Pay By Donation Yoga in Rainey Street

Pay By Donation

Be Yoga just opened in the Rainey Street District!

Located in the Windsor (née Legacy on the Lake), Be Yoga is a no-frills studio, about 1,000 square feet, just a stone’s throw from the lake and across from the Milago condos.

Perhaps more intriguing than it’s location is the fact that it’s a [Read more...]

Downtown Austin Apartment High Rise To Get A Name Change

windsor-on-the-lake

Downtown Austin Blog has learned that the Legacy On The Lake apartment high rise will undergo rebranding as “Windsor On The Lake”, or to something similar.  Windsor Communities has purchased a controlling interest in the Rainey Street tower from Legacy Partners, and within the next couple of weeks we should expect to see new signage. Completed in 2008, Legacy On The Lake is a 187 unit LEED certified building.

Another Rainey Street Bar Pops Up – AGORA

angora-rainey-street-austin-tx

A new bar/lounge (guess) called “Agora” is readying their new space at 84 East Avenue in Downtown Austin’s Rainey Street neighborhood.  This is just few steps down from East Avenue Lounge (aka Rainey Manor). Picture of Agora and updated Rainey Street Map after the jump.

I also noticed some groundwork being done at [Read more...]

Hotel Van Zandt Returns

hotel-van-zandt

According to the ABJ’s Jacob Dirr’s twitter feed, paperwork was filed today by Bury and Partners for the construction of Hotel Van Zandt. This time sans condos.  We confirmed this with the city, and indeed the .68 acre site is back in play. Owned by JMI Realty, the site sits adjacent (north) of The Shore Condos in Downtown Austin’s Rainey Street neighborhood.   [Read more...]

Container Bar On Rainey Street

Container Bar coming to Rainey Street

Our friends at Austin civil engineering firm Big Red Dog just sent us fresh new renderings of the planned Container Bar in Downtown Austin’s Rainey Street neighborhood. The site is currently being used by Cazamance African-fusion patio/restaurant on the corner of Rainey and Davis Streets.  It will be interesting to watch the this project come alive, as I’m not aware of anything else like it in Central Texas. [Read more...]

[Stop] Signs Of Progress In Rainey Neighborhood

Phyllis Fletcher's stop sign in the Rainey Street neighborhood

I was expecting the City to share with stakeholders a draft of an “in the works” plan for Downtown Austin’s Rainey neighborhood. There’s not much to report. Instead, stakeholders were met with City staff taking notes on what the stakeholders had to say.

Staff from several City departments were in attendance, including: Public Works, Parks & Recreation, Austin Energy, Transportation, Planning & Development, Austin Police. Also present was perennial sustainability advocate and Austin City Council member Chris Riley.

What’s next? Each department will organize their feedback and report to…. nobody is sure. I’ve asked the City to create a dedicated web presence for Rainey Street (e.g. www.cityofaustin.org/raineystreet) to better organize and distribute information. Here is pdf scan of the handouts. And, I’m glad to share that there is real progress to report. [Read more...]

Progress at 68-74 Rainey Street

68-74 rainey street geotechnical

A couple of weeks ago we discovered this Rainey Street development site was placed under contract.  Asking price was $2.4MM for the 0.57-acre parcel (24,840ft) assembled from three contiguous single family lots.

Thanks to a tip from Downtown Austin Blog reader Austin Talley [Austin is a rare downtown resident who owns and lives in a single family home in the Rainey Street neighborhood] there appears to be geotechnical survey truck on the 68-74 Rainey Street property today taking core samples.

Austin, who is an engineer, shared with us “… geotechnical engineering studies are primarily done to investigate subsurface conditions to assist with engineering design for a large scale building or other large projects. The previous times I saw a geotechnical truck in the Rainey area the Legacy, Shore, and Milago were later built on the sites. It is likely [Read more...]

Large Rainey Street Development Site Under Contract

view.RaineyStreet

A 0.5702-acre parcel (24,840ft) development site in Downtown Austin’s Rainey Street neighborhood has been placed under contract. The site, 68-74 Rainey Street, is owned by Equity Secured Capital LP and comes with an asking price of of $2.5MM.  It consists of three adjacent lots, one is double size, so the total Rainey Street frontage is equivalent to nearly four lots.  At first glance, it doesn’t appear that power-line easements or Waterfront Overlay District create any encumbrances.  Survey of the site after the jump.   [Read more...]

Should The City Allow New Surface Parking On Rainey Street?

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It was the Downtown Austin Convention Center Overlay combined with a down market and CBD zoning that created a perfect environment for the bungalow-to-bar renovation boom on Rainey Street.  Now, to spur new infrastructure and a better mix of retail uses, allowing surface level parking in Rainey Street neighborhood is worthy of reexamination.

Some of my highly informed friends in downtown Austin, whose opinions I greatly respect, will disagree with me.  And, in general, I would discourage new downtown surface level parking in most circumstances.   Short of incentives to develop structured shared parking [underground!], we need to take a pragmatic look at how to deal with the Rainey Street neighborhood in the short-run.

[Read more...]

CBD + OMV = Doh!

DANA Urban Core Happy Hour

CBD zoning was required to create the giant residential tax base we now have in downtown Austin.  CBD zoning also enables bars to easily obtain OMV permits.  These are good examples of the power of CBD zoning. However, there is a legacy problem surfacing in CBD zoned non-entertainment districts of downtown Austin: compatibility.

The surge in new OMV permits issued outside of the established entertainment districts in downtown Austin has generated a response from the Downtown Austin Neighborhood Association.  DANA has issued a position letter (pdf) that suggests procedural, enforcement, and compatibility improvements to be applied outside of E. 6th Street and the Warehouse District.

BTW, the local news media is going to generate plenty of hyperbole and “show down” sensationalism.  I choose to ignore it.  The solution to compatibility problems boils down to common sense and compromise. [Read more...]