You are here: Home / 2009 / Archives for May 2009

Brazos Place Auction Results

May 17, 2009 By 8 Comments

Brazos Place is officially sold out. Today, in less than 90 minutes, 19 downtown Austin residences were sold at an average discount of 29% from asking price.  The best deal of the day was probably the penthouse: 2745 feet purchased for $967,200, originally priced at $1,575,000.  The unit that was being advertised with a starting bid of $80,000 sold for $168,480 (OLP was $199,900).  I was able to take video of that particular auction and you can watch it above.

Below is a brief summary and you can download the complete results here (pdf).

Units sold: 19
Square feet: 23,088
Avg sale price per foot: $281.80
Avg discount from OLP: 29%

-Jude

Filed Under: austin condo auction, downtown austin Tagged With: ,

4th Street Stairway Of Death Becoming Less Deadly

May 16, 2009 By 8 Comments
So long stairs!

[Thanks to DANA's Greg Anderson for the pics!]

If you’ve been to the downtown Austin warehouse district you might agree that part of the appeal is the intermittent above grade pedestrian experience.  Always precarious, though I never witnessed anyone fall.  The staircase across from the Spaghetti Warehouse has always been especially dicey.

The City of Austin is making some changes.  You will no longer risk breaking an ankle (or a head) crossing the street at 4th & Colorado.

Was it mom and stroller friendly?  No.  Was it ADA friendly?  No way.  Was it deadly?  Well, almost, but not because of the stairs.  Was it charmingly awkward?  I think so.

Is this a good use of city funds right now, perhaps at the greater expense of the neighborhood’s magic formula?  You be the judge.

BTW, have you joined DANA yet?

So long stairs!

So long stairs!

Uninspired design

Can we at least have some ivy or vines on the walls?

Filed Under: downtown austin Tagged With:

1/2 City Block For Sale

May 15, 2009 By 1 Comment

The ABJ is reporting that the Whitely Paper Co. building, which was the original site for the downtown Austin 21c Museum & hotel, is back on the market for $3.8MM.

Map

Filed Under: development

KUT – Richard Garriott On Personal Pods

May 15, 2009 By 1 Comment

If I’m at home, then there is probably public radio playing in the background.  We are blessed here in Austin, Texas to have KUT – a truly terrific local public radio station.  Last week they aired a story in cooperation with “Texas Monthly” based on their May ideas issue.  Ideas to change the world.

“If you were going to change the world, you could pick a worse place to start than Texas. We approached dozens of Texas thinkers and got ideas from the sublime to the futuristic.”

The segment with Richard “Lord British” Garriott is my favorite as he envisions an over head tram network of personal pods to shuffle people around Austin.  He’s even considering putting money behind the idea!  (fast-forward to 7:30).
Via PRX.org (audio is 59 minutes and worth a listen)
-Jude
Filed Under: austin transit

Waller Creek District Master Plan

May 14, 2009 By Leave a Comment

People viewing the Waller Creek District designs

From the City of Austin website: In February 2009, the City authorized the Roma Design Group to begin the Waller Creek District Master Plan. Over the next 10 months, ROMA will work to identify a community vision for the area, identify opportunities and challenges, and recommend ways to make the vision become a reality. Currently much of the land near Waller Creek cannot be developed because it is in the creek’s 100-year floodplain.

Yesterday’s town hall at the convention center to discuss Waller Creek District Master Plan was the largest turnout I’ve seen for Waller Creek. The large audience seemed to collectively understand the need for change. ROMA design group shared a draft vision for the district’s potential. A couple of things become salient yesterday. This will not become Riverwalk “2″. Development will happen to pay for the tunnel and also to encourage the creek’s use. Development recommendations should not be uniform along the creek as different sections offer unique settings.

Segments of Waller Creek:

  • North bank to Cesar Chavez
  • Cesar Chavez to 5th Street
  • 5th Street to 7th Street
  • 7th Street to 11th Street
  • 11th Street to 15th Street

This is good. As an example of the necessity for different sections, compare the North bank to Cesar Chavez with 5th Street to 7th Street. The latter has a beautiful natural limestone bed (in most parts) but is narrowly channeled.  The former has more rough terrain and dangerous erosion along the banks. Breaking up the creek into different sections allows for more focused discussion on highest and best use.

As one of the ROMA representatives said, I’m paraphrasing, “Waller Creek is the most significant urban planning endeavor of our generation”.   Amongst a myriad of other benefits, this the Waller Creek Districrt has the opportunity to bridge East Austin with downtown, to fundamentally improve Waterloo park and Palm park, and to provide a green setting which to traverse downtown north-south and connect with Lady Bird Lake trails.

[Read more...]

Filed Under: downtown austin, waller creek Tagged With:

Ashton Austin Pricing

May 12, 2009 By 6 Comments
Ashton Austin: now with pricing!

