waller creek

Big News for Rainey Street District

Jude Galligan | May 3, 2013 |

By now you might have read the breaking news that the Sutton Co. is proposing to build a three-tower complex (including a 65 story tower!) across the street from Iron Works BBQ, with a tower that would be taller than the Austonian.

What you may not realize yet is that Rainey Center, the dual tower project that was supposed to encompass up to 50 stories each, and include up to 1,000 apartments and condos, next door to the Lustre Pearl in Rainey Street, is dead as envisioned… BUT will be replaced by a new concept.

Wally Scott and Mac Pike – aka the Sutton Co. – have sold the 2-acre site to subsidiary of the Houston-based Dinerstein Companies. This information was buried in the last paragraph in a blockbuster story the Statesman published about a larger than life deal around the block.

According to information posted over at the SkyscraperPage forum, alleged to be taken from city records, Dinerstein is scrapping the dual tower concept for an eight-story mixed use building with an internal parking garage.

That’s a major let down, IMO. Austin has no shortage of squat beige buildings. Hopefully the new proposal will retain some ‘wow’ factor.

Maybe it just didn’t make sense from a traffic management standpoint to have that much of a draw right off the Cesar Chavez and I-35 access road, and in any case enables Sutton Co. to get capital for an even more inspiring, legacy project.

Still, once people start absorbing this information, it could instill a sense of skepticism about the Sutton Co.’s latest proposal. It wasn’t long ago – after all – that the Statesman broke news about the Rainey Center project (now Dinerstein is reducing the scope), just like it is doing now with the Waller Center project. Even the Statesman’s Shonda Novak — perennial cheerleader of Austin development — put a caveat in the first line her story about Waller Center of “if it happens”.

The details on the Waller Center project are as follows:

$500 million project
3 acres at East Cesar Chavez and Red River streets near Waller Creek.
Condos/Hotel tower – 65 floors
Apartment tower – 35 to 45 floors
Office tower – 17 to 20 floors
Proposed groundbreaking – mid to late 2014.

We’d love to see this one happen and reflect the vision below. It would be a huge boon to downtown, specifically the Waller Creek District. Cheers to ambitious thinking.

Underground: Let’s Walk The Waller Creek Tunnel (VIDEO)

Jude Galligan | August 30, 2012 |

As a member of the now defunct Waller Creek Citizens Advisory Committee and a past resident at the Sabine condos with a view directly over the excavation site, I’ve seen planning for Waller Creek evolve over the years.

Earlier this week, Matt Parkerson in Council Member Riley’s office, invited me to join them on a tour of the tunnel. I jumped at the opportunity.

The logistics of mining under a city is fascinating. The tunnel diameter tapers wide from 20 feet to 26 feet in diameter as it approaches the outlet at Lady Bird Lake. The pace of progress is about 15 feet per day. Dump trucks make somewhere around 75 trips per day.

We entered the tunnel between 4th and 5th Streets. Once inside the tunnel we walked to the end of their progress, currently, just below Iron Works BBQ.

Once the mining is complete, the exposed limestone will be coated with concrete. Cost to construct the tunnel: $105 million.

If you’ve ever seen Discovery Channel special on how NYC subways were bored, know this is not like that. There is no giant spinning disc cutting through the earth. Compared to Manhattan granite, this Texas limestone cuts like butter. Like an old dot matrix printer, the boring head cuts away limestone with each back and forth pass.

As an aside: everybody on the tour was thinking the same thing. Why couldn’t we do this for a subway? Well, we can. One of the contractors shared (off-camera) that Austin’s limestone is [actually] perfectly suited for mining a subway tunnel and wondered why the city has not pursued that with more enthusiasm. The length of Waller Creek tunnel is roughly the same length to get from I-35 to Lamar Blvd. An identical tunnel for similar cost could support a subway to traverse east-west through downtown.

Thanks to Council Member Riley and his staff for the invitation!

A Smarter Route? Proposed Urban Rail Along Trinity Street

Jude Galligan | March 2, 2012 |

Transportation wonks: is there something different about the conceptual urban rail alignment depicted in the latest flyer from Project Connect?

The portion of the rail system south of 4th Street is showing that the preferred alignment (solid orange lines) is not Congress Ave, rather it’s humble ol’ Trinity Street.

On previous maps, I recall Congress Ave having the bold lines and Trinity Street relegated to a hypothetical dashed line. This is a subtle change on paper, but a potentially big improvement to ridership and economic impact.

I presume a Trinity alignment would have a stop at/near Waller Creek. Imagine connecting businesses and visitors to the Rainey Street district, Waller Creek, the Boat House, the MACC, the Convention Center. There’s greater density of residential and recreational use. There’s more [taxable] development opportunity along the Trinity alignment.

Waller Creek Update Reveals Actual Tunnels!

Jude Galligan | January 5, 2012 |

Today the City of Austin released the latest issue of Waller Creek Tunnel Project Updates. Don’t yawn – just check out the pics of real tunnels – under downtown Austin!

OK, so the massive middle-earth boring machine shown on page two is stock footage, but I confirmed with Carolyn Perez that the other photos are indeed from Waller Creek improvements, which is great to see.

Combined with the parallel Sabine Street promenade effort and earnestness of the eponymous Conservancy, the Waller Creek District is becoming the most exciting part of downtown Austin to watch.

You can download the newsletter here: Waller Creek – winter 2012 newsletter (pdf)

Survey Says: Sabine Street Promenade Is A Go!

Jude Galligan | December 16, 2011 |

Another win for Austin and a much needed boost for the neighborhood surrounding E. 6th Street.

Back in September, DAB stopped just shy of begging readers to weigh in on CAMPO’s survey of the public about which projects should be awarded grants; specifically, advocating support for granting funds to Austin bike share and streetscape improvements to Sabine and E 6th Street. Yesterday, we were excited to learn that CAMPO approved funding for Austin bike share system.

CAMPO has also awarded $2.7 million for the construction of a Sabine Street promenade, that will involve the development of sidewalks, bike lanes and pedestrian amenities between downtown Austin’s 4th and 7th Streets.

This idea was originally framed as part of the implementation of the Waller Creek District Master Plan. It progressed last year as the mobility bond package was approved by voters, and the Sabine Street promenade was bundled with improvements planned for “dirty 6ixth”, ostensibly to provide connectivity between Waller Creek and Congress Ave by way of Austin’s most historic street. [Read more…] about Survey Says: Sabine Street Promenade Is A Go!