Amid a year of muted activity for commercial real estate development, Pearlstone Partners is betting big on the continued allure of Austin — it has three new projects up its sleeve that could total about $700 million in construction costs. That's on top of Robert Lee and his team forging ahead on three under-construction projects expected to deliver from early 2024 through 2025. Click through to learn more about their strategy. Plus, ABJ subscribers can access a list of the busiest multifamily developers in the region.

The 32-story residential tower planned by local developer Pearlstone Partners is set to bring approximately 220 new residences to the southwest corner of West 14th and Lavaca Streets near the Capitol in downtown — but we still haven’t gotten a look at the as-yet-unnamed building’s appearance from architects STG Design.

Pearlstone Partners has sealed $75 million of construction financing to build a condominium building in Austin, Texas, Commercial Observer can first report.Knighthead Funding supplied the loan for Pearlstone Partners’ planned 182-unit condo project in Austin’s South Lamar neighborhood — slated for completion in the second half of 2024. The transaction marks Knighthead’s fifth for Pearlstone since 2020.

AUSTIN, Texas — An Austin-based developer has filed paperwork related to a potential new high-rise in Downtown Austin.

According to KVUE's news partners at the Austin American-Statesman, Pearlstone Partners filed a site plan to be reviewed by the City of Austin for a 32-story residential tower at Lavaca and West 14th streets. Plans are still preliminary, but the building could house up to 220 condominium units.

A local developer is proposing another residential tower in downtown Austin.

Pearlstone Partners plans to build a 32-story residential tower with 220 condos at the corner of Lavaca and West 14th streets, the Austin American-Statesman reported. The tower will rise across the street from the 13-story SXSW Center. The lot, which previously held two vacant buildings, is located immediately west of the Texas Capitol.

The project is in very early stages and not likely to break ground this year, Pearlstone senior vice president Chris Zaiontz told the outlet.

This is one of multiple condo towers Pearlstone has underway in central Austin.

Pearlstone Partners has obtained $75 million in construction financing for an upcoming 182-unit condominium development in the South Lamar area of Austin, Texas.

Knighthead Funding supplied the loan, marking the firm’s fifth transaction on behalf of Pearlstone since 2020, according to prepared remarks by Knighthead Vice President Henry Boeckmann.

Pearlstone Partners is developing the Montage, a 182-unit condominium project to be located at the southeast corner of South Lamar and Bluebonnet Lane in Austin. Summit Design Builders is the general contractor for the project. Knighthood Funding has provided $75 million in construction financing. The property, an abandoned used car lot, will be the site for a five-story development that will include 12,872 feet of retail.

The Montage condo project by local real estate firm Pearlstone Partners celebrated its official groundbreaking earlier today, bringing approximately 182 new homes to a 1.86-acre property at 2323 South Lamar Boulevard, formerly the site of a used car dealership near Bluebonnet Lane. The building is currently scheduled for completion by the spring of 2025, according to the developers.

Austin-based real estate development firm Pearlstone Partners has revealed details on two new projects slated to start construction in mid-2022 and early 2023. One is a proposed residential high-rise next to the SXSW headquarters. Click through for more details, plus info on where Pearlstone might look next.

AUSTIN, Texas, Feb. 7, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Pearlstone Partners — a full-service real estate development firm with more than 100 years' combined experience in the local real estate industry — is pleased to report a 200% increase in year-over-year growth from 2020 to 2021, with projects in development and under construction doubling. Since 2018, Pearlstone has invested $605 million in project value delivered and/or under construction. As of year-end 2021, the company had approximately 819,000 net rentable square feet and 856 residences under construction.

Pearlstone Partners, the local real estate development firm behind Vesper, the upcoming 41-story, 284-unit residential tower located at 84 East Ave., and the Austin Chamber of Commerce celebrated the opening of sales for the condo tower with a ribbon-cutting event and tour of the new sales center.

Vesper is another example of Pearlstone Partners’ penchant for providing the community with more attainable luxury housing options within the city’s urban core. Units start in the low $600’s and 10 units are reserved for the City of Austin for households earning up to 80 percent of the area’s Median Family Income.

Another high-rise in search of a sweet density bonus is in the works for Downtown's Rainey Street District.

Developer Pearlstone Partners is looking to build a residential tower on two adjacent lots at 62 East Avenue and 64 East Avenue, according to plans recently filed with the city.

Early plans indicate the condo tower could rise 48 stories on the 0.3-acre site and have 254 units, according to reports from the Towers blog and the Austin American-Statesman. Renderings of the proposed project haven't been released, and plans can and often do change significantly as they move through the city's development review process.

An Austin-based developer plans to start construction next year on a 48-story residential tower in the Rainey Street district on downtown Austin’s southeast side. The proposed high-rise would add to the ongoing building boom in the Rainey Street area, and in downtown in general.

