Negotiations between the City of Austin and the development team selected to redevelop the Green Water Treatment Plant downtown - already nine months behind schedule - do not have an end in sight. Meanwhile, there is also no economic impetus forcing a master development agreement for the six-acre, four-city-block area that will drastically alter the skyline because there are no banks eager to finance the deal, sources said. The agreement in question determines the roles and responsibilities of each party, including any minimum city expectation regarding the type of development, and defines the city's responsibility to reimburse developer costs.

Austin estimated it will pay about $18 million in infrastructure rebates to the development team, according to staff. In June 2008, Austin City Council selected a partnership between Austin-based Constructive Ventures and Dallas-based Trammel Crow Co. from a group of bidders to move forward with 2.6 million square feet of mixed-use development.

The city initially planned to finish negotiating a master development agreement by June 2009, said Fred Evins, the city project manager. Published city timelines initially projected construction to start in 2010, but that is almost impossible. Both the city and the development team declined to talk about the specifics holding up a deal.

Evins said talks have not broken down, and the process is still active. "It would be unfair to say we are frustrated," Evins said. "There is not a sentiment of frustration. It is a complex deal, and we have significant challenges."

Central Texas home sales rose 5 percent in January from a year ago, the Austin Board of Realtors reported. January's median sales price rose 1 percent to $179,250. Real estate agents sold 884 preowned homes in January compared to 840 the same month last year. There were 1,417 pending sales in the pipeline, a 7 percent increase from a year ago. John Horton, chairman of the Austin Board of Realtors, said January 2009 marked the low point of the current cycle. Throughout 2009, the volume of single-family home sales in Austin improved steadily. In the first half of 2009, the gap in year-over-year sales closed consistently, reaching levels similar to 2008 during the summer peak, with the exception of a dip in August. By fall, sales began outperforming 2008. They surged in October and November, spurred by the original deadline for the first-time homebuyer tax credit. In December, sales returned to a modest increase, rising 5 percent from December 2008, a growth rate that held last month.