Ashton Austin: now with pricing!

Pricing for the downtown Austin apartment building, the Ashton Austin, is available – Jude Galligan, 512-226-3414, judegalligan [@] gmail.com. DAB has been covering the Ashton’s obfuscated marketing for months (click to read all posts).  It appears the building is almost ready for prime time.  One-bedrooms are large, ranging in size from 940-1029 ft. A pdf of the pricing can be downloaded here.  For a limited time, the developer is offering two months free on a 12 month lease which effectively reduces the monthly rent by at least $333 per month.

As of today the model units are not open. Judging by the landscaping and the tone of their communications I think it could be as early as this weekend that the model/sales center opens. Expectations are high from tenants who have grown tired of starkly appointed downtown Austin lofts. The photos show a high end finish out, the floor plans are large, and the views are certain to be spectacular… unless you end up staring into 100 Congress. Stay tuned!

-Jude

Filed Under: austin apartments, downtown austin, Downtown Austin lofts, condos, apartments Tagged With: ,

Political Property

May 11, 2009 By 3 Comments

Using the Travis County Appraisal District’s website, Traviscad.org, I pulled the appraisal values for the homesteads belonging to our city’s politicians. Before I did this, I had a limited knowledge of which neighborhoods our elected officials hail from. For most people their homes are their biggest investment, and I generally believe our politicians are pretty typical.  There is some interesting information contained in these values.   For instance, former Austin Neighborhood Council president Laura Morrison’s Old West Austin property is worth $1,429,485!  I’ve heard through the grapevine that as recently as last year Marc Ott rented in downtown Austin’s AMLI on 2nd, but is currently in Circle C.  Mayor Will Wynn lives with his family in downtown Austin’s Austin City Lofts.  Randi Shade lives in a Clarksville condo.  Brewster McCracken is perhaps renting north of UT at the mixed-use development, the Triangle.  Mike Martinez lives in the Holly district of East Austin (I couldn’t find the record but I know the neighborhood).  Mayor elect Lee Leffingwell calls Highland Park West Balcones Neighborhood home.  Sheryl Cole and her family live in the neighborhood I can best describe as Cherrywood or northern French Place.

See the list after the jump!
[Read more...]

Filed Under: downtown austin Tagged With:

The Shore Austin: Photos and Images

May 8, 2009 By 2 Comments
The Shore Austin

Complete pricing for the downtown Austin condo, The Shore, is available Jude Galligan, 512-226-3414, judegalligan [@] gmail.com

The Shore Austin

The Shore Austin

website
(512) 226-3414
Jude Galligan
Downtown Austin Realtor

More images after the jump!
[Read more...]

Filed Under: Austin photos, images, downtown austin Tagged With: , ,

Car2go spotted in downtown Austin

May 7, 2009 By 3 Comments

Howdy, youre not from around here, huh?

Yesterday, leaving the office on W 5th, I noticed a car2go branded smart car out front of Austin City Lofts.  Maybe Mayor Will Wynn was getting a test drive?  Earlier this year the Statesman reported the car share initiative would work like this:

“The city will set aside urban-core parking spaces for 200 of Daimler’s “Smart” cars. Rather than paying for the spaces, Daimler will let city employees use the cars for a number of hours that’s equal to the monetary value of the spaces. (That amount hasn’t been determined yet; it will be negotiated over the next few weeks, city officials said.)…The program will start in October and run for six months. Daimler will pay for fuel, maintenance and insurance during that time, said the city’s transportation director, Robert Spillar.”

I’d like to point out that Austin’s first viable car share program, Austin Car Share, was developed assisted by city council candidate elect (!) Chris Riley.

-Jude

[Thanks to Mark for the clarification: Chris Riley was an active board member of Austin Car Share]

Filed Under: austin transit

Austin's Tale of Two Cities

May 5, 2009 By 1 Comment

Just found this terrific article about how Austin’s growth pattern is driven by the ‘freakonomics’ of Central and Old West Austin.  I didn’t realize who the author was until the end.  It was a nice [but not unexpected] surprise to see that is was authored by Chris Bradford!  Great job, Chris!

Below are two great quotes from the article:

“Families also did not have to flee central Austin to escape dense, overcrowded neighborhoods. The typical central Austin neighborhood is no denser than a typical suburban neighborhood. Most central Austin neighborhoods consist almost entirely of single-family residences. Indeed, in some, nearly 90% of the residential acreage is set aside for single-family housing, with multi-family developments relegated to busy streets. And yard sizes in suburbs are frequently little larger than the yards in the central neighborhoods.”

“Yet there’s an ironic side to this. Alarmed by the decline of families in the city, the same city council that enacted the McMansion ordinance created a new task force a few months later to determine why central Austin has now so few families with children.”

Filed Under: urban planning
« Older Posts
Newer Posts »