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New Development Bringing University To New Braunfels

Veramendi

The City of New Braunfels is about to get a lot bigger thanks to last week's city council approval of a master-planned community moving in over the next decade.

The project that will be known as Veramendi exists today as a 2,400-acre private ranch that remains as just about the only undeveloped land on Loop 337 between Hwy. 46 and the Guadalupe River. There’s only one driveway into the property off the Loop, which is just down the road from New Braunfels High School.

It is being developed by Australian consortium, ASA Properties. Spokesperson Tiffany Lacey said the group wanted to build in Central Texas and has been working with the City for three years.

"There’s a lot of similarities between the region of Australia that we’re from, which is Southeast Queensland, and Texas. Both of our areas’ economies are largely driven by natural resources. They’re both the fastest-growing regions of our respective countries. We have very similar climatic conditions. We’re very used to the droughts that Central Texas experiences," Lacey said.

ASA is planning 5,000 homes, 480 acres of green space, two regional parks each the size of Landa Park, a hotel, and a new university.

"We’re bringing Howard Payne University, which is a Brownwood-based university, to New Braunfels. It will be the city’s first four-year undergraduate university," she said.

Lacey said the first sector of the development will be residential and commercial components to go in alongside Loop 337, and residents should start seeing construction by the end of the year.

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Eileen Pace is a veteran radio and print journalist with a long history of investigative and feature reporting in San Antonio and Houston, earning more than 50 awards for investigative reporting, documentaries, long-form series, features, sports stories, outstanding anchoring and best use of sound.