HPI Breaks Ground in Austin
The project is taking shape next to The Domain, a 4 million-square-foot mixed-use district.
HPI Real Estate Services & Investments has begun development of The Kent, a seven-story, 396-unit apartment community in North Austin, Texas. The community’s first residents are expected to begin moving in by late 2028, with the project’s full completion slated for mid-2029.
Located at 2631 Kramer Lane, The Kent will be built less than a quarter-mile from the future UT Dell Medical Center and integrated MD Anderson Cancer Center. Work on the approximately 300-acre UT Medical Center is expected to start this fall and be completed by 2030.
The Kent will also be located next to The Domain, a mixed-use district with more than 5,000 apartments, 1.2 million square feet of retail space and 3.5 million square feet of office.
HPI, an Austin-based full-service real estate firm, is investing more than $20 million of its own capital in The Kent. Private investors are also providing capital. The investor round closed within two weeks of opening, with commitments exceeding the firm’s funding target by more than 50 percent, according to HPI. HPI did not disclose the total investment amount or the project cost.
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HPI will serve as the developer, asset manager and construction manager for The Kent. Greystar will oversee property management. The project team includes OHT Partners, general contractor; Belshaw Mulholland Architects; Ellie Aiello Interiors, interior design firm; WGI, civil engineering firm; Urban Structure, structural engineering firm and V3 Consulting Engineers, MEP engineering firm.
Closer look at The Kent
The Kent will have a mix of studios, one-, two- and three-bedroom units ranging in size from 396 to 1,954 square feet. Apartment features include 9- to 12-foot ceilings, wood-style flooring, quartz countertops, side-by-side refrigerators, wine coolers, built-in desks, walk-in closets, full-size front-load washers and dryers, smart thermostats and door locks, as well as patios or balconies.
Community amenities will include a swimming pool, a two-story fitness center with a bouldering wall, a sauna and cold plunges, a yoga and Pilates studio, a clubroom, a speakeasy, a movie room, a podcast/creator’s studio, a makerspace, conference rooms, coworking space and private offices. The property will also feature a pickleball and basketball courts, a beer garden, a dog park with a washing station, storage units, EV chargers, package and rental lockers. The developers will also build structured parking below the residential units in the mid-rise building.
Improving fundamentals and demand drivers
Construction on The Kent is starting during a period when most large institutional investors have pulled back from the Austin market and new starts have dropped after a record number of new apartments saturated the market in 2024.
Citing statistics from ApartmentTrends, HPI notes construction has been slowed considerably with 3,300 apartments breaking ground in the first half of 2026, a 35 percent year-over-year drop. About 13,000 new apartments are expected to deliver across the metro this year, a figure that’s down 33 percent from 2025. Yardi Matrix reports 4,459 units delivered through May this year, with 21,224 under construction.
Advertised asking rents rose slightly earlier this year, inching up 0.4 percent on a trailing three-month basis through May to $1,508, slightly ahead of the 0.3 percent U.S. increase to $1,767, according to Yardi Matrix’s July Austin multifamily report.
Tim Shaughnessy, HPI partner and multifamily president, said that the area around The Domain continues to see strong demand for multifamily housing. He expects the development of the UT Dell Medical Center to bring additional demand to the area.
Other demand drivers include the Austin Bergstrom International Airport terminal expansion and development of Waterline, a 74-story, 1.5 million-square-foot mixed-use tower in downtown Austin with residential, office and hotel space.