Pearlstone Partners plans to build the tower on two adjacent tracts that span from 62 East Ave. to 64 East Ave.  Although plans are still preliminary, Pearlstone executives say they envision a tower with 48 stories and 245 condominium units, although those numbers “could all very much change as we move through the design process,” said Chris Zaiontz, a Pearlstone senior vice president and principal.

AUSTIN BUSINESS JOURNAL —  Austin-based real estate development firm Pearlstone Partners, led by CEO Robert Lee, has another condo project in the works — this one is set to bring 200 units with a small footprint to the Mueller mixed-use community. At the groundbreaking, Lee weighed in on whether developers — and the city — should prioritize dense housing.

TOWERS — The pending demolition of a restaurant building will soon clear the site of a planned downtown Austin condo tower on the edge of the Rainey Street District. The 41-story East Tower project by local developers Pearlstone Partners in partnership with New York-based investment firm ATCO Properties is currently expected to break ground later this year atop a 0.4-acre site at 82 and 84 East Avenue.

AUSTIN TOWERS - Approximately 17 years into its transformation from an Austin airport to a master-planned neighborhood, you might say Mueller is running out of surprises — most of its sprawling 711 acres are now built out on behalf of its master developers at Catellus. We’re excited to see how an expected future apartment project fits around the iconic former Mueller Airport’s preserved control tower, and it was nice to finally see the neighborhood’s first boutique hotel plan a while back — but to us, one of the area’s biggest game-changers lately will be the completion of Parkside at Mueller, the first major condominium development of its kind in the neighborhood by the locals at Pearlstone Partners and New York-based ATCO Properties.

TEXAS REAL ESTATE BUSINESS — A partnership between Austin-based Pearlstone Properties and New York-based ATCO Properties & Management will develop The East Tower, a 284-unit multifamily project that will be located in Austin’s historic Rainey Street District.

MHN — Austin continued to showcase strength throughout the pandemic, with real estate fundamentals remaining relatively steady. The strong in-migration from high-cost gateway markets has maintained high demand levels, particularly for more affordable housing options, according to a recent Yardi Matrix report.

RECON — Pearlstone Partners is developing Parkside at Mueller, a 200-unit condominium community on 1.8 acres at 1701 Simond Ave. The project will offer studio-, one-, two-, and three-bedroom floor plans. Thirty of the condos will be reserved for families earning up to 80 percent of the area median family income. Construction will begin in the second quarter and be complete by mid-2023.

AUSTIN BUSINESS JOURNAL — More dirt will move soon in the Mueller mixed-use community, as Austin-based Pearlstone Partners announced it will develop a six-story, 200-unit condominium project.

CULTURE MAP AUSTIN – Construction will get underway this spring on a mixed-use project in East Austin that’ll be anchored by 200 condos.

Condos in the six-story Parkside at Mueller project will be a mix of studio, one-, two-, and three-bedroom units measuring 600 to 1,600 square feet. Thirty of the condos will be set aside for families who earn up to 80 percent of Austin’s median family income. Prices for the condos haven’t seen set.

KVUE — The Mueller development is continuing to feel the effects of boomtown Austin.

On Wednesday, Austin-based Pearlstone Partners announced a new condominium project is coming to Mueller's Aldrich Street. It's called Parkside at Mueller and it will be located at 1701 Simond Avenue.

AUSTINTOWERS.NET — Though we saw plenty of construction progress on existing projects, no major downtown Austin tower plans have broken ground since the coronavirus kicked off in earnest last year.

AUSTIN BUSINESS JOURNAL — Expect more construction cranes in Austin’s Central Business District in 2021, as several projects in the area are progressing. Here is the latest update on the downtown housing scene.

AUSTIN BUSINESS JOURNAL — The Rainey Street corridor, once a quaint neighborhood in the shadows of downtown, is now a nightlife district. But much of the area is going vertical, and two more residential towers moved forward after an Austin Design Commission meeting on Nov. 23.

CoStar News —  Rainey Street’s rapid transformation in Austin, Texas, continues with developers planning to break ground next year on a 41-story condominium tower overlooking the popular nightlife district.

CONNECT TEXAS —  Waterloo Real Estate Investments and Highland Realty Capital arranged a $26.5-million construction loan on behalf of Austin-based Pearlstone Partners for its latest condominium project, Cascade Condominiums. It’s the fourth loan that Austin-based Waterloo and Los Angeles-based Highland have closed with Pearlstone in the past two years.

COMMUNITY IMPACT Central Texas —  New condos coming in West Campus area - Cascade Condominiums, a new 113-unit condo development at 2500 Longview St., Austin, broke ground in September. Prices will range from $280,000 to $635,000 per condo at the site, which is being developed by Pearlstone Partners and marketed by Prospect Real Estate. Two commercial units will also be included.

