Northeast Austin has been changing fast, and St. John has been watching that change from the front porch for a long time. The community did not sit back. After years of organized input, advocacy, and real engagement with city planners, the neighborhood is now the site of one of the most community-shaped redevelopment projects Austin has seen in recent memory.

On June 30, 2026, the City of Austin, the Housing Authority of the City of Austin (HACA), and Greystar finalized the sale of the 19-acre St. John site in Northeast Austin. What had been underutilized land will become a mixed-income neighborhood anchored by housing, green space, and local commercial opportunity.

What the St. John Site Will Become

The project will deliver 526 rental apartments at 50-80% of the Area Median Income, making this a meaningful contribution to Austin's available affordable housing stock. For families who want to stay in the city without being priced out, this kind of development is the difference between staying and leaving.

The enlarged St. John Park is a centerpiece of the plan. Residents pushed for more green space, and the final design includes a splash pad and pavilion alongside the expanded footprint. In a city where park access can be unevenly distributed across neighborhoods, that is a genuine local win.

The commercial component adds another layer. The project includes 15,000 square feet of community-serving commercial space, with 5,000 square feet offered at below-market rates. That below-market piece matters. It creates room for the kind of small, local operators that make a neighborhood feel like itself rather than a set of interchangeable storefronts.

New pedestrian and bicycle connections will tie the site into the surrounding street network, giving residents ways to move through their neighborhood without relying entirely on a car.

Years of Community Work Behind This Moment

What makes this development different from many others in Austin is the foundation it rests on. The St. John neighborhood went through meaningful community engagement over multiple years before this project took its current shape. The result reflects that input in a way that a developer-driven project rarely does.

For longtime residents who have watched other Austin neighborhoods change around them with little say in the outcome, this process carried real weight. The splash pad, the below-market commercial space, the affordable rent targets - these are not coincidences. They reflect what the community said it needed.

What Comes Next

Construction is expected to begin before the end of summer 2026. Full delivery is targeted for 2028. That is a real timeline with real accountability attached, and it gives neighbors a way to measure progress against promises.

For a city growing as fast as Austin, the St. John redevelopment is a reminder that doing things the right way takes longer, costs more attention, and produces something the neighborhood can actually live in. Visit the City of Austin's housing page to stay informed on construction milestones and community updates as this project moves forward.