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The Highest And Best Use of Congress Ave Retail Store Frontage Is Not CapMetro

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One of the things that always seemed curious to me is how and why Capital Metro (@CapMetroATX) occupied prime square footage on a heavily trafficked part of Congress Avenue, next to Annie’s. For many years, Cap Metro occupied the first and third floor of this three-story building.

Well its lease expires this coming April, and it seems the landlord is raising the rent. As a result, Capital Metro is moving into 209 W 9th Street (southwest corner of Colorado and 9th), which is owned by Harry Whittington.  There, the transit agency is signing a 5-year $3.3 million lease on 18,800 square feet.  This will allow the consolidation of two call centers – one currently housed at the 323 Congress Ave.

For years, the good energy of clear windows (“fenestration” for my fellow wonks) and ambience of Annie’s seemed to kind of get sucked way by the dark, looming, uninviting storefront of Capital Metro next door.

So what’s next for 323 Congress?

The entire building is 21,900 square feet, and  features open floor layouts, ample lighting and excellent visibility to Congress Ave.  According to this undated flyer from Weitzman, it appears to be listed for sale “between $2.5 million and $7.3 million.”  Or, it could be for lease $24-36/ft/yr by Cielo Realty Partners, as it’s shown on Loopnet.

I’ll be surprised if this languishes too long.  Office vacancies downtown have recently fallen below 12%, according to this Dec. 11 Austin Tenant Advisors press release, which compares well to other major cities such as Atlanta which reports a 24% vacancy rate. Average lease rates for all classes are averaging around $30/square in the downtown area while landlords of Class A office properties are quoting $38/square foot, or higher.

This, in part, is being driven by a number of web/computing-based companies setting up shop downtown, which is about as a good of a thing as a city could ever hope would happen to its downtown office space.  We can expect a higher and better use of our ground level retail, however.

FYI urban transit commuter: The transit store, where folks pick up passes, pocket maps and the lost & found, is also moving to the new location on 9th Street.

Marathon Planning Effort Pays Off: 7 Rio Site Plan Permitted, Awaiting Construction

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An Englishman once said: “You can’t always get what you want, but if you try sometimes, well you just might find you get what you need.”

And so it was for the folks behind a tower planned at Seventh & Rio Grande, named 7 Rio, who this month saw the City of Austin approve a site plan, allowing construction to move forward.

It was exactly one year ago that DAB posted that the 7 Rio apartments still had legs.

The project was one of a handful of [for sale] condo projects that took a back seat when lenders got squeamish in the midst of the Great Recession. In 2008, on the eve of the housing-crisis fallout, the builders projected a 3Q08 groundbreaking on a 34-story luxury residential 158-unit “point-tower” building.

That vision has been scaled back, and what is coming is a shorter building, with 24-stories, but packing in about 70 more apartments [for rent].

7rio-austin-site-rendering
original rendering of 7rio has since been scaled back

Part of the site is in the Capitol View Corridor, but a point-tower over podium design could have gone up as high as 50 stories. Given that demand remains so high for units in the urban core, this feels like a bit of a missed opportunity for CWS Capital Partners – the Orange County, California based developer – to create something striking, and the Austin community to reap some additional property tax and density.

One other observations is that the current site plan application says only “residential & parking,” while the initial proposal included 7,300 square feet of retail space.

Site vs. CVC

I’m just hoping CWS doesn’t sacrifice developing an inviting, pedestrian/shopper friendly building, for something barren of storefronts.

It is nice to see a project developed by a great local architect Brett Rhode getting off the ground, and we’ll all accept that the client calls the shots. (Note: Rhode: Partners portfolio still shows specs for the first design.)

 

What’s Missing? Clues To Downtown Austin’s Next Apartment Tower

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What’s missing is a clue to what might become downtown Austin’s next apartment high-rise.

Back in August we discovered the old warehouse on the corner of Trinity and Cesar Chavez had been acquired by World Class Capital Group, and quickly conceptualized into an apartment tower, with the working name of Trinity Place.

For decades, two small billboards stood at the eastern edge of the lot.  If you were heading east or west on Cesar Chavez you wouldn’t have missed them.  As of this week, those billboards have been taken down!

Now, WCCG would not decide to forfeit that steady billboard lease without a good reason.  I speculate this is a signal that development efforts are progressing.

Trinity Place conceptual footprint – Cesar Chavez @ Trinty (pdf)

Private Clubs in Downtown Austin: The Austin Club and Its Murals

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There are three main private clubs that I know about in downtown Austin.  They are Headliners, The Metropolitan Club* (*gone at Plaza Lofts but coming back elsewhere), and The Austin Club.

The Metropolitan* is was a little different than the other two, in that its more of a spa concept, whereas Headliners and The Austin Club are true private dining clubs, and welcome both men and women.

Both Headliners and The Austin Club have a lot of interesting history.  For instance, Headliners used to actually be located at the top of The Westgate Condos in Austin, Texas (and before The Westgate, they were located in The Driskill Hotel. The Club is now on the 21st floor of The Chase Tower at 6th and Lavaca.)  The Westgate Condos actually referenced Headliners as part of their request for historic designation.

The Austin Club is currently located at 110 E. 9th Street (two blocks south of the Capitol building, right off of Congress to the East), the club was founded in 1949, and currently has 1,100 members (many of which are associated with the Legislature in some capacity).  The Austin Club has been in this location – also known as the historic Millet Opera House, since 1981.  The Millet Opera house was built in 1878, and is on the National Register of Historic Places and is a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark.  When the Capitol building burned down in late 1881, the building was actually used to host legislative sessions until the new Capitol was built.

However, one of my FAVORITE things about the Austin Club are the murals they have in their main dining room. In 1992, the club commissioned Chicago artist Richard Anderson to paint a series of murals depicting performances that took place at the Millett Opera House in the mid to late 1800s.

Below / After the jump are pictures of the murals with their descriptions.  There’s also a “map” at the bottom left of each picture showing [Read more…] about Private Clubs in Downtown Austin: The Austin Club and Its Murals

Fairy Tale Themes Come to Life in 2nd Street Shop Windows

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One more unique and wonderful thing to do with friends and family this holiday season…
Head on over to the 2nd Street District for another edition of the Holiday Window Walk! Twenty retail windows have been done up by design and fine arts students from our area colleges in beautiful themes on classic fairy tales. It all kicks off tomorrow, Saturday, Dec. 8th and will be up through New Year’s. Come by and join the festivities!
Here’s a nice little story on Amanda Ivarra’s blog, Miss A, that tells how this all came to be.