Real Estate

Downtown Austin – Is Opportunity Knocking?

Jude Galligan | January 19, 2009 |

“NY Times article of interest: OK, so it’s NYC, but the buyer sentiments are not unlike those of many Austinites I believe. (Note the negotiated price reductions…)”

He’s dead on. Traffic at my last few open houses at the Sabine has picked up significantly over the past couple of weeks. This makes sense for two important reasons: 1) Mortgage rates are at record lows, and 2) sellers understand the need to negotiate.

From the article “Many of these buyers have never received a fat bonus check, so they don’t miss it now. They did not suffer huge stock market losses, because they didn’t have huge stock market investments. They aren’t mourning the loss of value in their existing co-ops or condos, because they have never owned one….They have jobs and good credit ratings, and they are looking to buy.”

link to article “For The Brave, The Moment Is Now”

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

21c Museum Hotel Residences… a new opportunity?

Jude Galligan | December 31, 2008 |

Now that the AMOA museum tower and the bazillion room Marriott are on indefinite hold, an unexpected opportunity has opened up for Downtown Austin’s proposed 21c museum/hotel/residences to consider pushing forward. 21c is making the mass-media rounds as of late. Last week 21c was featured on NPR. This morning 21c was featured on the Today show.

21c’s Cesar Chavez & Red River location is prime for participation (financial and design) in the Waller Creek Revitalization.

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.”