of nonprofits and others attended the morning open house at St. David’s Episcopal Church and saw posters describing the plans and a three-dimensional model depicting a dense development with four tall buildings, including one that could rise more than 40 stories, as well as several shorter structures.
The market space could include fresh produce and small business vendors.
In all, the development could have as much as 4.5 million square feet of office, living and retail space, said Chi Lee, project manager for Gensler, a San Francisco-based architectural and design firm working on the master plan.
Of that, 400,000 square feet is allocated for medical uses, but that could change, Lee said.
Garza expects the Central Health board to finalize the master plan early next year.
District One City Council Member Ora Houston said she was happy to see that the planners had agreed to reorient two building towers so their narrower sides faced East Austin rather than “creating a barrier” by having the wider sides face out.
“It’s so important when we do planning that we make it as open and inviting as possible,” she said.
She hopes future plans will include such services as hospice care for the homeless and overnight lodging for people visiting hospitalized loved ones, she said.
“It’s not in what I’ve seen,” she said.