downtown austin

Seaholm: No longer just a dream

The biggest downtown news of the week, and a major downtown milestone in general, is that the Seaholm power plant redevelopment is finally breaking ground. This will be another game-changer for Downtown Austin.

Almost every major news outlet did a story on it, but the Austin American Statesman ran an online headline that captured my sentiment best: “Seaholm redevelopment ready to break ground at last”.

Seaholm will included a 30-story tower with 309 apartments, a two-story building with a Trader Joe’s store, plus other retail, office and restaurant space. Most of the 117,000-square-foot power plant will be leased to one office tenant.

Most of the news stories are linking the imminent groundbreaking to the fact that the developer and the city finally signed their deal. However, the ABJ a few weeks ago published a great little story indicating that it was a lack of financing, not City Hall red tape, that held up the deal.

The vision for a Seaholm redevelopment started in 2005, and we should give credit to our city leaders for being bold and determined enough to see the deal through the recession and a host of other difficulties.

One of my big takeaways from this, is that anytime governments are involved in public-private partnerships, we should expect delays. This will likely play out with the new county courthouse near Republic Square.  Delays are playing out as we speak with the Austin bike share program.  And, they will also play out with the Seaholm Intake facility redevelopment, which is just starting to to gather ideas across the street from Seaholm proper.

Hotel confirmed across from Stubbs

The Austin Business Journal is confirming information that showed up on Austin Towers last month, about a new hotel being added across the street from Stubbs on Red River.

No new details were included, but the ABJ does let us know when we can find out what is going to happen, saying that Austin’s Planning Commission will hear the about it on May 23. Hopefully we will get some renderings then.

Austin Business Journal has more

Another Congress Ave. block changes hands

The buildings that house Annie’s Cafe & Bar, the Elephant Room and the former Capitol Metro storefront have been purchased.

I posted months ago about my excitement that Capital Metro was moving out of the 300 Congress block of downtown, with optimism that the space would serve a higher and better use. I – personally – would love to see more outdoor seating along Congress Avenue. With this purchase, I think that will now be possible.

Austin BusinessJournal has more

Austin Post profiles some dude

Maybe you’ve heard of him.

Joking aside, I’ve been egged on to post this on here after it published earlier this month, even though it feels a little self-aggrandizing   I want to thank the Austin Post for the online love, and Rob Patterson for making me appear much cooler than I am in real life.

I’d also like to say that if you are reading this, and have visited this blog with any regularity since I started toiling at it years ago – much to my soon-to-be-wife’s chagrin – then I owe you, The Reader, a debt of gratitude.

It is logging into to my readership metrics and reading ya’lls comments that make the Downtown Austin Blog a true passion for me. Even though I have only a small cadre of folks contributing to this site, along with my own posts, I feel like our readers have helped build a community around it and it is an honor to be a part of something bigger than myself.

I have heard off and on over the years that the urban core of Austin holds about 30 percent of the jobs in the Austin region. It’s a mantra often repeated, especially as it relates to transportation discussions. But, as I thought about it, no one has ever been really able to say how or where that sound bite came from.

Thankfully, we now have a bonafide source, The Brookings Institution, who says it is about 25 percent (if we count “downtown” as the three-mile zone surrounding it and not the bureaucratic political boundaries City Hall assigns to “downtown” as the 78701 and part of 78703 zip codes).

The Austin American-Statesman just posted a story on downtown Austin job growth, based on a report by the Brookings Institution’s Metropolitan Policy Program.

You can read the whole Brookings report here, or download the Austin snapshot here. 

If you’ve followed us at the Downtown Austin Blog for a while, you’ll know that from time to time, we like to dive into data around condo sales. This time, I’m diving into these job numbers.

Report on the report

The Brookings report puts into numbers what we all already know intuitively: downtown Austin keeps adding jobs. What we don’t always realize is how exceptional that fact is, relative to other cities.

Between 2007 and 2010 – the years of the Great Recession – downtown Austin was one of only FOUR of the major cities across the entire country where the number of absolute jobs in the urban core *WENT UP*.  Amazing.

Austin joined Charleston, Cincinnati and New Orleans in this distinction, but Austin was the only one that did not lose jobs overall during this time period. (I’m not smart enough about this, but does that mean Austin never had a recession??)

If we count on the number of office developments, and hotels underway now in downtown, it’s safe to assume downtown Austin will continue to lead the country in adding jobs.

Food for thought

One might think that this puts Austin in a magic realm of urban development and new urban development. Well, it does, in a way, but paradoxically, the share of jobs in downtown Austin, relative to the jobs in the metro area actually fell from 2000 to 2010 by about 3 percent.

Why? Because even though Austin added about 6,000 jobs downtown from 2000 to **2010** – which in and of itself is remarkable – in the zone that is 10-35 miles from the Central Business District, the city added a staggering 74,000 jobs.

It is interesting to me because, if you look at other American cities especially in the past three decades, most of the cities that had surges of jobs surged in the suburbs, while downtowns languished. This means, matter of fact, downtown Austin is special.

So rather than opening up a debate on whether downtown is “the economic engine” of the region, this new report confirms that downtown is definitely a pumping piston in the engine.  As a downtown lover, I’ll cheers to that.

