downtown Austin's neighborhood and real estate blog
Next Sunday, April 22, 2012, from 11am-5pm, is the 2012 Downtown Living Tour. The Tour is a showcase of homes located in Downtown Austin, and is put on by the Downtown Austin Neighborhood Association (it’s DANA’s only fundraiser, and helps keep the organization chugging throughout the rest of the year). A portion of proceeds this year will also go to The Health Alliance for Austin Musicians (HAAM).
The 2012 Downtown Living Tour has [Read more...]
Not much info has been released about the design of Riverside Resources’ 20 16-story apartment building under construction at 3rd & Brazos (in the newly monikered Railyard District).
The video below is a virtual flyover of the building, and provides more insight into the design. (update: the video settings have been changed to private)
Foundation Communities site for Capitol Terrace 11th @ Trinity
Walter’s vision is to bring housing into downtown Austin for people who earn $15.00 per hour, or less.
Say what?!
Proposed is a 135 efficiency-style apartment building (for rent) at the southwest corner of 11th & Trinity. The site is currently a surface level parking lot. It is intended that 27 of the units will be reserved for people with absolutely no income, specifically clients of Caritas, Trinity Center, ARCH, and the Salvation Army.
Musicians can afford it. Many downtown workers, including State employees can afford it. Veterans on disability can afford it. Initially, the average rent would be between $400-650 per month, all bills paid.
Walter is the Executive Director of Foundation Communities (FC), a nonprofit affordable housing developer. FC has a track record of success. Established in 1990, FC is owner and manager of 13 communities all around Austin and built with support of local neighborhood associations. They are a long term owner, have never sold one of their properties, and claim they never intend to. Last year FC opened M Station on MLK: the first LEED for Homes Platinum apartment building in the entire country!
Foundation Communities site for Capitol Terrace 11th @ Trinity
Here’s the rub: FC cannot build an affordable housing community without the express support of the immediate neighborhood association. In this case, it’s either DANA or the DAA.
I was invited by FC to tour their other buildings, which was needed because I wasn’t really educated about affordable housing. Elliott McFadden, the communications director for FC (also the publisher of Austin On Two Wheels), succinctly explained what affordable housing isn’t. [Read more...]
According to an administrative site plan application filed with the city, the Austin Skyhouse is a proposed downtown Austin mixed-use apartment tower at 47 Rainey Street. If built, the tower could deliver 15,000ft of retail and 320 apartments to downtown Austin’s red hot rental market.
The ~1.4 acre site, shown below, is directly north of the Legacy apartments (187 units), and across the street from the Milago Condos (240 units). The CBD zoned property has long been expected to be developed into a tower, so this shouldn’t be received with much surprise.
According to the application: “The applicant is proposing to construct Apt. Tower/Retail and Garage/Retail with associated improvements.” The applicant is familiar to downtown Austin development – Novare/Andrews Urban – the same team who developed the successful 360 Condos.
Since Milago has the dominant lake and city view for the first twelve floors, we’ll hopefully see a tall tower over podium design where most of the units’ views would clear Milago’s roof. Given the parking challenges in the Rainey Street district, perhaps we’ll see extra parking included in the design which could be available to visitors to the neighborhood.
This is the latest of several proposed downtown Austin high rise projects catering to renters. Riverside Resources is under construction of their 20 story building at 3rd Street & San Jacinto. 7 Rio looks like it is being repurposed as a rental product and could break ground this year.
(UPDATE 1: Novare is building the Skyhouse concept in Atlanta on what looks to be a similarly configured site. UPDATE 2: we’ve confirmed the tower will be 23 stories and could break ground as early as May.)
Jude and I are both on the board of the Downtown Austin Neighborhood Association (DANA) – a grassroots community organization dedicated to improving the lives of those who live, work, and / or play in the Downtown Austin Community. It’s an organization that we believe in, and an organization that is affecting positive change in our community.
For our readers who are downtown residents (or, who spend a significant amount of time downtown for work or for pleasure), I urge you to become a member of the organization.
A little info: [Read more...]
Francisco Vara-Orta gets the scoop on plans for a new downtown Austin 15 story office tower, next to Gables Park Plaza at Lamar and Cesar Chavez.
Dubbed Park Plaza, the planned 15-story tower will feature 189,000 square feet of predominately Class A office space off the northeast corner of West Cesar Chavez Street and Lamar Boulevard — next to the newly opened Gables Park Plaza residential complex. Gables owns the 1.8-acre tract where the new office building is planned, and has contracted with Capital City to build and lease the structure, which will also include approximately 10,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space. Dirt could turn as early as October.
Nothing gets built until enough lease agreements are in place, but with a location like this that could happen soon. As it is envisioned, no variances are needed.
This is the second, (maybe third) office project announced in this district of downtown this year.
Jude @ the Austonian (55th floor, southeast corner)
After several weeks of the weather foiling our plans, myself and KevinFromTexas at SkyscraperPage, were escorted to the 55th floor of the Austonian where we could take photos of the building’s city views (they kindly asked us to not take photos of the interiors until they were complete). As has been common this season, a storm started rolling in as we were setting up, and the wind was a little too intense for this photographer’s novice hand to get the tripod to support itself. I think we came through with some interesting perspectives. If you’re interested in more photos of the Austonian, make sure to checkout SkyscraperPage’s Austonian Thread and Flickr. Thanks to Cile, Sarah, and Trey at the Austonian for facilitating the tour!
You can see the 55th floor terraces here – this amazing photo is taken from the crane positioned high above the top of the building!
-Jude
Dig these pics of the Austonian? Share the love, we appreciate it! 
Jude Galligan, Broker at REMAX Downtown Austin, 512-226-3414
Recent Comments
who is the owner and when does agora open?
so who is the owner of AGORA? and when does it open?
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RT @downtown_austin: BY THE NUMBERS: Downtown Austin Highrise Sales http://t.co/D8rhUTu7
Specific sales data is reserved for our clients. Any REALTOR, myself included, can assist you outside of the blog.
Is there a place where the February sales and re-sales are disclosed? I appreciate the trending graph, but seeing the ...
I have known Jeff for 5 years, and became a fan when I tried the products at their Arboretum Store. ...
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Economics... I always think the same, and come to the conclusion that the markups must be quite healthy.
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