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New Downtown Office Tower Announced Next To Gables

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Francisco Vara-Orta gets the scoop on plans for a new downtown Austin 15 story office tower, next to Gables Park Plaza at Lamar and Cesar Chavez.

Dubbed Park Plaza, the planned 15-story tower will feature 189,000 square feet of predominately Class A office space off the northeast corner of West Cesar Chavez Street and Lamar Boulevard — next to the newly opened Gables Park Plaza residential complex. Gables owns the 1.8-acre tract where the new office building is planned, and has contracted with Capital City to build and lease the structure, which will also include approximately 10,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space. Dirt could turn as early as October.

Nothing gets built until enough lease agreements are in place, but with a location like this that could happen soon.  As it is envisioned, no variances are needed.

This is the second, (maybe third) office project announced in this district of downtown this year.

5 Reasons You Should Sign Up For Jude’s Quarterly Report

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Just posted my review of downtown Austin residential real estate for the first quarter of 2010. This report is only available to registered DAB readers. Why should you bother?

1) You want accurate and timely information on the market
2) You live, work, or care about downtown Austin
3) You are interested in selling or buying a downtown condo
4) You want access to information (like this report) not available anywhere else
5) There’s no commitment, if you don’t like it then unsubscribe with one click

Sign up in the DAB member area, where in addition to the report, you will have access to sales data in real time. As always, we appreciate your input as to how to improve DAB. Check it out!

-Jude

New Discoveries

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83 Rainey Street – “Icenhauers”

Rainey Street continues to sprout interesting uses of dilapidated bungalow houses. Chris Howle helped us spot the new TABC permit application sign in the window of 83 Rainey Street, right next door to El Naranjo. The applicant reads “Icenhauers” and they are applying for mixed-bev late night service. Another bar is not ideal for a district yearning for more uses, though good concept execution can go a long way.

C’est la vie.

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Pecan Street Cafe

We love the new location of Pecan Street Cafe. The 504 Trinity Street location is close enough to “Pecan” Street to keep the name, and it is more inviting than the old location.

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Chain Drive

Maybe not new, but we stumbled across a bar kept on the extreme DL. Located on Willow Street, behind the pedi-cab headquarters, it doesn’t look like it’s still open.

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Waller Creek Wow

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We had a great turn out at last night’s Waller Creek District Town Hall. A packed house of ~150 people were in attendance to learn about McCann Adams Studio’s (formerly ROMA Austin) final draft of the Waller Creek District Master Plan (“the plan”). The plan consists of recommendations on infrastructure, pedestrian and bicycle use, and appropriate development standards. These recommendations will guide the design of surface level improvements for the nearly 25 acres of downtown land that runs adjacent to Waller Creek.

This was the third town hall for the WCD Master Plan, and the audience had the opportunity to solicit questions of the members of the Waller Creek Citizens Advisory Committee. The comments will be attached to the final draft as it begins to make the rounds through boards and commissions.

It’s unclear how the recommended improvements will be funded. One or two of the sub-projects could be included in the upcoming $100MM mobility bond package. Most likely we will see improvements paid for on an ad-hoc basis by private development, once the tunnel is complete.

In June, the WCD Master Plan is expected to reach city council for adoption and be incorporated into the much larger Downtown Austin Plan.

Upcoming Review Process

April 12th – Waterfront Planning & Parks Board: Land & Facilities Committee
April 21st – Downtown Commission & Planning Commission’s Neighborhood Planning Subcommittee
April 26th – Design Commission
April 27th – Parks Board
May 4th – City Council’s Comprehensive Planning & Transportation Cmte.
May 5th – Environmental Board
May 11th – Planning Commission
June 10th – City Council briefing
June 24th – City Council action

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Two Bike Boulevards! Draft Released

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“The staff recommends that both Rio Grande Street and Nueces Street together, in the northwest district of the downtown, be designated as the Downtown Bicycle Boulevard with no traffic calming tools implemented on Nueces Street.”

Two streets, rather than one, could receive improvements to facilitate the mobility of bikes and cars.  City Staff heard the massive amount of discussion about Rio Grande being a better option.  According to the memo to Council (pdf), Rio Grande currently carries 24% less traffic than Nueces.

After the comments by Rob D’amico and the League of Bicycle Voters, it was easy to be discouraged that the eventual proposal would be too watered down.  Now, we have the actual proposal – thick with feedback from all stakeholders.  As someone that lives and works downtown Austin, and having read through the draft, I’m happy with the recommended improvements.  A few highlights:

Rio Grande:

  1. Parking in front of Wahoos would become “back in” angled parking
  2. New hike and bike bridge over Shoal Creek @ 4th Street
  3. Parking along Rio Grande remains largely unchanged
  4. An array of traffic circles, medians with speed cushions, speed cushions, and pedestrian curb-extensions

Nueces:

  1. Great Streets from 3rd to 7th on Nueces.
  2. Install sharrows from 7th to 13th
  3. Replace parking on one side of the street with enhance bicycle lanes.

The recommended speed limit through out the project is 25mph.  Slower is better, IMO, and hopefully the proposed round-a-bouts on Rio Grande will help improve traffic flow, compared to the stop signs currently there.

In summary, these recommendations are light touches.  This isn’t an expensive project.  This will not be a promenade, and it was never intended to be that way.

-Jude