Once the developers receive the city's request for a business proposal, they'll have 90 days to submit their plans, according to David Kreider, a city staff member working on the project. While a general plan has already been put together, the developers are to come back with more details such as how they would finance parts of it and how they'd deal with open spaces on the site. The city staff will study those proposals, due in December, and ultimately recommend one developer to the city council next year.

City staff narrowed the finalists from a list that also included Workplace USA, based in Dallas, Bryan Properties of Holly Springs, NC and Staubach Co., also of Dallas.

Catellus has worked on mixed-use projects in Los Angeles (Union Station), San Francisco (the Mission Bay district) and San Diego (Santa Fe Place). Lennar is one of the nation's largest homebuilders. Its residential projects include office and retail elements. The Mueller Redevelopment Team is composed of development companies with Austin ties. They are D.R. Horton, the Arlington, TX-based parent company of Austin's Milburn Homes; JPI, a multifamily developer based in Irving; Cousins Stone, a commercial property developer based in Atlanta; the developers of Austin's Avery Ranch, Robert Wunsch and Dick Rathgeber; and Cencor Urban, a division of Cencor Realty Services and the Weitzman Group based in Dallas.