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…