Grayco Offers Max Stipend to Residents to Relocate

By Camelia Bulea, Associate Editor

Southeast Austin’s Shoreline Apartments are due for demolition and will be replaced with a project containing 1,200 apartments and up to 97,000 square feet of street-level retail. Grayco Partners first proposed the demolition in 2009, but the 308-unit community is currently only half-vacant. The rest of the residents must leave before the first of September in order for the developer to demolish the entire place and build the $200 million project it proposed to the City Council two years ago.

The families that remained in the dilapidated complex are waiting to receive the relocation assistance that Grayco promised to offer the community’s residents. Residents have complained that many promises made haven’t been kept, and they claimed they had not received the incentives needed to move out.

These complaints forced Grayco to develop a new plan to offer residents even more help to relocate. The revised plan consists in dividing $90,000 among the 186 households that remain, therefore offering them the maximum moving stipend possible–$484 per household. Moreover, the developer will soon hold a housing fair with representatives from other apartment properties where the families could move.

Grayco plans to build a luxury apartment community, which will be called Estates at Shoreline. According to the company’s website, monthly rents will range from $719 to $1249.

A recent study indicates that Austin is among the top 25 best markets to invest in rental properties. The top was ranked according to expected risk-return prospects based on three-year home price and rent forecasts. Austin was listed as the 24th city.