The popular Rainey Street district may host the next condo tower to be announced in downtown Austin. Known simply as 70 Rainey, the four lot assemblage, currently occupied by several mobile food trucks, is situated just east of the Mexican American Cultural Center.
While we’ve been expecting a tower on this site, it is noteworthy that 70rainey.com indicates the tower will deliver as condos for sale, rather than previous reports of a multi-family tower with apartments for rent.
The site has been in play for several years and has seen several owners.
The current owner, Freemont Holdings, LLC – a related company of Manhattan developer Sackman Enterprises, acquired the site last year from local Riverside Resources.
City of Austin filings indicate that the site plan might not be fully fleshed out. As of last October engineers are seeking 200 residences, for a total project size of 531,806 sf.
This is a nuanced change from what the project was originally entitled for, and new City of Austin ordinances for density in Rainey Street could hand-tie the developers ability tweak the building. The new desired height of the tower has increased to 35 stories due to smaller floor plates in the revised building plan.
Summary of what we know about 70 Rainey:
- Number of dwellings = 200 (86 1bd, 110 2bd, 4 penthouse)
- Building size = 531,806 SF
- Number of stories = 35 (tbd.)
- Number of parking spaces = 478
- Amenities include: onsite restaurant, 24 hour concierge, pool, gym, great streets sidewalks
After years without any new condo towers, the past 18 months have given downtown Austin three official announcements: Seaholm, Fifth & West, and The Independent. The only building to see vertical construction so far is Seaholm, but site work has begun on Fifth & West.
Interestingly, those condo towers are located within two blocks of each other, and each is anchored to West Avenue. It would be great to spread some of that excitement to the east of Congress Avenue, and perhaps that will be 70 Rainey… but maybe we’ll just as soon see 99 Trinity, or the three towers proposed by Waller Park Place.
-Jude
It’s amazing to see what the demand has been for downtown / ground zero condo projects over the years. As a lifelong Austinite I was skeptical when they first started rolling out. Also dealing with city red tape in residential development In the urban core we know it all to well what kind of wild card you can be dealt by the shifting sand from various city departments. Hopefully the project gets going soon and sells out quickly like all of it’s predecessors.
As a garage door services company owner I work with many builders in Austin and I hear about how the red tape can wreak havoc on a project. It will be interesting to see how all of these proposed high rise condo projects pan out. Although with the growth in Austin the city might have no choice but to bend a bit. Thanks for the great post!