ATX REAL ESTATE NEWS —  Pearlstone Partners is entering East Austin’s booming office market with a proposed 103,000-square-foot building on East Fifth Street.

The Austin-based company headed by Robert Lee is co-developing the four-story office building with New York-based ATCO Properties & Management LLC. Austin architecture firm Sixthriver is designing the building. Wuest Group is the civil engineer.

Lee said he expects the building, at 2700 E. Fifth St., to break ground in the third quarter of 2020 and be complete in the first quarter of 2022.

ATX REAL ESTATE NEWS —  Developer Robert Lee has taken full advantage of Austin’s robust growth over the past decade to build a versatile portfolio of multifamily and office/industrial projects in a range of submarkets.

But his most consuming passion is building condos for the missing middle, which he prefers to label “attainable housing.”

CULTURE MAP AUSTIN —  When you have a neighborhood as cool and established as Govalle in East Austin, everyone's nightmare is that a new housing complex will come in and completely destroy the vibe. Luckily, Pearlstone Partners took care to learn about and respect the area when it built HOM

CULTURE MAP AUSTIN —  If you've thought about dipping your toe into the home-sharing business but feel overwhelmed by all the minutiae you'd have to manage, here's a new concept to consider.

KVUE —  AUSTIN, Texas — In an already built-up area of town, the Rainey Street District can soon expect another neighbor. Construction on Natiivo Austin is set to begin in the fall. It's a hotel located at 48 East Avenue, two blocks from Rainey Street. Robert Lee, CEO of Pearlstone Partners, said it is unlike any hotel in Austin.

MULTI-HOUSING NEWS —  A joint venture between Pearlstone Partners and Newgard Development Group has secured an $87.9 million construction loan for the development of a 33-story, 249-unit condo project in downtown Austin. 3650 REIT originated the single-source stretch senior loan, which will allow construction to start by the end of June.

CULTURE MAP AUSTIN —  Imagine living in a unique, thriving neighborhood that's close to some of the best Austin has to offer — and with a price point that's affordable to everyone from first-time buyers to empty-nesters looking to downsize. 

Located on one of Austin's most iconic streets, Manor Road, and starting in the low $200s, EastGate blends East Austin cool with a one-of-a-kind lifestyle.

FORBES TECH - Technology Summary —  Miami-based real estate developer Newgard Development Group announced Tuesday that it will open condominium towers purpose-built for home-sharing. Operated under the brand Natiivo, the properties in Miami and Austin will be part of Powered by Airbnb...

CULTURE MAP AUSTIN —  When seeking out your ideal next home, amenities are key. EastGate condominiums not only showcase 17 unique and luxurious floorplans, but the community also features a killer location, coveted amenities, and affordable prices for its residents.

AUSTIN, Texas — January 8, 2019  Land Development and Construction, LLC. (LD&C), a longtime Austin commercial real estate development company proudly announces it is becoming Pearlstone Partners.  The new brand name is a strategic move to align the company’s market vision with growth opportunities.

AUSTIN BUSINESS JOURNAL — Veteran Austin developer Robert Lee has spent his professional life building difficult infill projects, which have become even harder to pull off locally as land prices and development costs skyrocket.

But still he persists — 

AUSTIN BUSINESS JOURNAL — Austin developer Robert Lee is gaining momentum in the hot infill business and is about to embark on his most ambitious project yet — a $100 million, 35-story apartment complex that will be built around the corner from SkyHouse Austin, the glitzy new apartment complex recently completed by Atlanta-based Novare Group in the Rainey Street District.

CULTURE MAP AUSTIN — It's not often that a property pops up on the market with a perfect balance of old and new Austin. Introducing 2002 Glen Allen St., a luxury townhome project off of Manchaca Road that perfectly blends classic 78704 living with modern flair.

AUSTIN BUSINESS JOURNAL — Infill residential projects are some of the most challenging for developers, but that doesn't deter Austin developer Robert Lee. His company Land Development and Construction LLC just finished eight units at 2002 Glen Allen St. near the Broken Spoke dance hall on South Lamar Boulevard.

AUSTIN BUSINESS JOURNAL — Austin developer Robert Lee has never built his business in a typical fashion and he’s not changing focus now. 

Robert Lee is a rarity in the Austin real estate community. One of a few local Chinese developers, Lee has maintained a low profile building mostly small multifamily projects such as duplexes and houses with garage apartments. 

AUSTIN BUSINESS JOURNAL — More student housing is on the way for the West Campus area, with the latest project a $26 million upscale apartment complex in the works at 21st and Pearl streets.

Robert Lee, principal of LD&C, has brought together several Chinese American investors to fund this $26 million commercial high-rise student housing project. This is the largest privately funded Asian commercial real estate project to date in Austin.