As construction slowdown continues, a new workforce housing project takes shape

FRIDAY, AUGUST 2, 2024 BY CHAD SWIATECKI

While the pipeline for multifamily housing projects has slowed severely since the end of 2023 in Austin, a local developer has announced something of a rarity: a new 110-unit project aimed primarily at workforce and middle-income residents.

Earlier this week, Notional Development Partners, which is based in Austin, announced the close of funding for its 600 Cumberland project that will be located just off South First Street to the south of Oltorf Street. Half of the units in the eight-story, half-acre project will be priced for affordability to those earning from 50 percent to 80 percent of the area’s median family income.

Guidelines from the Austin Housing Finance Corporation would put the maximum rent for those units from $1,102 to $1,712 for an efficiency apartment, $1,181 to $1,956 for a one-bedroom unit and $1,417 to $2,201 for a two-bedroom unit. To subsidize the affordable units, the developers are seeking a property tax exemption for the project, which was rezoned for greater density as part of City Council’s recent adoption of land use changes to encourage equitable transit-oriented development.