The one downtown Austin building that has protected views of just about everything in central Austin (Zilker, Lady Bird Lake, Texas State Capitol) is officially open. According to Larry Warshaw, one of the developers of the Spring Condos, closings began late last week and residents have started moving in. Cool!
-Jude
[update: It appears that all of the construction barriers have been removed. 3rd Street reconnects with Baylor St on the other side of Lamar. The ground floor retail frontage is visible from the street. I’ll try and snap some photos tomorrow.]
How exactly does a prospective buyer at the Spring factor in the inevitable loss of views in the future? Let’s say that the market recovers and development is announced immediately on the towers in those adjacent lots. How much in $ terms will that reduce the value of a current Spring condo that is on a high level with views that will be blocked by the new building? To me, this seems like a pretty tricky question.
@Joe, IMO, when you consider that most condos in downtown Austin do not have a view of the Capitol, nor protected views of anything, it’s not such a big deal. The pricing premium for the Spring condos is due to its location. Of course, like any building there is a micro-economy where certain views and floor plans are preferred and priced higher/lower than the average.
If you don’t ever want your views to change, Spring is one of the only buildings that can offer that – on the south and west side of the building. Pretty cool, IMO.
Jude – this is great commentary. I had questions regarding what impact the site to the northeast would have on views of downtown, the Capitol, etc. It’s my understanding that Spring’s developers own the block caddycornered to the northeast and have long term plans to put another tower there some day. Currently the site contains an equipment rental biz directly north of Gables West Avenue. Best I can tell, the site is not impacted by the Capitol View Corridor. Do you have heard anything related to that site and how it might impact Spring in the future?
@Taylor – thanks! Correct, Perry Lorenz, and likely the Constructive Ventures crew under the name “Bowie Street Partners”, own the two adjacent lots behind the Tiniest Bar in Texas, which is northeast of Spring. Their intention is obviously to develop, but I haven’t seen any plans. It would seem that views of the Capitol could be obstructed by whatever is built. I don’t want to focus too much on Capitol views – it’s very nice to have, but just one of many factors that make Spring attractive.
Thanks for the map. Looking at the 7Rio block, not a lot of room for them to go up. Spring also has some very nice views of the UT Tower–certainly not protected.
I’m not so sure about the capitol being protected. Spring is obviously not in a protected corridor or it would not have been built. The lower floors on the NE side are partially blocked by a building near Woolridge Park. Also, I never saw the plans for the 710 Rio building but the sight lines for sprint run right across Ranch 616 so if that is ever built (color me doubthful) then Spring will lose the capital views.
Carter, thanks for the correction – Spring is in the same sight line as 7rio. It’s tough to say if 7rio, as it was most recently designed, would block all of the views from Spring, but I don’t anticipate 7rio being built anytime soon. Until then the views of the Capitol are terrific, but they are not protected indefinitely.
Here is a map of the cap-view corridors.