downtown Austin's real estate and neighborhood blog
Below are a few photos from the past week.
The former location of Thai Tara has been razed…
In the Rainey Street district, next door to El Naranjo…
We’re seeing progress on Icenhaur’s
The lone house on Bierce Street…
This billboard on W 5th Street is completely blocked from view by the bank building. It’s always been a curiosity to me.
Part 1 of 2 Parts – The Overview
If you browsed the Austin American-Statesman or Austin Business Journal yesterday, no doubt you saw the headlines:
“City unveils $85M bond package” (ABJ)
At first glance, it might sound like an appealing proposition, this Boardwalk project. What’s not to like?
The term “boardwalk” itself conjures up images of a pretty little wooden footbridge traversing burbling creeks and meandering through soggy sections of beautiful dense forest. It’s a project of the Parks Department, and we all do love our parks, yes?
Finding a way to “extend” Downtown Austin’s wonderful riverfront hike-bike path through one of the sections where it currently follows a narrow sidewalk along a busy road, Riverside Drive — well, that sounds like a no-brainer, too, right? At least to those of us who frequent the Town Lake Trail multiple times a week.
(Sidenote for those of you paying attention: City Council changed the name of the urban portion of the river from Town Lake to Lady Bird Lake after the former First Lady and Trail Founder passed away in 2007. The name of “the simple walking path along the shore” that she envisioned back in 1971 is still called the Town Lake Trail in Parks Department materials. Hard to tell what to properly call it.)
And $85 million, though it’s a big number for a still-sluggish economic recovery, nevertheless is a comparatively small chunk of change when you apply that spend against a truckload of “transportation projects”. Concrete and asphalt don’t come cheap.
To find the serious problems in this equation I’m afraid there’s no substitute for having to dive into the details. As with so many of life’s problems and issues, that’s where the devil is hiding. Let’s take a look.
First off there’s the topline math. $16 million for a single project — one that is a luxury add and carries no financial ROI with it — out of a total $85 million bonding capacity. That’s almost one-fifth of the total ask! For just one project. According to the ABJ story, the Transportation Department and the Bond Review Task Force were charged with evaluating 500 projects that had to be divided into “A,” “B” and “C” categories.
The “A” list of “highest priority” projects added up to about 45 and still carried an estimated total cost between $2 billion and $3 billion, three to four times the total bonding capacity. Somehow the Boardwalk, in its totality, made it to the further shortened list of “A” projects left standing. What about the other 480 or so projects? What about all the other regions of the city and their transportation, sidewalk, pothole and trail needs?
Then there is the matter of the Boardwalk project itself. While it hasn’t been an entirely secretive endeavor, its details have been less than well publicized or understood by the broad Austin citizenry, that’s for sure. For the past three years, this project has been marching its determined way through the city conceptual and design process, rubber-stamped by two unanimous city councils every step of the way, and fueled by almost $4.3 million in dedicated allocations out of the past couple city budgets. For the past year, that’s been a reported spend rate of about $40,000 per week for consultants, plans and documentation.
Next let’s check out this purported Boardwalk and find out what it’s really made of using the City’s own slides from its presentation decks. The following pictures are quite self-explanatory.
Shock.
Gasp.
Horror.
What?
How can this be?
There are no boards in this boardwalk!
The entire battleship structure is made of concrete and steel!
And it’s out IN the friggin’ river!
And that, friends, is how we end up with something like THIS rather than the “simple walking path along the shore” that Lady Bird Johnson had sought.
Can’t help but wonder: what would she think of all this?
Though about a year out of date now, what information the city has provided on this project can be found here. There is some bare bones stuff there about the proposed routing, construction materials and answers to about 20 FAQs. Check it out.
Members of the DANA were provided with a backstage pass to downtown Austin’s W Hotel Residences. We’ve always admired the sleek monolithic design of the building, and even through the construction dust you can envision the interior will make a similar impact.
The contractor is expected to hand the keys over to the hotel portion in September/October. The doors won’t be open, but that should be the time when the hotel can begin to furnish everything. The Austin City Limits venue and residential condos will be ready in Q1 of 2011.
The most significant milestone will be the removal of the street barriers mid-summer! This is great news for any resident or retailer in the 2nd Street District.
Over the weekend we were able to take a guided tour of downtown Austin’s Four Seasons Residences. What we have are raw snap shots of views, as captured in the middle of a construction area. Anytime a building provides access prior to completion I am especially grateful, and it speaks to their confidence in the project. Like our tour of the Austonian last week, it was requested that we not photograph the interiors until construction is complete, which we respected. You can get a sense for what the interiors of Austin’s Four Seasons Residences will look like here.
As we see it, the Four Seasons is betting that true luxury buyers are seeking something warmer, more rooted in tradition and familiar with the Four Seasons brand, as opposed to the sleek monolithic aesthetic of the W, or the high profile of the Austonian. I’ve always been excited about this project, and the building did not disappoint. Smart layouts, impressive views, and most evident was the level of amenities that would come with home ownership. Being connected to the Four Seasons has its perks.
The terraces are incredible in every unit. Unlike many buildings that provide terraces which do no more than defy you furnish one of them, these are large and airy spaces that could be used as outside rooms. The west facing terraces (above) were my favorites and are available with the Austin and Upper Combo West floor plans.
Like Austin’s W Hotel Residences, the Four Seasons is oriented length wise along Lady Bird Lake. This orientation maximizes the desirable southern sunlight. Half way up the building, the views shift from living “in the city” to “above the city”. In my experience, there are buyers that seek out the former and the latter. In general, the lower floors will provide better value and a sense of living in the mix of city life.
We’ve confirmed that the 11,000 ft penthouse (31st floor) of the building has been purchased for an undisclosed amount. We estimate ~$8-9MM [for the shell space] based on pricing released last year. Interestingly, it is rumored that as part of the deal the Four Seasons agreed to increase the height of the top floor, and perhaps the building, by two feet.
In our office we discuss how the personalities of the “luxury bunch” are different. Using comical generalizations, W buyers might tell you that “Our family splits time between Austin and Zermatt”. Austonian buyers might tell you that “Our company just raised $20MM in VC and is planning its IPO next year.” The Four Seasons buyer might tell you “I’m a fifth generation Texan, fourth generation Longhorn, and my roots run deep. Hook’em!”
Thanks to Ian Stonington for setting this up. Ian is a consummate professional that knows everything about his building, including the answers to the most esoteric questions, like “who makes the light switch?”.
-Jude
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