Jude Galligan

Austin Bike Share Enters the Homestretch

Jude Galligan | January 15, 2013 |

It’s been almost two and a half years since I started advocating for Austin Bike Share in the state capital. It became the highest rated of any SpeakUpAustin initiative, ever. Because of incredible grassroots support, generous financial support by several local businesses, and hard work by City staff, Austin Bike Share is finally happening for Austin.

Austin City Council this week is expected to approve an important step in the process, which will allow the city to form a partnership with nonprofit Bike Share of Austin to operate the bike share program.

The City and Bike Share of Austin are aiming to have the bike share program up and running by spring 2013. A separate contract with a bike share vendor for the purchase of bicycles, kiosks, and the bike share system network is scheduled to come to City Council for approval at the next scheduled council meeting, which would be Jan. 31.

It has long been rumored around town that Austin is going to pick B Cycle, the same bike share operator as San Antonio, to supply the bike share system for Austin. San Antonio’s system is a phenomenal success and expanding.

According to the City, the bike share will bring about 40 bike share kiosks, with as many as 400 bikes, to Central Austin area. That’s a good start.

It was around 2009, when traveling in Montreal, that I was first introduced to a robust bike share system. That system was called BIXI, but it was the same bike design used in Minneapolis. The system works impressively well. You can become a member, or pay-as-you-go. The three-geared bikes are comfortable and well maintained.

That Austin’s Bike Share initiative seems to be heading for the final stretch is superb news, and I’d like to thank all of our City Council members and all the folks at the city who are working to make this happen.

We can expect a draft map of the locations within the next couple of months.

I’ve learned that City staff’s process of identifying possible sites for bike share kiosks is based on several criteria:

Proximity of bike infrastructure such as bike lanes or cycle tracks
High employment density
Nearby parks, recreation facilities, tourist attractions, or other destination
Favorable topography
Public transit services

Get it out there.

For the sake of getting bike share off the ground, I really hope the City doesn’t let perfection get in the way of progress. I, myself, would be in favor of a phased launch and the City says, “we are putting half the stations in these spots. Deal with it. However, we would like to hear from the public about where we get the other stations set up at.”

That would get Austin Bike Share rolling, with kiosks being put into the ground, instead of letting all the zealots debate the minutia and delaying having something the public can actually use.

-Jude

Kevin Gant

Jude Galligan | January 12, 2013 |

Back in the early ’90s, an aspiring Austin musician was gaining lots of attention. Kevin Gant was on a trajectory for becoming really famous, and suddenly he disappeared from the scene and his fans… for 25 years.

Kevin wouldn’t reappear to the public light until director Jay Duplass reached out to him. Their conversation turned into a documentary, “Kevin”, that stumbled upon two weeks ago while browsing Netflix (I’ve been pushing the limits on the number of times a sane person can watch TopGear reruns, and this looked interesting enough).

Wow! What a story. Huge talent. Fascinating documentary about a local musician.

So, I finished the movie and went about my normal weekend.

Then, this past week while walking downtown after a DAA meeting with fellow board member, Fred Schmidt, I recognized Kevin from under his hat, waiting for the bus at Congress & 7th Street. Being a newly minted fan, I dorked out a little, and approached him just to share my enthusiasm for him and his story.

If you couldn’t immediately tell from the documentary, Kevin simply exudes positive energy. He was incredibly gracious given that a complete stranger (me) had just approached him. When I asked for a picture, he even suggested “hold on, let me get my guitar out!”, then handed Fred and I free copies of his latest CD. Cool!

Chance encounters with remarkable people. This is what makes downtown Austin such a great place to live, work, or just walk through.

If you don’t have a Netflix account, you can buy the movie on YouTube, “Kevin“, or checkout his music on iTunes.

Kevin, it’s nice to have met you. Thanks for telling your story. Cheers to your journey.

-Jude

BREAKING: Sales Of New Downtown Austin Condos Average More Than $1,000,000

Jude Galligan | January 8, 2013 |

For the first time, the average sales price of a new condo in downtown Austin is more than $1,000,000.

It’s not news that residences cost more than $1,000,000. It is news when we’re talking about averages! To be clear, we are focusing on new construction only, not resales (which have also had a banner year, and we’ll cover that in a future post.)

