As if the prospect of a multibillion-dollar expansion of Samsung’s chipmaking operations in Northeast Austin weren’t big enough, the area will also be home to a more than $1 billion mixed-use project along East Parmer Lane.

Reger Holdings, a real estate investment and development company based in West Seneca, New York, has started work on EastVillage, a 425-acre project near Samsung’s manufacturing complex that will feature:

• 2,000 apartments
• 466 single-family homes built by KB Home
• Active-adult communities
• 810,000 square feet of office space
• 223,000 square feet of retail space
• 96,000 square feet of restaurant space
• Three hotels with a total of 390 rooms
• Grocery store
• Movie theater
• 150-acre wooded nature preserve

Work already is underway on a 14-acre, 312-unit apartment complex, with completion scheduled for the spring of 2022. Following that, construction will start on a 15-acre component with 422 apartments and nearly 143,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space. Meanwhile, KB Home plans to begin construction in February on the single-family homes.

Reger Holdings anticipates EastVillage will be completed in 2028.

“EastVillage represents a new office, retail, and commercial cornerstone of Austin’s upper east side,” Gordon Reger, president and CEO of Reger Holdings, says in a release. “It’s a vibrant, eclectic venue where individuals representing all age groups and diverse cultural influences come together to live, work, shop, dine, and enjoy the outdoors.”

“The design of EastVillage calls for wide sidewalks and tree-lined streets that weave through an energetic and eclectic downtown village where urban dwelling is possible without the expensive cost of downtown Austin,” Reger adds.

Reger’s EastVillage project is coming along as Samsung contemplates an enormous expansion of its manufacturing hub in Northeast Austin.

On January 22, the Bloomberg news service reported that Samsung was considering a $10 billion chip factory that would be built alongside its two existing chipmaking plants along East Parmer. Later that day, the Wall Street Journal reported that Samsung was considering Austin and two other U.S. locations for a $17 billion chip factory that would employ 1,900 people and start operating in the fall of 2022. It’s thought that Bloomberg and the Wall Street Journal are referring to the same project.

Samsung officials haven’t commented on media reports about the multibillion-dollar chipmaking plant, other than to say a decision hasn’t been made yet. Observers believe Austin is the frontrunner for the new factory, given the company's already robust presence here.

Samsung currently employs roughly 3,300 people at its Northeast Austin manufacturing complex. Its first local factory opened in 1997 and its second in 2007. The company recently bought 258 acres next to its two Austin plants, suggesting that the land could be the future home of a third factory. However, the Wall Street Journal article raises the possibility that the new plant may be built in the Austin suburb of Taylor, and not along East Parmer.