NRP Group Starts Work on Austin Mixed-Income Project
The community is being developed at the site of a former school.
The NRP Group has broken ground on the first phase of a 341-unit mixed-income multifamily development taking shape at the Anita Ferrales Coy Facility, the site of a former school in Austin, Texas. The project, which will be built in two phases, will total 675 units. The first homes will start lease-up in the fall of 2027.
The developer is working in partnership with the Austin Independent School District on the conversion of the former educational building. Since the 1950s, the property has served as the site of a middle school, elementary school and more recently the home of the district’s Alternative Learning Center, which is a Disciplinary Alternative Education Program.
The site is also within a federally-designated Opportunity Zone. Real estate investor Clarion Partners is providing private equity capital for the redevelopment, with construction lending provided by the Urban Investment Group at Goldman Sachs Alternatives.
READ ALSO: Affordable Housing’s Always Been Hard. Now It’s Getting Harder.
The 18-acre location at 4812 Gonzales St., will be home to two multi-story buildings featuring one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments. Half of the spaces will be rent- and income‑restricted, with 10 percent designated for households earning up to 60 percent of area median income, and 40 percent for households earning up to 80 percent AMI. The other half will post market rate rents.
The district’s teachers and staff will receive priority leasing at the community through a Preferred Employer Program, though the apartments are not exclusive to district employees. Rising housing costs have forced many educators in the district to live far from their schools, Matias Segura, superintendent of Austin ISD, noted in a statement, adding that two‑thirds of AISD employees identify as cost‑burdened, which has an impact on the district’s ability to attract and retain talent.
Each residence will feature quartz countertops and stainless steel appliances. Common-area amenities will include a resort-style pool, a coworking lounge, a fitness center and shared outdoor gathering spaces. The development will also include a parking garage and publicly accessible green space with preserved heritage trees, walking paths, murals and installations contributed by local artists.
AISD is leasing the land to the NRP Group under a long-term ground lease agreement, creating a revenue stream for the district while facilitating the development of affordable units.
Since its founding more than 30 years ago, The NRP Group has developed more than 62,000 apartments nationwide, and currently manages roughly 30,000 units. The company has been quite active in the Austin market, completing about 7,500 units across 25 developments in the area.
In November of last year, the company broke ground on Camp Wisdom, a 360-unit workforce housing project in Dallas.
Housing cost squeeze in Austin
Lower-income renters are still cost-burdened in Austin, despite the fact that apartment rents—which surged from an average of $1,200 a month in 2017 to a peak of $1,673 in 2022—have dropped by roughly 20 percent since that peak; the mean rent is now $1,542 as of September 2025, according to Yardi Matrix data. When inflation is accounted for, rents are actually lower now than they were in 2017.
Currently roughly half of Austin renters, especially Black and Hispanic households, spend more than 30 percent of their income on housing, the definition of cost-burdened. In Texas, only 25 affordable and available rental homes exist for every 100 extremely low-income households, according to the Austin City Council.
