downtown Austin's real estate and neighborhood blog
According to Taylor Andrews of Andrews Urban, via the Statesman, the nearly 14,000sf of retail space below 360 condos is for-sale, coincidentally for about $360psf. Royal Blue just moved in. Mulberry is super-cool. Haven’t been to Blu Cafe, yet.
From the article… “The space, totaling about 13,700 square feet, is almost all leased. Tenants already open or coming soon include Garrido’s, a restaurant from former Jeffrey’s executive chef David Garrido; Mulberry and the Lara Reynolds art galley.”
Over at Austin Contrarian we can find some interesting thoughts on the [poor] location of the proposed Federal Court House. Specifically, I give it up to Miggy for this simple, yet significant, observation:
“Taking a one-block by one-block square of valuable downtown land largely unencumbered by the capital view corridors off the tax rolls permanently doesn’t help Austin at all. This is where density should be targeted and this building is far from helping that goal. Also to say that the bunker-on-three-sides structure is pedestrian unfriendly would be an understatement.”
Also, Miggy brings up another concern about moving the post office to Red River.
“On a final note – the moving of the Post Office to over near Club de Ville and Red River makes no sense to me either. How many office workers will find that location convenient? And how will that dead retail streetfront (or worse-yet – similar suburban parking lot and drive-thru) help the still nascent Red River entertainment district which is already threatened by any number of other forces. I don’t know what the reasoning was but just based on my surface knowledge – they should have kept in the bottom of the Ovation building as planned.”
Andrews Urban and the Post Office own the block of land across from Stubbs. The post office was going to move there in order for Andrews Urban/Novare to build Ovation where the current post office is located. IMHO, Ovation has ZERO chance of being built within the next five years, so hopefully Miggy’s point is moot.
Huffington Post speculates on how stimulus dollars could impact regional high-speed rail networks.
Each day this week I am serving up one item, with non-politically correct candor, that Downtown Austin needs to become a model of re-urbanization, as I see it.
Politicians love to talk, form task forces, and spend time doing everything except for making decisions as they are needed. So, this is an appeal to Downtown Austin stakeholders that know how to get things done: the residents, developers, retailers, and land owners.
Take me to the drag. Take me to South Congress. Take me to Zilker. Take me to the airport. 90% of the time I don’t need, or want, to go anywhere else in Austin. An urban rail (pdf) benefits not only downtown, but ALL of the urban core. Complemented by the commuter rail, with an urban rail system in place we can begin to reduce (if not remove) minimum parking requirements for new developments. Reduced parking requirements translates into improved streetscapes, less congestion, and more economically productive land use (more sales taxes, more ad-valorem taxes).
CAMPO TWG you can make this happen.
Each day this week I am serving up one item, with non-politically correct candor, that Downtown Austin needs to become a model of re-urbanization, as I see it.
Politicians love to talk, form task forces, and spend time doing everything except for making decisions as they are needed. So, this is an appeal to Downtown Austin stakeholders that know how to get things done: the residents, developers, retailers, and land owners.
This is an average landmarked building on East Sixth Street. Here is another – note the beautiful brick archwork accented by a plywood sign! The building owners, tenants, and the city should be embarrassed. So much of Austin’s history exists in those buildings. Any building that has a landmark plaque should be respected and preserved.
The city may say “we don’t regulate ugly”. They should. The city must better leverage the Historical Landmark Commission and Heritage Society to protect the facades, awnings, and cleanliness of our historic buildings.. Unless the city begins to affect positive change, we will continue to see the warehouse district disappear and East Sixth Street deteriorate. It appears that voluntary compliance by landlords to maintain an expected (or expressed) standard doesn’t work and the city must begin to enforce regulations.
BTW, the owners of landmarked buildings get significant tax breaks.