Last year we discovered planning efforts for an apartment tower with the working name of “Trinity Place.” The forlorn metal building on the corner of Trinity and Cesar Chavez was acquired by World Class Capital Group.
Since then, there hasn’t been a peep out of the site leaving many of us wondering what would happen there. We’ve now discovered some proof-of-life based on public records filed by the engineering team.
The name “Trinity Place” has been scrapped, it is now dubbed “99 Trinity Tower” and is being proposed as a mixed-use residential skyscraper seven stories taller than the neighboring Four Season Residences.
The applicant is proposing a 39-story tower with ~14,000 square feet of restaurant on the ground level. Those are unchanged specs from last year. Above that, the first 8 floors will be dedicated for parking, with the remaining floors being dedicated to about 350 residential units.
Even with the Lakeside Apartments to the south, the structured parking garage will allow clear lake views for most of the residential units above.
The project is proposing Great Streets standards along Trinity St., and to build a hike and bike trail to connect to the existing Lady Bird Lake Trail.
While we know what is being proposed, it still remains to be seen if it will come to fruition in the end. The applicant is trying to nail down the base floor-to-area ratio (FAR) provided by the zoning, and navigate restrictions within the Waterfront Overlay “North Shore Central” district and will have to wait for the city, which could take some time if history serves as a guide.
The ball is rolling on this site. The demolition permit was issued to scrape the dilapidated metal structure for whatever lands there. We are excited to see more.
***Below, DAB has mocked up a building envelope showing [extremely crudely!] how a 39 story building could fit onto the site, and how it would add to downtown Austin skyline.
Yeah, all the units at Seaholm were ‘snapped up’, but my understanding is that the reservations were a $5,000 fully refundable deposit, that’s it.
Since the deposits are fully refundable, it doesn’t really say that much about strength of the market or how serious the potential buyers are. Heck, I’m only 30% sure I’ll want to buy in two years, but I wish I would’ve got in for a $5k deposit; fully refundable, so no risk!
Did the units at Seaholm get snapped up already? What percentage?
Yep, all 280 units were reserved within 2-3 days. Several years of built up market demand pounced, sight unseen. It was a crappy process, actually.
I’d like to see World Class Capital Group create a joint development deal with HACA and replace Lakeside with 2 affordable towers. Perhaps they’d be able to access some of the newly available housing bond money. Three towers going up at the same time would surely create cost savings and some cool design/function opportunities.
Dan, I’d expect residential developers to continue to provide this level of parking until we get a serious rail system downtown. Nobody, and I mean nobody, in the developer community is remotely impressed by buses, be they local or ‘rapid’ [sic].
And after. People who can afford $500/sf can afford a car and a parking space. My question is whether the old requirements were higher than the market would provide.
How much parking would they have been required under old minimum parking requirements?
Any word on whether it’ll be rental or condo? Judging by the fact that the units at Seaholm were snapped up in barely a month, I would think that the pendulum is tilting back towards ownership, at least if the price point is within reason (under $500 psf).