While I remain optimistic about the forthcoming Commuter Rail, M1EK makes some convincing arguments about how the system leaves room for improvement.
SOLD! Posada Del Rey #114
505 w 7th st, austin, tx 78701
list price: $200,000
sale price: $195,000
sf: 619
photos
Downtown Austin is getting [Walton's] Fancy
by jude galligan
While West 6th would become restaurant row, the building located at 609 w 6th, 78701 has been siting idle for the past few years. Recently, activity has been buzzing.
We’ve seen a construction crew slowly converting this old building into something new. I’ve heard that the building is owned by Sandra Bullock. This would make sense considering her successful Bess restaurant is just down the street. Traviscad lists the property is owned by “PIETANZO VITO TRUSTEE OF THE B” and has it appraised at $624,082. What’s more interesting to me is what will be opening.
It appears that Downtown Austin is getting a new Walton’s Fancy & Staple. According to their website…
“Walton’s downtown will include a traditional delicatessen & bakery (for folks on the go), & sidewalk café seating. Our Grand Opening is scheduled for late 2008. We look forward to fulfilling your fanciest floral, gift-giving & event design wishes!”
According to Google this is the former home of Crime & Space books, KSA Communications, and Texas Terminator pest control.
Historic Downtown Austin property for sale
by jude galligan
To the chagrin of everyone who lives, works, and drives through Downtown Austin, the former office of the Texas Comptroller has owned, occupied, vacated, and allowed to rot, this remarkable piece of real estate. I can’t imagine how many thousands of people have attempted to peer through the windows that were covered from the inside with thick construction paper. From the outside, the building always had a cool mid-century modern design. Located at the corner of 6th and Colorado, and not burdened with a Capitol View Corridor, I expect this building to get the attention of some big developers. The listing gives it an address of 107 w 6th, 78701. Traviscad has no address for it other than “W 6th”.
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Downtown Austin Condos: Build or bust? Fact or editorial disguised as fact?
by jude galligan
The Austin American Statesman is one of two local papers (the other being the Chronicle) that reach Austin’s masses. These newspapers set the agenda and guide the discussion on topics of their choosing. The words printed on the pages of the Statesman, Austin’s most widely read newspaper, have the power to affect the home values and lives of thousands of Austinites. With that power comes responsibility.
Wednesday morning I picked up a Statesman at Jos Coffee and in big bold black letters “Condos caught by crisis at last”, “Breakneck rate on sales of units, construction slows as credit and capital dry up”.
Curiously, neither of those dramatic headlines exist in the online version of the article. In the print edition, immediately to the left, in much smaller font, was the news – the government is injecting $800MM to expand the credit markets.
Shonda Novak is a staff writer at the Statesman and wrote the above article. Shonda has been reporting on Austin real estate for years. If Shonda writes that the sky is falling on Austin real estate, then 100k+ Austin readers look at their spouse and say “Hon, did you see that article in today’s paper about Downtown condos? I’m telling you, Babe, those developers will never sell all those condos! Just wait and they’ll be selling them at twenty cents on the dollar!”
I read and re-read the article. Seeing the print edition headline, I expected catastrophe. Instead, I found nothing at all particularly newsworthy.
Is it possible that the Statesman’s headline was overly sensational?
Taking a similar approach to how I dissected this article, after the jump, I’ve cut/pasted a handful of quotes from the article, and then I explain if that quote is, generally speaking, true, false, or if the quotes are generalizations or simply editorial in nature.
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