Real Estate

Seaholm Condos Move From Reservations To Contracts

Jude Galligan | August 27, 2014 |

According to a press release sent to Downtown Austin Blog, 80% of the reservations for the under-construction Seaholm condos have become full contracts.

Last October nearly all 280 residences at the Seaholm condos were snapped up in a matter of days of the project being announced. The resulting frenzy of buyers trying to reserve units became a bit of a cluster, leaving subsequent people interested with the singular option of joining a wait list. Now, I expect, many of those existing Seaholm “wait-listers” will very happily absorb the remaining 20% (56 units) prior to the building’s opening next year.

Seaholm was the first downtown Austin condo project announced post-recession.

When announced last year there were precisely zero competing high-rise condo proposals, no remaining inventory from the last building cycle, nor were there many downtown resales to whet buyers’ appetites. Combined with below market rate pricing [relative to the newer downtown towers], the swell of interest in Seaholm was not at all surprising. Seaholm’s rapid absorption reflects superb timing.

Trader Joe’s, the national grocery chain anchoring the development, should be open by the time the residences begin to receive their certificates of occupancy next year. We’re stoked to see that the Seaholm “district” will be immediately active with retail and residents upon the building’s opening. The entire development will be a solid addition to the increasingly pedestrian fabric of downtown Austin.

Interestingly, Seaholm could be getting a neighboring tower within a couple of years, too. Earlier this month Constructive Ventures announced a revitalized proposal for a 50+ story tower caddy-corner to Seaholm.

-Jude

Seaholm condos – Northwest elevation. Renderings courtesy of STG Design

Development Team Closes On Block 1

Jude Galligan | February 5, 2014 |

According to a City of Austin release, representatives with the City’s Economic Development and the project development team closed on the GWTP property (aka “Block 1) on January 31st. The development team is Trammell Crow, the Hanover Company, and Pacific Life Insurance.

Block 1 is a pivotal downtown waterfront development. It will improve connectivity with Second Street through to Nueces Street, the new Central Library, and the Seaholm District.

Summary of what we know about Block 1:

Located at Cesar Chavez and San Antonio Street.
Total project size is approximately 1.7 million square feet of mixed use development.
Block 1 totals 1.776 acres of land
38 floor three-tiered mixed-use tower
expect 440 apartments, including 50 affordable units
40,000 square feet of office and retail space.

The residential component is still being referred to as apartments for rent, and given Hanover’s participation we’ll take that at face value. (Hanover developed the Ashton). We should see site work commence in February with public streets and utility work, including the extension of Second Street.

Back in August we caught a glimpse of what Block 1 tower could look like. According to today’s release, the development team continues to signal it will be a 38 story building with a three-tier design, which is consistent with the rendering and elevations we’ve seen.

If you look at the downtown skyline from the south (78704), you’ll notice there’s a giant gap in the skyline between the AMLI on 2nd to the east and 360 Condos to the west. This project should fill that gap nicely.

More importantly, the walkable connectivity this project brings cannot be understated. It’s literally creating more “grid” and that’s perhaps the greatest upside this project can deliver to city-dwellers.

-Jude

South and East Elevation Drawings for Block 1 by Solomon Cordwell Buenz (SCB)

Trinity Tower: Planning a 39 Story, 350 Unit Highrise

Jude Galligan | November 12, 2013 |

Last year we discovered planning efforts for an apartment tower with the working name of “Trinity Place.” The forlorn metal building on the corner of Trinity and Cesar Chavez was acquired by World Class Capital Group.

Since then, there hasn’t been a peep out of the site leaving many of us wondering what would happen there. We’ve now discovered some proof-of-life based on public records filed by the engineering team.

99trinity_current2 — corner of Trinity @ Cesar Chavez

The name “Trinity Place” has been scrapped, it is now dubbed “99 Trinity Tower” and is being proposed as a mixed-use residential skyscraper seven stories taller than the neighboring Four Season Residences.

The applicant is proposing a 39-story tower with ~14,000 square feet of restaurant on the ground level. Those are unchanged specs from last year. Above that, the first 8 floors will be dedicated for parking, with the remaining floors being dedicated to about 350 residential units.

Even with the Lakeside Apartments to the south, the structured parking garage will allow clear lake views for most of the residential units above.

The project is proposing Great Streets standards along Trinity St., and to build a hike and bike trail to connect to the existing Lady Bird Lake Trail.

While we know what is being proposed, it still remains to be seen if it will come to fruition in the end. The applicant is trying to nail down the base floor-to-area ratio (FAR) provided by the zoning, and navigate restrictions within the Waterfront Overlay “North Shore Central” district and will have to wait for the city, which could take some time if history serves as a guide.