In 2012, the Austonian, Four Seasons Residences, W Hotel Residences, and Spring Condos (which in 2012 closed out their sales), accounted for 124 sales.

According to builder reports assembled by Capitol Market Research for new construction condos sold during the past 12 months:

average price = $1,061,682
average size = 1,701 ft.
number new condos sold = 124

The data is provided to us monthly as an aggregate of the above four buildings. Anonymizing individual building sales was the only way to convince the developers to share their sales data. To qualify the average price, we can approximate a median price using the 12 monthly aggregate records we have.

median monthly average price = $1,044,181 (min $777,813 to max $1,687,857)

The refrain which began in 2010 continues: there are no new downtown Austin condos being built. Nor have we seen any new site plans for downtown condos. Inventories continue to decrease (by 124 units in 2012) and residences are selling quickly at prices close to the asking price. An ancillary effect of this shrinking inventory is rising prices for resales.

By my estimation, when compared against TCAD records, only 115 new construction units remain. If interest rates remain low, the downtown Austin real estate market is on a trajectory to complete sales of new construction condos in 2013.

I’ll continue to provide detailed analysis of 2012 results over the coming weeks, including resales and analysis of building-by-building performance.

-Jude

What’s Next For Agora?

Jude Galligan | January 4, 2013 |

Agora is closed.

It was a rocky start and a quick ending to the sports bar on East Ave. Agora’s massive footprint, copious parking, and out-of-place architecture raised questions about what the concept would be really be. “Is it a strip club?” was an all-to-common refrain.

Turns out it really was just a sports bar, albeit one out of place in downtown Austin’s burgeoning Rainey Street neighborhood.

Perhaps the final blow to the struggling venue was last month’s decision by the City of Austin Music Division to revoke Agora’s Outdoor Music Venue permit, after receiving too many noise complaints.

What’s next? Our intel has it that the 18,000 sf CBD-zoned site is now for sale.

agora-omv-revoked — Agora OMV permit was revoked in December (pdf)

This Hotel Looks Just Like That Hotel

Jude Galligan | January 3, 2013 |

It’s deja vu all over again!

White Lodging is losing no time getting to work on their third active hotel construction project in downtown Austin.

In late December, about three months after news leaked about the deal, planners filed a site plan and based on other documents filed at the city a clearer picture is emerging about the 300-room luxury hotel at 5th & San Jacinto, abutting the 6th Street Entertainment District.

According to city documents, the project will climb to about 20 floors, with a roof terrace, totaling 215,000 square feet.

Atlanta-based PFVS Architects Inc. are the architects of record. PFVS already has a few hotels in Austin with their stamp on them, including the Westin at the Domain and the Marriot South Austin, off of I-35. PFVS is also designing White Lodging’s other two current downtown projects. White Lodging broke ground on a JW Marriott convention hotel valued at $300 million across from the Austonian last year, which is expected to open in 2015, and is working on a 296-room Hyatt Place under construction at 3rd & San Jacinto, expected to open this year. (Note: White Lodging also runs the Residence Inn next to the Convention Center.)

What is a bit surprising is how eerily similar drawings of PFVS’s Hyatt Place project, on 3rd and San Jacinto, appears to the renderings submitted to the city for the other hotel on 5th and San Jacinto, two blocks north. They are both about 300 rooms, and though the final products will probably be different, on the drawing board there is no denying they look quite similar.

: Where have I seen this rendering before?

The 5^th Street project comes to us from no other than Harry Whittington, who in this case created a joint venture with REI Real Estate Services LLC in Carmel, Ind., and White Lodging.

Whittington told the Austin Business Journal that after being courted by many developers his family concluded that building a hotel with the veteran hospitality developers was the route to pursue. (Whittington owned the lot for a whopping 45 years and is not in the business of selling his land.)

The site had entitlements for an 8:1 floor to area ratio, and zoning was successfully changed to provide a 13:1 FAR.

Something else lacking in the design are renderings that show the the building with a 6th Street POV – arguably the most important perspective for this hotel to blend into the neighborhood fabric. Will it be a giant Plaza Lofts style flat blank wall looming over 6th Street? I know the developer has heard these concerns, but we are left wondering about the results.

Should we expect more thoughtful design from architects and developers? Absolutely.

Is this hotel better than the suface lot it’s going to replace? Absolutely.