“The main reason people are coming to the east side is for the coolness factor,” said Jay Lamy, a principal with Aquila Commercial who represented C3 Presents and is an investor in the neighborhood. “If we can keep the residential, retail, restaurants and hotels coming, it’s only going to fuel the desire for more companies to locate here.”

The most ambitious project proposed to date, however, has been the most contentious. The Endeavor Real Estate Group, a local developer, and Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority, Austin’s regional public transportation provider, have joined to turn an old 11-acre rail yard into a “transit-oriented development” — a dense mix of uses near public transportation — at Plaza Saltillo. The plan calls for 800 apartments, 120,000 square feet of office space and 110,000 square feet of stores and restaurants. Columbus Realty Partners, a Dallas-based apartment developer, is also a partner. The developers have agreed to lease the rail yard from Capital Metro for about $200 million over 99 years.

The commuter train began operating in 2010. Four years later Capital Metro selected Endeavor to develop the Plaza Saltillo site after the recession delayed earlier building plans. Capital Metro began formulating its proposal in the late 1990s, said Gerardo Castillo, a senior vice president and chief of staff for the organization.

“We’ve incorporated a lot of community feedback from over the years into the overall vision of the development,” Mr. Castillo said over the lunch-crowd din of a Tex-Mex restaurant two blocks north of the station. “Planning has always been about ridership, mixed-use development enhancing the community and linking land use with transportation.”