A long-vacant industrial lot near Koenig Lane and Interstate 35 is finally shedding its chain-link fencing for apartment balconies and a playground. The site, once home to Texas Gas Service's local offices and maintenance yard, is being transformed into The Hangar, a two-phase development from SECO Ventures that will eventually bring 464 units and a new public park to the North Loop neighborhood.
The property's industrial history goes back further than most North Loop residents probably realize. Per KVUE, the land served as an airstrip during the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s before Texas Gas took over the site and eventually bought it outright in the early 2000s. The utility's 1960s-era buildings, which sat on the 6.05-to-7-acre parcel at 403 East Koenig Lane for more than six decades, were demolished in 2022, according to Austin Towers.
That airfield history runs even deeper. The site originally formed part of the 50-acre Haile Airport, operated by “Doc” Haile in the 1930s and 1940s, which offered flight lessons and cut-rate aerial tours of Austin before closing, per The Daily Texan. It's that aviation past the development now leans into, both in name and in a namesake.
Honoring a WASP Pilot Who Trained Here
The Hangar's first phase, a five-story, 249-unit building now called Millie at the Hangar, is named for Mildred “Millie” Inks Davidson Dalrymple, who learned to fly at Haile Airport, per the same KVUE report. She took up flying after her husband was killed in World War II, a path that let her qualify for the Women Airforce Service Pilots and eventually fly heavy bombers including the B-24, according to CAF RISE ABOVE. In March 2010, Dalrymple and surviving WASP members received the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest civilian honor Congress bestows, at a ceremony at the U.S. Capitol.
Her son, Tom Dalrymple, said the dedication caught his family off guard, according to KVUE's reporting. The tribute extends beyond the building's name: artist Luis Angulo completed a 50-foot mural on the complex's garage wall in July, depicting what Angulo described, per KVUE, as a present-day young woman walking through North Loop while shopping, wearing a bomber jacket like one worn by a World War II pilot. Arch-Con Corporation, the project's general contractor, called the piece a visual gateway into the neighborhood that bridges that WWII aviation history with contemporary North Loop culture.
A Park North Loop Has Waited Years For
Phase 1, designed by KTGY, also includes a 105,700-square-foot parking structure, 5,714 square feet of co-working space, and 2,532 square feet of retail and live-work space, according to Arch-Con Corporation. But for many North Loop residents, the headline amenity isn't the housing — it's the 1-acre public park planned for the development's eastern boundary, featuring native landscaping, a nature-inspired playground, a sports court for basketball and pickleball, a dog park, and a relocated heritage oak tree connected to public bike trails.
That green space fills a gap neighborhood leaders have flagged for years. North Loop has long appeared on the Austin Parks and Recreation Department's park deficiency list, with the 0.3-acre Bruning Green previously serving as its primary public park, as Community Impact has reported. Chessie Lockhart, president of the North Loop Neighborhood Association, told KVUE that turning what had been an abandoned parking lot into a public city park amounts to a major facelift for the area. The new park has not yet received an official name.
Years of Negotiation Shaped the Final Design
Getting to this point took years of back-and-forth. SECO Ventures and the North Loop Neighborhood Association spent multiple years hammering out building heights, affordable unit allocations, and the park's design before reaching consensus, according to Arch-Con. The Daily Texan notes that neighborhood leaders worked directly with the developer throughout that process to help preserve local heritage, a dynamic that shaped the project's eventual scale and amenities.
Construction on the full, multi-phase project began in January 2025, according to the North Loop Neighborhood Association. Phase 1 is targeted for completion in late 2026, and per KVUE, Millie at the Hangar is expected to welcome its first tenants in mid-to-late November. Phase 2 is slated to add another 215 residential units over a subsequent 24-month buildout, with full completion of all 464 units projected through 2029. SECO Ventures is investing tens of millions of dollars into the overall development, per KVUE's reporting.
KVUE's coverage of the project appeared as part of Boomtown, the station's ongoing series tracking growth across Central Texas. The redevelopment stands as one marker of how rapidly North Central Austin's industrial-era parcels are giving way to dense, mixed-use housing — even as developers and longtime neighborhood groups work to keep a thread of local history, and local green space, intact along the way.
