downtown Austin's real estate and neighborhood blog
Now that the AMOA museum tower and the bazillion room Marriott are on indefinite hold, an unexpected opportunity has opened up for Downtown Austin’s proposed 21c museum/hotel/residences to consider pushing forward. 21c is making the mass-media rounds as of late. Last week 21c was featured on NPR. This morning 21c was featured on the Today show.
21c’s Cesar Chavez & Red River location is prime for participation (financial and design) in the Waller Creek Revitalization.
Recently it was speculation, but now it’s official. According the Austin Business Journal, Hines Interestes LP, the developer planning the office portion of the museum tower, will allow its option on the land to expire today.
“Due to the uncertain economy, we made the difficult decision not to renew the option in 2009. However, Hines is still interested in developing an office building in Austin when the market recovers, and we hope it will be in conjunction with AMOA and its museum. The project will not restart until the market improves. Our hope would be to get a new deal together in 2009 or 2010, and then move full steam ahead. We see great potential in the long-term viability of the city of Austin.” –Travis Overall, Hines vice president
Located at 4th and Guadalupe, this is one of the few undeveloped sites in Downtown Austin that is not in a capitol view corridor, so it’s availability should quickly attract the interest of opportunistic developers. Otherwise we’ll endure another couple of years of surface parking blight 🙁 Add this site to the other prime downtown sites available and I expect to see some interesting proposals over the next year.
Thanks to DANA‘s Roger Cauvin for the heads up!
According to this WSJ article…
“Houston-based developer Hines says it won’t likely start construction as planned in the first quarter on a mixed-use project it is developing in downtown Austin with the Austin Museum of Art. A Hines spokeswoman says the company still hopes to start construction in 2009. Hines will need to prelease at least half the project’s 425,000 square feet of office space before it seeks financing for the office component, the spokeswoman says.”
I spent a good portion of this past weekend browsing the skyscraperpage forums. I have been hooked ever since I discovered this website. Members of this forum are actively photographing and discussing development progress in Austin. Many of them have serious photography chops, too. One of the best reasons for tuning in to the discussion is for the ‘golden nuggets’ that people find on the inter-tubes and share with the other members. One example is the “Texas Archive of the Moving Image” – a repository for old films about Texas.
The history of Austin is something I am fascinated with, so you can imagine how excited I was when I learned about these videos. Here is a link to an old video of Barton Springs and Lamar Blvd. Search around the website and post your favorites in the comments section.
Austin’s 21c museum residences and hotel may be on hold for now, but this morning NPR gave a glowing review of the original concept in Louisville, Kentucky. The NPR story incorrectly states that the Austin 21c is under construction; however, Marriott’s decision to not build 1,000 hotel rooms should reflect favorably on 21c’s pro-formas. 21c was originally planned for development at the Whitley paper building on 3rd and San Jacinto, however, plans changed to locate the building(s) at Red River and Cesar Chavez, along Waller Creek.
The inopportune demolition of the Las Manitas restaurant and neighboring buildings has sparked some discussion in the blogosphere. On December 5th, it was announced that the 1,000 room Marriott hotel development was put on hold. Chris Bradford over at Austin Contrarian suggests we charge developers a fee if they delay development of blighted block.
Time will tell how long it takes Marriott to develop to sell the site. One reason to be optimistic that Marriott may still have sincere interest in developing the hotel is that Downtown Austin hotels routinely reach full capacity. Meanwhile, wrapping a block in chain link fence and leaving it to sid idly will not be taken kindly by local stakeholders. I would like to see City Council implement maximum development timelines for projects like this and begin to revoke concessions initially granted to the project.
AustinTowers has some photos of the demolished block.
This morning Austin is covered in a thick blanket of fog. This is the best fog I’ve seen in years, and a quick search through Google images queues up some picturesque photos that comes with a fog like this. (link)
/it’s a slow news week.
//and, I didn’t want to jump on this bandwagon.
Last year I purged my book shelves by giving away hundreds of books that I’ve collected over the years. I kept a dozen, or so, that were too significant to give up. Since it’s been a slow news week for Downtown Austin, I thought I would use this time to recommend a couple of books that you can read over the holidays. After reading these books it will come as no surprise why hundreds of thousands of people across the country are retreating back to the cities after 50 years of suburban growth.
Extra credit
I encourage you to check out another book by Stewart Brand “The Clock of The Long Now“. This book is about many things including how civilizations evolve, how the digital age changes the way we archive and access our collective knowledge, and more. Throughout the book is a story about the design of a 10,000 clock that will be installed in the side of a mountain. Great read.
Lake Flato has been awarded the design contract for Downtown Austin’s new Central Library. They’ve got $90MM to work with to build 250,000 square feet by 2013.
Below is an estimated timeline for the new Central Library project:
The site sits partially within a capitol view corridor, so the future building can only be mid-rise and will likely only by three stories. In that regard I like this choice of location. Still, I think this is a poor choice of location in terms of accessibility. I’ve seen plenty of proposed transit maps for ‘future’ Austin, and not a single one shows rail stopping near the library. The people that would benefit the most from this new Central Library are, in my opinion, going to benefit the most from mass transit that can get them to the library! It was an easy choice for the City because they own the land; however, the city could have used condemnation to select a better site that would be more accessible. I expect the building will be beautiful. I just hope it gets used.
LP: $119,000
SP: $109,000
SF: 420
1212 Guadalupe St, Austin, TX 78701
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