"We are hoping to start a project in downtown Austin soon," he said during an earnings call with analysts. He added that the Austin CBD deal is "somewhat more complex" than most others because it includes underground parking and first-floor retail. "This complexity has made it a little harder to pull together and has affected our ability to structure a joint venture."
The company, Sweet said, believes it can arrange a joint venture and is in discussions with two potential partners. However, he added: "We may decide to move forward before a joint venture is finalized."
The apartment project is part of the six-block Austin City Hall-Computer Sciences Corp. complex. The two CSC buildings are complete and work has begun on the parking component for the city hall. In the meantime, CSC sold back a square block to the city.
Elaborating on his co-CEO's comments, AMLI's Phil Tague tells GlobeSt.com that the company may, indeed, proceed without a partner. About 90% of the time, AMLI has a partner before starting on a project. But, he says, it's a propitious time to act. "We think it's probably a good time to buy out construction costs, probably by the time it gets delivered it will probably be into a recovery cycle," he says. "And yet from a prospective partner standpoint everything still looks pretty scary. That's just our view of the future versus (that) of people that normally partner with us."
In other news concerning the Austin market, Sweet said that AMLI would aggressively seek to acquire apartment properties in the region. He said Austin and Atlanta "are both markets where we would be looking to buy and believe there are distressed sellers who would be available to sell.
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