University Star

A new towering three-story complex plans to combine residential units with retail and restaurant businesses in Texas State’s backyard.

The multi-use building, Concho Commons, is still in its pre-leasing stages. Casey Development, Ltd. has big plans for the 1.7 acres off of Concho Street and LBJ Drive.

The development originally, in 2003, called for six-stories. The construction was expected to commence in late 2008, however, City Councilmembers questioned whether the plan was too big. The economic lull led developers to keep half of the proposal.

The block-wide structure will be more than 37,000 square feet once completed.

City Councilmember Ryan Thomason, Place 5, said councilmembers favor multi-use approaches for the downtown area similar to Concho Commons.

“The complex will attract a lot of people with its cool and fun concept,” Thomason said. “You can walk to everything. I’d support another, but it would take some redevelopment to find more spots like this.”

Matthew Lewis, assistant director of Development Services, said city officials would be recoding development regulations April 6 to April 9 in order to assess how the open land downtown could best serve the community. He said City Councilmembers postponed the project in order to allow time for students and community members to voice their opinions in public involvement sessions.

The ordinance’s wording will be modified after the public involvement sessions. City officials will make session dates and times available within the upcoming month.

The development of Concho Commons has not come without controversy. Specifically, people are concerned with the availability of parking downtown. The parking spaces available at Concho Commons are approximately 70 spaces less than the city’s land development code would normally mandate.

Thomason said critics of the project believe officials from Casey Development, Ltd. are trying to indirectly increase their profit by allocating more square feet to commercial space instead of parking. 

Thomason does not agree.

“This variation of the parking code is not bad,” Thomason said.

The previous City Council did a study over parking garages and came to the conclusion no parking problem exists downtown.

“If some people can’t park right outside the front door, they’ll go somewhere else,” Thomason said. “In Austin, parking three-blocks away is understood as front row seats.”

Lewis said city officials would look closely at having more on-street parking to ease downtown congestion. He said installing meters for all on-street parking would be considered as it could “generate quite a bit of money.”

“Parking is fluid — there is not a constant over or under-parking situation,” Lewis said. “We’re looking at a 1998 study, and most things haven’t changed with the demographic make-up of the community.”

Lewis said the development services department would present their parking report to the City Council within the next few months. 

A broker from Casey Development, Ltd. said he has no idea when Concho Commons would move past its current pre-leasing stage and begin building. Casey Development, Ltd. officials denied commenting further after multiple calls of inquiry.