If you are curious about what 3, 10 and 35 miles looks like, here ya go:

35 miles from downtown

10 miles from downtown

3 miles from downtown

Whitley apartment building opens doors

Announced in September 2011, The Whitley apartment building, at Brazos and Fourth, welcomed its first tenants this month. The 16-story building brings 266 apartments, and is the vanguard of an apartment building boom in the core.

There are at least another 1,100 apartments coming online, not including the projects recently detailed on this blog. Downtown apartment occupancy remains at a stunning 98 percent occupancy as of late February.

The Statesman has more

Downtown braces for more convention business

Its long been part of local king-makers’ narrative that Austin is missing out on tourism business – or essentially free money for the local economy – due to a shortfall of hotel rooms.

Now, some 4,000 hotel rooms are coming online in and around downtown, which means we get to share our awesome downtown with more people.

Tourism dollars, for those who don’t follow this stuff, are highly-coveted because they pump a ton of sales tax into the local economy, but tourists cost little in terms of core-city services, such as police and fire.

The Statesman has more

Cousins Third & Colorado project kaput?

Cousins property last year announced a pretty cool-looking office tower at Third and Colorado, in the Warehouse District.

Cousins said it had hoped to break ground late last year, and to date, there is no physical progress.  One reason for the delay is they still don’t have their zoning, but it’s on the council agenda this week.

This is creating fears that the project may be put on ice as other office project jockey for tenants.

Austin Towers has more

Block 51 – aka IBC Bank tower – and 7 Rio set for groundbreaking

Two longtime downtown projects, which have been germinating for half a decade are finally getting ready to sprout.

Block 51, which is just north of the new federal courthouse, and 7 Rio (located at 7th and Rio Grande) both filed paperwork to start partially blocking the streets to begin construction.

Austin Towers has more

City Council finalizes new parking requirements: There are none

City Council has waved future parking requirements for new downtown development.

This is a symbolic and legal step forward because minimum parking requirements have many negative effects, including:

• Generate greater automobile usage and reduce use of transit and walking.
• Increase building construction costs and make units less affordable.
• Negatively affect the aesthetics of the built environment.
• Perpetuate the inefficient use of available parking. (Currently many parking spaces in garages downtown sit empty throughout the day and night.)

KVUE has more

Cirrus Logic campus plan OK’d by Planning Commission

Apple supplier Cirrus Logic’s plans to build a new building that is as tall as its new headquarters got the green light from the Austin Planning Commission recommendation despite opposition from neighborhood associations.

Austin Business Journal has more

When I posted earlier this year that a student housing project was slated for the intersection of 17^th and Guadalupe – a site haunted by an abandoned Arby’s – some folks were less than sure it would happen.

The catch was that the developer needs to build underground parking and the new building in time for the August UT move-in.

Today, I bring you evidence that the project is indeed moving forward, and with gusto.

As you can see, the Arby’s building there has been wiped from the face of the earth. On April 8, a permit was also issued for excavation to begin, so expect that soon. If you headed around there, a quick heads up that the construction crews are going to use the south side of 18^th Street for construction of building an the sidewalk will be closed.

No word yet on what the building will look like, by the way.

Fairmont hotel spurs nearby land deals

The dirt parking lot across the street south of the Fairmont hotel site, plus with the Iron Works BBQ auxiliary parking lot (due south of Iron Works BBQ) are both under contract, which hints at future development.

Plans are not being disclosed, but one buyer group is reported to be local and the second is from California. Robert Knight and Perry Lorenz own the land are are also selling a lot at Red River and Fourth Street.

The Austin Business Journal has more

Austin Towers has more on the Fairmont

Downtown a major draw for new residents

The Austin American-Statesman parsed some census data and confirmed that downtown is a major destination for the hoards of people migrating to Austin.

Downtown Austin had the highest percentage of Austin residents who had lived in another state one year earlier. About 1 in 10 of downtown’s population moved from another state.

A commenter to the story, said: “The first thing the agent showed us when we moved here was Steiner Ranch. We asked her to turn the car around and leave. Steiner is exactly the kind of place you find in Anytown, USA. Why bother to move here? We opted for downtown. DT is Austin.”

Statesman has more

Downtown businesses launch car-reduction program

The Austin City Council approved a measure to help fund a pilot program for downtown business tenants to encourage their employees to get to work without a car.

This could include bike parking, employee subsidies for car sharing or transit passes, alternative work schedules or workplaces with locker and shower facilities. (Still waiting on bike share, City Hall people. What gives with the hold up?)

Businesses will have to apply to participate in the pilot project. Applications will be accepted through April 30, and the program will be activated between May and June. For more information visit the program website.

KUT News has more

Local Texas lawmakers take on Congress Ave. development

Bills filed by State Sen. Kirk Watson and State Rep. Donna Howard would make the stepback standards that the city currently enforces in the area into a state law. It is being reported that the Downtown Austin Alliance supports the bill.

The Austin Contrarian blog posted a critique, which drew a full-fledged response from Sen. Watson.

The Austin Business Journal has more