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According to ATX Things analysis of a state filing registered Oct. 23, 2026, a 30-story, 300-unit student apartment building is lined up for 2307 Rio Grande Street in West Campus, Austin, Texas. The Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation (TDLR) record lists an estimated cost of $97,345,948, a Feb. 1, 2027 start and a July 14, 2028 finish. It is a registration, not a city approval: the city's site plan for the address is still in review.
That second sentence matters because the tip that surfaced this filing called the project "approved." Nothing in the record says that. Here is what the paperwork does and does not show.
What did the state filing actually say?
The project is titled "2305-2309 Rio Grande Apartments" and was registered under number TABS2027004314. TDLR's Architectural Barriers program takes these filings so a registered accessibility specialist can review plans and inspect the finished building. The page is a public record, and we read it directly this morning.
| Field | What the record says |
|---|---|
| Address | 2307 Rio Grande Street, Austin, TX 78705 |
| Scope of work | 300 student housing apartment units; 30 stories; lobby, leasing, amenity, fitness and study spaces, pool deck |
| Parking | 3 levels below grade, 2 levels above grade |
| Size | 466,000 sq ft |
| Estimated cost | $97,345,948 |
| Start / completion | Feb. 1, 2027 / July 14, 2028 |
| Owner | 2307 Rio Grande, LLC |
| Design firm | Rhode Partners, Austin |
| Funding | "Privately funded, on private land for private use" |
| Status | Project Registered |
Source: TDLR Architectural Barriers project record TABS2027004314, registered Oct. 23, 2026, read Oct. 24, 2026. The start and completion dates are the filer's own projections.
Is this the same tower as "Ventnor Avenue"?
Probably, but the state filing does not say so. The City of Austin has a site plan case called "Ventnor Avenue" at 2307 Rio Grande. Its status in the city's records, as synced into our database on Oct. 24, is "In Review." The first case was filed July 8, 2025. A second case, labeled "W/R SP-2025-0235C," was applied for Aug. 19, 2026 and is also listed as in review. We could not open the case documents, so we do not know what that second case changed.
The Austin Business Journal reported in December 2025 that a tower called Ventnor Avenue was planned for 2307 and 2309 Rio Grande on a little under 0.3 acres, rising 30 stories, alongside a second tower called Atlantic Avenue. A local brokerage blog post from January 2026 put Ventnor at 219 units and Atlantic at 212, both aimed at UT students.
Note the gap. The state filing says 300 units, not 219. The sources do not reconcile that, and neither can we: units can change between a site plan and a construction filing, or the two documents may count differently. We are reporting both numbers with their sources rather than picking one.
A TDLR registration is not a building permit and not a site plan approval. The city's case is open, our permit table shows no building permit at 2305, 2307 or 2309 Rio Grande for a new tower, and nothing here guarantees a start date.
What stands next door?
A finished neighbor sets the scale. Villas on 24th, at 2313 Rio Grande, is a 30-story student tower by the same architect. The Real Deal reported in September 2023 that construction had started on a building with 199 units and 670 beds there.
City permit records for 2313 Rio Grande show 63 entries, including a run of floor-by-floor interior finish-out permits for levels 5 through 31, 28 of them issued June 27, 2025. The contractor on 30 of them is Rogers-O'Brien Construction. That tells you the next-door tower has been in interior buildout recently. It does not tell you its opening date, and we have not been inside.
Illustration generated with AI to show the older low-rise scale on streets like Rio Grande. It is not the building in the filing.
What does it mean if you live or work nearby?
Practical things, none of them dramatic yet:
- Timeline. The filer's own dates put a start in about 100 days and a 17-month build. Those are projections on a form.
- Where to watch. The city case is the gate. Anyone can search the Ventnor Avenue case numbers in the city's permit portal: folder 13545474 is the original, folder 13758093 is the 2026 case.
- Council district. Both city cases list District 9.
- Height rules. West Campus height limits have been under debate at City Council, and the brokerage blog said the filings show about 400 feet. We could not confirm the current status of any vote this morning, so we are not saying what the zoning allows.
To read the state record yourself, search TDLR's TABS database for project number TABS2027004314. It lists the owner, design firm and registered accessibility specialist, and a new inspection is required no later than one year after construction ends.
What about Atlantic Avenue next door?
The second tower from the December 2025 reports, Atlantic Avenue at 2301 Rio Grande, also has a site plan case in the city's records, status "In Review," first filed June 13, 2025. We did not find a matching TDLR registration for it this morning, so it has not reached this stage that we can see.
For a West Campus piece on what a 300-foot cap looks like in practice, see our reporting on a 300-foot, 227-unit filing at 2008 San Antonio St.
How we checked this
We read the TDLR project page directly, pulled the city site plan and permit records from the research database ATX Things maintains (city data synced through Oct. 24, 2026), and read press coverage from the Austin Business Journal (December 2025), The Real Deal (September 2023) and a Jan. 27, 2026 post from a local brokerage. The Business Journal pieces are paywalled and we read only their public summaries.
One data note. Our own project index briefly tied the $97.3 million figure to a Level 21 finish-out permit at 2313 Rio Grande, the neighbor. That is a matching error on the index, not a fact about either building, and we did not use it. The $97.3 million comes from the TDLR record only.
We have not visited the site and have not seen the plans.
FAQ
How tall is the building at 2307 Rio Grande Street? The state filing says 30 stories and 466,000 square feet. It does not list a height in feet. Press coverage of the Ventnor Avenue site plan has described a 30-story tower.
Has the city approved it? No approval appears in the records we hold. The city's Ventnor Avenue site plan cases were listed as "In Review" in data synced Oct. 24, 2026. Check the city's permit portal for the live status.
How many apartments are planned? The state filing lists 300 student housing units. A January 2026 brokerage blog post, based on earlier coverage, said 219. The sources differ and we cannot reconcile them.
Who is behind it? The owner of record on the state filing is 2307 Rio Grande, LLC, with Rhode Partners as design firm. We did not find a named developer in the records and are not guessing one.
When would it open? The filing projects completion July 14, 2028. That is the filer's estimate and depends on city approvals that have not been issued.
More West Campus and citywide permit tracking is on Zabalist's permits and projects pages, the public home of the data behind this story. Follow @austintexasthings for the next step in this case.
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