Two towers rising more than 400 feet are being proposed for a University of Texas-area block along Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, replacing a patchwork of low-rise retail, offices and the 1960s-era Penthouse Apartments with a high-density mix of luxury apartments, a hotel, and ground-floor retail. The Austin Planning Commission voted unanimously this week to advance the project by awarding Downtown Density Bonus benefits—extra height and floor area the site wouldn’t otherwise get—setting up a final decision by Austin City Council later this month.
The applicant is RunDog Real Estate Group, led by developer Justin Poses, with land-use work represented by lobbyist and attorney Leah Bojo of Drenner Group. In exchange for the density-bonus entitlements, the developer would make a $3.3 million payment to the city’s Affordable Housing Trust Fund rather than build income-restricted units onsite—a tradeoff that drew support from commissioners who argued the payment provides a clear public benefit while concentrating homes near transit and campus jobs. “It’s simply unacceptable to continue to allow cancer-causing chemicals to be used for things like glue, dry cleaning or stain removers when safer alternatives exist,” said Michal Freedhoff, Assistant Administrator.
The path to City Council runs through more than design and affordability math because the block includes the former Jack Brown Cleaners, a long-running dry-cleaning operation with a documented contamination history. The cleaners enrolled in the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality’s Voluntary Cleanup Program in 2003 (VCP No. 1658), and TCEQ issued a certificate of completion in 2020, indicating no further remediation was required under the program. Investigators tied impacts to dry-cleaning solvents that could have entered the environment through spills and drainage pathways; the state also documented a sump pump beneath machinery that may have carried leaked chemicals into the storm drain system. Testing recorded elevated PCE, TCE and vinyl chloride in soil and shallow groundwater; remediation included excavation of contaminated soil and installation of a vapor-venting system beneath a new concrete floor, according to TCEQ documentation.
Even with the state’s completion certificate, the contamination record has kept neighbors focused on vapor intrusion—the process by which chemicals can move from soil or groundwater into indoor air. Judges Hill resident Megan Meisenbach commissioned an independent review by engineer and geologist Brad Snow of Snow Environmental Solutions after monitoring wells showed concentrations that, in some instances, exceeded federal vapor-intrusion screening levels; Snow also found TCE levels above TCEQ outdoor-air exposure limits and noted groundwater can be less than two feet from the surface in parts of the block. “We have to continue to identify where these sites are, make sure they get cleaned to at least commercial standards, and not remain vacant,” said Whellan. Snow urged commissioners to require additional evaluation and to treat under-slab barriers and venting as baseline safeguards for any future residential or commercial foundations.
RunDog’s team told commissioners it is negotiating a restrictive covenant with nearby residents—intended to bind future construction to specific environmental protections, including protocols for further testing, mitigation if contamination is encountered, and long-term controls. Bojo said the covenant is being reviewed by the project’s environmental engineer and is expected to be completed before the City Council hearing. “On this side [of the street] there's a ban on building residential units. But then like directly across the street there's residential properties being built,” said Acevedo, a local community voice, in separate KUT reporting on how uneven rules can deepen distrust around redevelopment on polluted land. In the UT-area case, Judges Hill residents say the covenant language—and how it would be enforced decades from now—matters as much as the initial engineering plan.
Affordability and displacement are the other pressure points. The redevelopment footprint includes Penthouse Apartments, a roughly 50-unit complex that currently offers comparatively lower rents for a West Campus-adjacent location; current listings show one- to three-bedroom units advertised from about $1,199 to $1,900 a month. Tenants Ryan and Crystal Arzola said they have not been told directly about a potential demolition, and they worry that even “cooling” market signals won’t translate into something they can afford nearby. That anxiety is heightened by broader market crosscurrents: data from Redfin and Unlock MLS, as reported by Axios, found that 80.2% of Austin homes sold below original list price in February 2025, a sign of softer pricing power, while Redfin’s permit analysis cited by Axios shows Austin among the metros with the steepest drop in multifamily permitting—suggesting less new apartment supply in the pipeline even as the city continues to grow. As previously reported in this broader look at City Hall’s constrained options, Austin has been leaning on tools like density bonuses and trust-fund payments in part because state constraints and fiscal pressure limit the city’s menu of housing interventions.
Commissioners backing the density bonus emphasized location and the trust-fund check as tangible benefits, while also acknowledging that the project will change the skyline and the street-level feel of a gateway corridor. “There’s $3.3 million going to the Affordable Housing Trust Fund. If this project goes through the site is remediated,” said Peter Breton, Planning Commission member. “I think it’s a wonderful project,” said Imad Ahmed, Planning Commission member. “I’d like to acknowledge the work that the neighborhood has been doing with the applicant,” said Brian Bedrosian, Planning Commission member. Supporters also pointed to nearby high-frequency bus service and the long-standing city goal of concentrating growth near transit and major institutions.
But residents from Judges Hill framed the towers’ scale as a sharp break from a neighborhood known for historic homes and tree-lined streets, and they argued that height, traffic and safety impacts can’t be separated from the contamination debate. “We live in the oldest single-family neighborhood,” said Marisela Maddox, Judges Hill resident. “I fear two buildings, each over 400 feet tall, will overwhelm and minimize the importance of some of Austin’s most historic assets,” said Jo Howard, Judges Hill resident. “Two Towers exceeding 400 feet would be dramatic outliers in relation to the surrounding area… and even the UT tower, which is 307 feet,” said Marisela Maddox, Judges Hill resident. The concern is visual and practical: more residents and hotel guests can mean added curb demand, delivery traffic, and more conflicts among pedestrians, cyclists and drivers on an already busy corridor near campus.
Next steps run through Austin City Council, which will decide whether to grant the density bonus and lock in the $3.3 million trust-fund payment as the project moves into later site-plan and building-permit phases. In District 9, Council Member Zohaib “Zo” Qadri will be one of the key votes, and neighbors on both sides of the debate say they’re watching for two specifics before the hearing: whether the restrictive covenant spells out enforceable vapor-intrusion protections and long-term land-use controls, and whether any tenant relocation commitments or timing details are added for Penthouse Apartments residents. In the weeks ahead, the project’s supporters are likely to keep pointing to the trust-fund payment and the transit-rich location; critics, meanwhile, are pushing for tighter environmental guardrails and design changes they say would better fit a historic corridor that sits, literally and symbolically, in the shadow of the Forty Acres.
