A new 82-unit condo project going up at 1300 West 2nd Street in downtown Taylor is betting that stripped-down amenities and a location near Samsung's semiconductor campus will be enough to move units fast. The Ferguson has no pool and no fitness center, but it does have floor plans starting at $239,000, and its developer says 40 percent of the units are already presold.
The mixed-use project comes from Metropolitan Development Company, whose founder and principal, Pawel Hardej, said raising capital for middle-market housing projects is difficult, according to The Real Deal. Hardej had initially expected presale success to land around 20 to 25 percent of units, making the current 40 percent figure a notable overshoot. The project is a short commute from Samsung's facilities and a short distance from downtown Taylor, positioning it squarely in the path of the region's tech-driven growth.
A Missing-Middle Bet Near the Fab
The Ferguson targets what Hardej calls workforce housing through missing-middle concepts, aiming to fill the gap between apartments and detached single-family homes. The project includes six live-work units that allow small business owners to run operations in buildings attached to their homes, and it aims to provide walkability and community input as part of its design. Speaking to the Austin Business Journal, Hardej said the floor plans reflect what people actually want, according to the same Real Deal report.
The full site plan, first announced in late 2024, called for a mix of 60 condominiums, 16 townhomes, eight garden homes with private yards and garages, live/work storefront units, and ground-floor commercial space spread across multiple four-story brick buildings, according to the Taylor Press. The buildings were designed by Pappageorge Haymes to redevelop an underutilized city block in downtown Taylor. That site selection wasn't arbitrary: it directly supports Taylor's Envision Taylor Comprehensive Plan, which prioritizes infill redevelopment on existing city blocks over expansion into peripheral agricultural land, the paper reports. Over 80 percent of Taylor residents previously voted to support that kind of infill growth in order to make use of existing road and utility infrastructure.
Sales Gallery Opened to Capture Local Buyers
Metropolitan Development Company partnered with sales firm Derive Development Group to launch local operations, opening a dedicated sales gallery at 109 W. Fourth Street in downtown Taylor with an estimated 18-to-20-month construction timeline, according to the Williamson County Economic Development Partnership. Hardej has publicly framed the project as an anti-gentrification measure, emphasizing that the multi-use model gives existing Taylor residents and small business owners a path to property ownership rather than being pushed into renting or relocating as tech growth accelerates, the partnership notes. That framing follows local residents voicing displacement concerns as billions of dollars in high-tech investment have poured into the area.
Samsung's Shadow Looms Large
The urgency behind projects like The Ferguson traces back to Samsung, which is preparing to build a second semiconductor fabrication plant on its 1,200-acre Taylor site later this year. Taylor Mayor Jim Buzan confirmed that groundwork for that second fab was pre-planned and completed during initial site work, with trial production at the first fab expected by late 2026 and mass production targeted for 2027, according to the Korea JoongAng Daily. Samsung's overall Central Texas investment plan is valued between $37 billion and $45 billion under CHIPS Act agreements, the outlet reports.
The scale of that investment is already reshaping the local economy. Samsung Austin Semiconductor reported that its operations and ongoing construction in Austin and Taylor injected $10.9 billion into the Central Texas economy during 2025, generating $218.2 million in local tax revenues and supporting 28,746 total jobs, per Samsung Austin Semiconductor. Construction activities at the Taylor site alone generated more than 14,200 direct and indirect jobs in 2025. Separately, Elon Musk's affiliated companies have tripled their acreage around the Austin metropolitan area and are set to build a $55 billion semiconductor plant in Grimes County, adding another layer of industrial pressure to the broader region, per The Real Deal's reporting.
City Rewrites Rules to Encourage Infill
Taylor's city government has been adjusting its own regulations to make projects like The Ferguson more financially feasible. In July 2026, the city initiated public review of major updates to its Land Development Code, including a 50 percent discount on minimum off-street parking requirements for residential infill lots under 1.5 acres, according to the City of Taylor. Traditional parking minimums have historically driven up construction costs and land consumption for dense downtown projects, which is precisely the kind of cost pressure the discount is meant to ease.
Samsung has also funneled money directly into local institutions. Between 2022 and 2025, the company contributed more than $3.1 million in direct community grants to Taylor organizations, including $1 million dedicated to Taylor ISD for a new Career and Technical Education wing meant to prepare local high school graduates for semiconductor fabrication roles, per city records.
Where The Ferguson's Price Fits In
The Ferguson's $239,000 starting price lands well below Taylor's broader housing market. The city's median single-family home price hovered around $325,000 in early 2026, positioning The Ferguson roughly $86,000 under that benchmark, according to US Tech Automations. Existing home sellers in East Williamson County are also facing stiff competition from national homebuilders offering interest rate buydowns, a dynamic that could work in favor of a lower-priced condo project.
That said, the county's overall housing market has been cooling. Williamson County's average home values fell 3.8 percent, from $473,876 in 2025 to $455,812 in 2026, amid higher interest rates and elevated inventory, according to Community Impact. Average days on market across the county rose to 92 days in early 2026. Whether The Ferguson's stripped-down, lower-cost model will draw long-term local buyers or largely transient tech contractors remains an open question, one that market watchers have flagged as the project moves forward.
Hoodline has previously reported on the industrial buildout fueling this shift, including how Samsung's chip campus roared to life and how nearby residents have pushed back on mega-development proposals tied to the same industrial corridor. The Ferguson, still under construction with dozens of units left to sell, is now one of the clearest private-sector tests of whether Taylor's infill strategy can keep pace with the scale of the investment landing next door.
