Austin, Texas, is, in a word, booming. Not only has Dell and other tech giants including Amazon, Apple, Google and Meta landed there, Tesla has recently parked its headquarters in the city as well. As Austin’s employment growth has skyrocketed, so has the city’s population. Doubling in size from 1.24 million in 2000 to 2.29 million people in 2020 according to the U.S. Census, Austin’s growth rate has outpaced the nation’s growth rate by over five times—more than doubling the growth of the state of Texas itself.

Along with Austin’s recent population surge, so have the city’s local housing costs—shifting Austin from among the most affordable U.S. cities to a highly unaffordable one for many. As more affluent people have moved into central Austin’s hub and surrounding neighborhoods, lower-income residents have been pushed to the outskirts, or out of the city altogether.

These conditions factored heavily into the development of AMTEX Spring Villas Fund, LP’s affordable housing community called Spring Villas. Located approximately seven miles south of Central Austin, Spring Villas is a newly constructed multifamily apartment community consisting of 304 homes, with one-, two-, three- and four-bedroom units distributed in four residential buildings on 10.97 acres. The project was completed in November 2023.

A challenge for the Spring Villas team was the site’s topographic hillside that required complex grading and an intricate storm drain design.  With an already complex and lengthy entitlement process, there were additional challenges at the City and County; including staffing, plan review and inspection issues leading to additional delays of approximately one year.

Spring Villas faced other challenges as well including the COVID-19 pandemic, rising costs in an uncertain economic climate as well as local city and county challenges and supply chain delays. The inability to obtain and install transformers and meters due to supply issues with Austin Energy delayed obtaining Certificates of Occupancy by almost a year and caused a tremendous financial strain on the development during the construction process and into the present lease-up process. Additionally, the project is located in the Extraterritorial Jurisdiction (ETJ) of Austin and thus required plan/permit approvals from both the City of Austin and Travis County.

Despite development challenges, AMTEX is proud to be able to provide Austinites with this new workforce housing community to help both alleviate the rising housing costs that families are experiencing, and to help stimulate business in South Austin. Spring Villas is the recipient of CoStar’s 2024 Multifamily Development of the Year for the Austin, Texas market. The CoStar Impact Awards recognize exemplary commercial real estate transactions and projects completed in 2023 that have significantly influenced neighborhoods or submarkets across 128 major international markets in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom.

Support Services

Spring Villas has collaborated with Better Texans Services, Inc. to provide much needed supportive services to the residents.  These supportive services include after-school activities, arts and crafts, recreational activities, family social events, adult classes (parenting, job assistance), and an on-site services coordinator.

Resident Profile

Perhaps the most impactful feature of Spring Villas is that sixteen (16) of its 304 apartment homes (5.26%) are offered to renters at 30% of the Area Median Income (AMI). Although it is notoriously difficult to include deeply affordable (30%) rental units in a development project, AMTEX achieved this difficult goal in partnership with the Travis County Housing Finance Corporation (TCHFC), to help meet the needs of the lower-income population in the area. Offering apartments at 30% AMI enabled AMTEX to provide exceptional opportunities for tenants transitioning from shelters or homeless situations, and elderly clientele as well.

For reference, the previously existing number of 30% AMI units offered in the southeast Austin area is limited to only a few HUD properties and several other affordable housing communities. These apartments typically are in high demand and maintain 100% occupancy. Offering the remaining 288 apartments at Spring Villas at 60% AMI gives hundreds of other Austinites with affordable home choices as well.

Spring Villas also offers sixteen (16) handicapped accessible units and eight (8) apartments for hearing and visually impaired individuals under the ADA.

With affordable housing options in Austin bordering on crisis levels and with most of the existing product being significantly aged, or aging, Spring Villas offers a fresh start for lower-income individuals and families living and working in the area.