The ball is rolling on this site. The demolition permit was issued to scrape the dilapidated metal structure for whatever lands there. We are excited to see more.

***Below, DAB has mocked up a building envelope showing [extremely crudely!] how a 39 story building could fit onto the site, and how it would add to downtown Austin skyline.

99trinity_massing_crude — a crude massing by DAB of how a 39 story building would fit on the 99 Trinity site

99trinity_massing_crude2 — At 39 stories, the tower would be taller than the neighboring Four Seasons Residences

A Glimpse Of What Block 1 (Green Water) Will Look Like

Jude Galligan | August 15, 2013 |

It’s been a long time coming for the $500MM Green Water Treatment Plant redevelopment, situated along Cesar Chavez, bounded to the west by Shoal Creek, and to the east by Silicon Labs. We’ve stumbled upon good reason to be excited that development could begin soon.

Back in May, when a site plan application was submitted to the city, we shared with you that the first phase of the new Green Water development – a residential highrise known simply as Block 1 – was moving from possibility to reality.

greenwaterorientation — Block 1 is the NW corner of Cesar Chavez @ San Antonio Street

But I, along with nearly everyone else, was kind of confused about what exactly was being planned and how close the Green Water vision was going to match the original vision after a tree preservation snafu at City Council. This has been resolved and the plan is to incorporate the trees into the design.

Updated elevation drawings were submitted to the city which show a building that steps back from Cesar Chavez.

We can expect that the first phase will be a 38 40-story mixed use building with a total of 446 units. Majority one-bedroom, but included efficiencies, two-bedrooms and three-bedrooms, ranging from about 450 square feet to 2,000. It is anticipated these will be apartments (for rent).

greenwaterelevations — South and East Elevation Drawings for Block 1 by Solomon Cordwell Buenz (SCB)

At street level, we should see 14,000 square feet of retail, 15,000 square feet of restaurant space, and another 23,000 of office space.

The project is being developed by Trammell Crow and designed by Solomon Cordwell Buenz (SCB), an award winning architecture, interior design and planning firm with offices in Chicago and San Francisco, who has some very classy buildings all over the world.

If you spend some time perusing SCB’s design portfolio, I think you can start to feel some excited anticipation for this on the Austin skyline. No doubt, numerous tourists and passers by of what has become a fenced off lawn have wondered just what is going there.

While we can now see the profile the development, we eagerly anticipate some updated renderings.

DAB EXCLUSIVE: First Look at Broadstone On The Lake (former RunTex store)

Jude Galligan | June 13, 2013 |

Cities evolve. Few quite as visibly as Austin over the past couple of decades.

We’ve got the first look at what’s coming to the site of the former RunTex store at S. 1st and Riverside Drive. Demo permits were approved last month, and fencing has been erected around the site.

In its place, a six-story cousin (some might say “clone”) of The Crescent apartments – just down the street – is planned, called “Broadstone on the Lake.” It will feature 119 affordable units and 207 market rate ones, for a grand total of 326 apartments, according to city records.

The building is being designed by Kelly Grossman Architects, who designed the Hill Country Galleria, The Crescent and 404 Rio Grande.

Broadstone on the Lake rendering3 — Broadstone on the Lake, Elevation Drawings

I’m not going to lie. While I’m thrilled about packing in some more density into the core, I’m pretty “meh” about the whole faux-urban motif of the design. Some might say that level of design is better suited for a series of outlet malls in San Marcos. But, let’s remember that the Broadstone apartment housing brand, much like the Millennium apartment housing brand coming to Rainey Street, is a national chain of apartment complexes, and it is what it is.

Thankfully, The Catherine – a 19-story, $68 million, 300-unit residential tower beginning to be constructed next door – has some design panache. Formerly nick-named “StreetLights at Barton Springs” that building is next iteration of the Aquaterra condominium project, which fell victim to the lending withdraw of the 2008 recession.

(Also, also… the Hyatt Town Lake is removing a substantial amount of surface parking, and building a seven-story parking garage and ballroom behind the Sherry Matthews building. Austin Towers profiled the development there this past February.)

A note about RunTex

Although RunTex was a tenant and was going to get booted anyway, the poetic tragedy of the demolition coinciding with the apparent troubles of the RunTex business and brand is too dramatic to not mention here.

RunTex was founded 25 years ago, and as a fellow entrepreneur who knows about blood and sweat in pursuit of a dream, I can’t help but feel a twinge of sadness for all the people whose lives are intertwined with the bricks and pavement about to be wiped from the earth there.

It is important, though, to note that I used the word “evolve” in the first sentence of this post. Change isn’t easy, but the development of the site is a natural and healthy evolution for downtown Austin.