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On October 19, an application for "one multifamily residential building with associated drainage, paving, and utility improvements" was filed with the City of Austin for 4507 Menchaca Road in 78745. Three days later, on October 22, the Austin Housing Finance Corporation (AHFC) put an item on its agenda to lend the developer up to $2,640,000 for what the city calls The Lenora: 39 rental units, 22 of them reserved for households at or below 50 percent of median family income.
Both documents are public, and they describe the same address. Read together they answer most of what a person living or house-hunting nearby would ask first: how big, who is building it, how it is being paid for, and how long the rent limits last. They do not answer when it opens, and nothing here is built yet.
The two filings, side by side
| Item | What the record says |
|---|---|
| Site plan case | SP-2026-0330C.SH.CC, filed Oct. 19, 2026, "Site Plan Administrative," status "CC Pending" in our last sync |
| City's description | "One multifamily residential building with associated drainage, paving, and utility improvements" |
| Program tag | SMART Housing: yes; City Council District 5; full-purpose City jurisdiction |
| Units | 39 (5 efficiencies, 5 one-bedrooms, 20 two-bedrooms, 9 three-bedrooms) |
| Rent limits | 4 units at or below 30% MFI, 18 at 50%, 14 at 60%, 3 at 80%; affordability period 45 years |
| City loan | Up to $2,640,000 from 2022 General Obligation bonds (FY 2026-27 AHFC capital budget) |
| Developer on the loan item | OPG Lenora Partners, LLC, or an affiliate; the city's release names Overland Property Group |
The City's own release, dated October 22, says the board awarded funding to five developments that day, more than $21 million for 261 units across the city, and that four of them, The Lenora included, had already secured 9 percent Low-Income Housing Tax Credits. The posted agenda listed the Lenora loan as item 4 on the consent agenda. Approval authorizes staff to negotiate and sign a loan agreement; it is not a building permit, and it is not the end of the site-plan review.
Where the $16.3 million comes from
The agenda backup lists estimated sources and uses of funds totaling $16,278,021. The city loan is the smallest of the big pieces.
| Source | Amount | Share of total |
|---|---|---|
| Equity | $9,315,868 | 57.2% |
| Debt | $3,700,000 | 22.7% |
| AHFC loan | $2,640,000 | 16.2% |
| Deferred developer fee | $391,943 | 2.4% |
| Grants | $230,210 | 1.4% |
Building costs are budgeted at $6,852,900 and land acquisition at $1,850,000. Spread across 39 units, the total is about $417,000 per unit, and the city loan is about $67,700 per unit. Those per-unit figures are our division of the city's estimate, which is a budget at the time of the agenda, not a final cost.
What "30, 50, 60 and 80 percent MFI" means in practice
MFI is median family income, the benchmark the federal government publishes for each metro area and the city uses to set rent limits. In this building, 22 of 39 units (56 percent) are limited to households at or below 50 percent of MFI, and 36 of 39 (92 percent) to 60 percent or below. The rule is attached to the unit, and the 45-year affordability period is how long the city's agreement says it stays that way. The income limits themselves change each year; the city's housing pages and HUD publish the current table, and we have not restated dollar figures here.
What an administrative site plan is, and who gets a letter
The Lenora's case is filed as "Site Plan Administrative," reviewed by city staff rather than heard by the Planning Commission. The City says it mails a notice of filing for administrative site plans to owners of real property, utility account holders and registered neighborhood organizations within 500 feet of the site. If you live that close and have not seen one, the city's development notifications page links to a map viewer where you can search the area, and the notice names a case manager to call.
The case carries the SMART Housing tag. The city's site-plan housing page says applicants for the program need a certification letter from Austin Housing to receive the fee waivers and development bonuses it offers, and that affordable-housing site plans get their own case manager. We could not find a published construction start or opening date for The Lenora, and the city's release does not give one.
What the permit record shows nearby
Within about half a mile (800 meters) of the address, the City issued 57 building permits for new single-family houses between November 17, 2023 and October 23, 2026, from our copy of the City's permit data (synced November 2, 2026 at 06:45 UTC; latest source date October 31). Two-family new-build permits in the same area numbered 8. That is the construction already under way around the lot; it is a count of permits, not a description of the people who live there.
The Lenora is one of 8 site plans in 2026 so far with an apartment or multifamily description and the SMART Housing tag, out of 27 with that kind of description, in our records. Another of the five projects funded October 22, Jordan II on Philomena Street in 78723, is also on that list.
What this means if you're buying, selling or renting nearby
- If you own within 500 feet: check your mail and the city's notification map for the filing; the notice is how the city expects you to learn of it, and the case manager is the person to ask about the plan.
- If you are buying near the address: the useful questions are factual ones. What is the status of the site plan, when could construction start, and what does the lot plan show for access and drainage? The case record answers the first, and the site plan itself answers the others once it is released.
- If you are looking for a rental: the building is not open. Rent-restricted units normally require an income and eligibility application with the property, and the city sets the limits, not us. Watch the developer's and the city's announcements for lease-up details.
- If you are selling nearby: a new building is a record on the street, not a prediction about any price. Nothing in these filings is a statement about value.
Where to look next
You can read the case on Zabalist: The Lenora, site-plan record. For the lookup steps on any address, see our guide to what is being built near an address, and the Austin development page collects what we track. For another recent filing under the small-project track, see our piece on five site-plan filings on one Cullen Avenue lot, and for how rents and incomes have moved in the county, this analysis of Census data.
How we pulled this
The site-plan row, program tag and counts come from the Zabalist research database, which mirrors City of Austin development applications; the site-plan feed last synced November 2, 2026 at 06:45 UTC with status "ok," and the Lenora row itself last synced October 30. Statuses may have changed since. Unit mix, income limits, funding and sources-and-uses come from the City's agenda item File 26-2897, its backup sheet and the October 22 AHFC agenda. The five-project total and the award statement are from the City's October 22 news release. Notification rules are from the City's development notifications page and housing certification from its site plan housing case management page. Permit counts are City of Austin building permits (type BP, class R-101 and R-103, work class New) with coordinates within 800 meters of the address. Percentages and per-unit figures are our arithmetic.
The header image is an original AI illustration of a generic lot, not the property.
This is general information, not advice about a particular property, permit or plan.
One next step
If a home or rental near a project like this is on your list, a local agent can pull the filings and permits for the address before you decide. Start at our get started page.