downtown austin

Public Invited to View Waller Creek Tunnel Models

Jude Galligan | January 16, 2009 |

This month the public can preview at the Downtown Austin Public Library a model of the future tunnel. While progress is slower than we would like to see, this has been a good month for Waller Creek. Below are some other highlites.

US Army corp of engineers report
This is a strong indicator that the engineering efforts are moving forward.
http://downtownaustin.files.wordpress.com/2009/01/waller-creek-army-corps.pdf

Waller Creek district TIF is now line item on property tax statements
The city and county approved TIF financing is now a line item on the property tax bill for properties within the Waller Creek District. This indicates that the County is prepared to fund its portion of the redevelopment. No additional taxes are levied, rather a % of property taxes collected from Waller Creek district properties go towards repaying the bonds financing the construction of the tunnel.

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Dale Glover will replace Tracy Atkins on the Waller Creek Citizens Advisory Committee
Dale is a vocal and outspoken advocate of Downtown Austin and Waller Creek redevelopment. His appointment is for the DAA’s chair on the committee. This is in addition to his involvement with Downtown Austin Neighborhood Association, Downtown Austin Alliance, and the Austin Parks Foundation.

Also, over the holidays, I shared a thought about how the loss of the Marriott and AMOA should reflect positively on 21c’s decision to move forward. The addition of 21c museum/hotel/residences along Waller Creek would be excellent for our values. Hopefully, they will begin to see the light!

Downtown Austin Emerging Projects – updated poster

Jude Galligan | January 6, 2009 |

The City of Austin periodically publishes a poster of emerging projects. The latest version (pdf) was just released. This poster shows projects under construction or being planned in Downtown Austin. Big changes can be seen on this poster compared to the last version.

Added:
1) Lance Armstrong Crosstown Bikeway

Removed:
1) Monarch (complete)
2) 360 (complete)
3) AMLI on 2nd (complete)
4) Museum Tower, AMOA (dead)
5) Red River Flats (complete)
6) La Vista on Lavaca (on hold)
7) Aqua Terra (dead)

Buildings not likely to get built within the next five years.
1) 7Rio
2) Ovation
3) Navare Block 52
4) Federal Courthouse
5) The Orsey
6) Marriott Hotel

Emergence of Austin's Urban Family?

Jude Galligan | January 5, 2009 |

Last month a baby was born in my building! No kidding. Mom and Dad decided to employ a mid-wife and birth the baby in their condo.

This morning Chris Bradford over at Austin Contrarian posted an interesting map showing where “families” lived in the year 2000. Downtown Austin, not surprisingly, showed very few. Downtown Austin in 2000 was a much different place. We didn’t have a supermarket. We didn’t have Frost Tower. We didn’t have the Convention Center. We didn’t have much of what makes Downtown a special place. If you wanted anything more than a two bedroom home you could look at the Towers of Town Lake or Cambridge Towers – take your pick!

I know several families living in Downtown Austin. In fact, the Mayor’s family lives in a Downtown Austin condo. The U.S. Government conducts its census every 10 years and I cant wait to see the 2010 numbers.

UPDATE: AMOA museum tower is officially cancelled

Jude Galligan | December 31, 2008 |

Recently it was speculation, but now it’s official. According the Austin Business Journal, Hines Interestes LP, the developer planning the office portion of the museum tower, will allow its option on the land to expire today.

“Due to the uncertain economy, we made the difficult decision not to renew the option in 2009. However, Hines is still interested in developing an office building in Austin when the market recovers, and we hope it will be in conjunction with AMOA and its museum. The project will not restart until the market improves. Our hope would be to get a new deal together in 2009 or 2010, and then move full steam ahead. We see great potential in the long-term viability of the city of Austin.” –Travis Overall, Hines vice president

Located at 4th and Guadalupe, this is one of the few undeveloped sites in Downtown Austin that is not in a capitol view corridor, so it’s availability should quickly attract the interest of opportunistic developers. Otherwise we’ll endure another couple of years of surface parking blight 🙁 Add this site to the other prime downtown sites available and I expect to see some interesting proposals over the next year.

Thanks to DANA‘s Roger Cauvin for the heads up!

AMOA building on hold?

Jude Galligan | December 30, 2008 |

According to this WSJ article…

“Houston-based developer Hines says it won’t likely start construction as planned in the first quarter on a mixed-use project it is developing in downtown Austin with the Austin Museum of Art. A Hines spokeswoman says the company still hopes to start construction in 2009. Hines will need to prelease at least half the project’s 425,000 square feet of office space before it seeks financing for the office component, the spokeswoman says.”