ROUND ROCK, TX - Round Rock’s City Council has made the redevelopment of downtown one of its top priorities. The City has undergone several downtown planning initiatives recently. In 2010, the City adopted a Downtown Master Plan. The Plan’s stated vision is that “Downtown Round Rock can become a thriving town center, featuring a viable mix of residential, commercial, retail, dining, entertainment and public space uses, in a walkable and historically-sensitive environment to enhance Round Rock’s economy, quality of life, and sense of place.”
The vision of downtown as a vibrant destination is gaining momentum. The City has invested significantly over the past 10 years in streetscape improvements, upgrades to utilities, public parking, upgrades and construction of City facilities, public plazas and property acquisition and will continue to do so with several pending projects.
Recently, the City acquired a prominent piece of land downtown, known as the Bagdad Avenue Property. The site is approximately 3.68 acres. The City wishes to develop this land as a mixed use project that will complement the City’s vision for downtown and bring additional commercial activity, such as entertainment and dining venues, to the City’s core.
Project objectives include:
Redeveloping the site into a thriving mixed-use development that is an entertainment destination downtown;
Creating a financially feasible project that maximizes the economic impact on the City of Round Rock while meeting the City Council’s 2017 Strategic Plan goals of creating an “authentic downtown” and an “exciting community destination” and the Downtown Master Plan’s vision for downtown;
Ensuring new development exemplifies design excellence; and
Creating a high quality pedestrian-oriented environment that links the site to the rest of downtown.
In order to gauge the level of interest in the development community for projects of this nature, the City is inviting developers to submit a Letter of Interest along with information about their firm and past experience with similar projects. Letters of interest are due to the City by June 16, 2014. For more information on this invitation, visit the City’s website.