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City Parking Meters

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City of Austin getting new parking meters
City of Austin getting new parking meters

Rob Spillar stopped by the DANA board meeting this past Tuesday to share his recommendation to replace the existing parking meters.  Quite simply, the recommended system is VASTLY superior (ppt) to the old meters.

Highlights:
1) potential to partner with CapMetro to purchase bus/rail tickets
2) potential for city to compete with parking garages on weekend nights
3) time purchased is transferable to other parking locations
4) free parking for motorcycles and scooters

Today, Austin City Council approved the new parking meters on consent.

-Jude

Brazos Streetscape Improvement & Reconstruction Project

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It’s been a few years in the making and it now appears that Brazos St will get the make over we’ve been expecting.  This month, the city should begin to send out RFPs for the construction work, which is expected to begin this summer and stretch from Cesar Chavez to 11th Street.  There will be significant infrastructure improvements.  The most visible improvement will be the addition of Great Streets sidewalks.

http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/publicworks/brazos.htm

Downtown Austin condos: do the math

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The math
The math of Downtown Austin condos

OK.  We did the math.  Below is DAB’s analysis of the inventory of condos in Downtown Austin.

776 residences were delivered in 2008
670 +/- units have sold
106 unit surplus.

This is a net absorption of over 600 units in one year.  The 360 Condominiums has only 2 units left.

789+/- units under construction in downtown Austin
+/- 350 of the 789 units are under contract

545 +/- units remain in downtown through at least 2013.

There are no projects coming online that are not already under construction. It takes 2-3 years to build a project and it is unlikely a developer will get construction financing for another 12-18 months.

To put things in perspective, Miami area is delivering approximately 60,000 high rise condominiums during this development cycle.  Miami MSA is approximately 2,387,000 people. That is a ratio of 1 condo for every 40 Miami MSA residents.

The Austin area is delivering approximately 1565 high rise condominiums during this development cycle. Austin MSA is approximately 1,600,000 people… that is a ratio of 1 new condo downtown for every 1,022 Austin MSA residents.  A single project in downtown Miami is larger than the entire number of units being delivered in downtown Austin over a 6 year period!

Proposed Federal Court House Discussion

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Over at Austin Contrarian we can find some interesting thoughts on the [poor] location of the proposed Federal Court House. Specifically, I give it up to Miggy for this simple, yet significant, observation:

“Taking a one-block by one-block square of valuable downtown land largely unencumbered by the capital view corridors off the tax rolls permanently doesn’t help Austin at all. This is where density should be targeted and this building is far from helping that goal. Also to say that the bunker-on-three-sides structure is pedestrian unfriendly would be an understatement.”

Also, Miggy brings up another concern about moving the post office to Red River.

“On a final note – the moving of the Post Office to over near Club de Ville and Red River makes no sense to me either. How many office workers will find that location convenient? And how will that dead retail streetfront (or worse-yet – similar suburban parking lot and drive-thru) help the still nascent Red River entertainment district which is already threatened by any number of other forces. I don’t know what the reasoning was but just based on my surface knowledge – they should have kept in the bottom of the Ovation building as planned.”

Andrews Urban and the Post Office own the block of land across from Stubbs. The post office was going to move there in order for Andrews Urban/Novare to build Ovation where the current post office is located. IMHO, Ovation has ZERO chance of being built within the next five years, so hopefully Miggy’s point is moot.