Photos by Tyler Schmitt
By LYNETTE HAALAND, Four Points News
The Reserve at Lake Austin and the Carole Lee Memory Garden held back to back ribbon cutting ceremonies on May 23.
“I’m thankful for the team. I think the good Lord has blessed it,” said Jon Erickson, who spoke at the event. He is a strategic investment partner at HPI Real Estate Services & Investments.
“We are very excited to be offering an exceptional new level of senior living to the northwest Austin community,” shared Jeremy Lander, executive director at The Reserve.
Construction began in 2020 for the 108,000-square-foot community featuring 120 apartments: 26 memory care and 94 assisted living. The senior living community at 6401 RM 2222 at City Park Road sits on 11 acres. The Reserve received its license to operate earlier this year and residents started moving in in April.
Also in 2020, site developers donated 34 acres for the Carol Lee Memory Garden and Carol Lee Preserve. Lee, who lived in the nearby neighborhood and was an advocate for her community, passed away from cancer in 2018.
“Carol had an unwavering commitment to fair land use and conservation and was an inspiration to us all, and her passion for advocacy is sorely missed,” shared Linda Bailey, president of the Lake Austin Collective, an organization that the late Carol Lee co-founded.
“The Reserve team donated generously to the construction of the garden and oversaw its detailed development, all the while paying respect to Lee’s commitment to our beloved hill country and native wildlife,” Bailey shared at the ribbon cutting on May 23. “(They) generously set aside a small plot so that we could create a garden that we hoped would comfort and inspire visitors while honoring Carol’s contributions to our community.”
The new garden plaque reads: “Beloved neighbor, friend and lifelong advocate for preservation of Austin’s Hill Country and Bull Creek Watershed.”
In 2019 Austin entrepreneur Jonathan Coon offered to buy Champion Tract 3 and to combine some of its development rights with the Camelback PUD, a 45-acre property he and his wife, Kirsten, already owned less than a half mile away. Under Coon’s aegis, both properties would be developed with far less density than permitted by the city, and would include plans for donated parkland, according to the Lake Austin Collective.
The Collective and more than seven area neighborhoods enthusiastically supported Coon’s unprecedented solution and rallied behind him during many council and commission hearings.
After finally receiving council and commission approvals, Coon bought Champion Tract 3 and immediately partnered with Solera Senior Living and HPI to build a substantially smaller and quieter senior living facility and to donate three-fourths of the land to the Balcones Canyonlands Preserve, according to the Collective.
