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News & Rumor Roundup: Bike Share Delayed

Jude Galligan | May 22, 2013 |

Bike Share delayed?

Sadly, it looks as if the bike share program in Austin is hitting some unexpected delays.

KUT reported “the program has seen complications, and that a launch planned for this spring– which would’ve coincided with May as National Bike Month – will be delayed.”

I’ve heard that some people who work at the city disagree with the KUT story, but the fact of the matter is this program – after a flurry of news and forward momentum – appears stuck in the mud. The city has not yet released a map of where the bike share kiosks will be installed yet, let alone what the timeline is for installing the kiosks.

KUT has more

Dell Medical School will reshape NE corner of downtown

Likely you caught a whiff of news about the UT masterplan for its Austin campus, and the attached medical district, which will house the Dell Medical School. The plan has been officially approved by the Board of Regents, and will transform the northeast portion downtown for generations to come.

Among the top things likely to come up at a dinner party, which you should know:

The Dell Medical School is expected to open in summer 2016.
Phase I would require the replacement of the Penick-Allison Tennis Center.
Within five years the UMCB (University Medical Center Brackenridge) will be demolished.
Within six to 15 years the Erwin Center will be demolished.

All the important points have been summarized over on Austin Towers, along with a collection of renderings and maps.

Austin Towers has more

Truluck’s expanding downtown

Truluck’s, one of the anchors of downtown’s Warehouse District, is investing more than $2 million to add a third story.

This follows a trend of reinvestment and development of properties within the Warehouse District. Work is going on now, for example, at the building that housed The Spaghetti Warehouse Restaurant for decades.

Sometimes, it is easy to get fixated on the mega projects downtown, but this is a reminder that a lot of smaller projects are underway too.

Austin Business Journal has more

Wells Fargo teardown underway at 15th Street

As a sign of the increasing residential density of downtown, Wells Fargo has destroyed it’s drive through bank on the corner of 15th and Rio Grande, and instead plans a full service lot there.

In place of the relic 800-square-foot drive-thru center, Wells Fargo plans to build a 4,000 square foot full-service branch, with four drive through bays and 20 parking spots.

Wondering why that block was never developed? Oddly enough, back in the 1970s and again in the 80s, the city entered into a restrictive covenant with the former property owners to limit any use of that lot to a drive-thru bank – it had been zoned for office and then CBD, but any use outside office was limited to a drive thru. Odd.

First Phase of Green Water Construction Moving Forward?

Jude Galligan | May 15, 2013 |

Move over, Seaholm! The other massive redevelopment on Cesar Chavez, the Green Water Treatment Plant Redevelopment, is rumbling to life!

Adding to the seemingly endless list of construction occurring downtown, it looks the Green Water Treatment Plant construction could be getting underway very soon.

A site plan for a high-rise apartment on “Block 1” (110 San Antonio) – possibly climbing 38 stories – has been turned into City Hall for the lot just west of the Silicon Labs building. It’s another exciting moment for downtown Austin, and the culmination of years of “wait and see” from guys like me, who watched these project move at a glacial pace after the economy tanked in 2009.

2011 RENDERING OF VIEW FROM SEAHOLM INTAKE

It was way back in 2008 that Trammel Crow won the bidding process to redevelop the site, and another five years before it hammered out a deal with the city.

On May 25, 2012 the Austin City Council approved an agreement with a development team led by the Trammell Crow Company to redevelop the site with several buildings up to 30 stories tall. The project will have 1.75 million square feet of development, including 826 apartments, 456,000 sq. ft. of office space, a 200 room hotel and 82,000 sq. ft. of retail (most along an extension of the 2nd Street District).

GreenWater2 — 2011 RENDERING OF PROJECT SITE

The project hit another, unexpected, snag when a dust-up occurred over seven heritage trees that are on the site. There were some concerns that the city was applying double standards by not making the developer follow the Heritage Tree ordinance, which the city council enacted in 2010 after Trammel Crow had its plans, but before it inked a deal with the city.

In the end, Trammel Crow agreed to save the trees, but would have to sacrifice about 67,000 square feet of leasable area, and the city agreed to hand over $1.7 million to compensate them, according to the Austin Business Journal. [h/t Chris Bradford, see comments]

We have yet to see clearly how a reduction of almost 70,000 square feet will impact the scope of the development.

Back in 2012, the per block details were posted on the SkyscraperPage forum:

Block 23 Office
28 floors
566,074 gross square feet
524,143 usable square feet

Block 1 Residential (SITE PLAN FILED)
38 floors
682,120 gross square feet
531,700 usable square feet

  Block 185 Residential
39 floors
436,975 gross square feet
336,600 usable square feet

  Block 188 Hotel
19 floors
245,643 square feet

Downtown News and Rumor Round-up

Jude Galligan | May 7, 2013 |

Rainey Street District hotel breaking ground next month?

If you’ve been around downtown Austin since 2006, you’ve been hearing about the Hotel Van Zandt.

It was a sister development to the Shore Condos, sharing the northern end of the site. Hotel Van Zandt was initially planned to be a $100 million, 29-story hotel and condo tower. The scope has been reduced to 16 stories and will include just the hotel component.

We’ve heard all of this before. Developers are now telling the Statesman they plan to get going next month. This is the same thing they told the ABJ in March, which is a sign that it is indeed ready to roll.

Hotel Van Zandt was initially planned to be a $100 million, 29-story hotel and condo tower. The scope has been reduced to 16 stories and will include just the hotel component.

Statesman has more

New Travis County courthouse up for debate

The ongoing debate for whether or not Travis County will enter into a deal for a public-private partnership to build a new courthouse downtown could be coming to a head.

Recently, the Statesman profiled some of the issues associated with the project, and on Tuesday the Commissioner Court talked to the finalists for the deal: URS and Broaddus and Associates.

The court did not take a vote when it discussed it at a hearing this past Tuesday, but is taking the issue back up this Tuesday.

The new courthouse could rise 17 stories next to Republic Square. Earlier this year, commissioners decided they will hold a bond election to finance the courthouse, but no date is certain.

If the deal ever falls through, or the public does not approve the bonds, it would put a lot that is not encumbered by capitol view limits back into the private market.

Statesman has more

Austin is a finalist to host the X Games

ESPN announced that Austin is one of four finalists to host the 2014, 2015 and 2016 X Games. The games would be held at the Circuit of the Americas, but without a doubt, we can expect something related downtown. If – of course – Austin ends up taking the cake.

For the record, I think it will.

Austin is competing with Chicago, Detroit, and Charlotte, N.C. I think both COTA and Gov. Perry will roll out the red carpet and offer just as competative package of any tax breaks the other cities and states can offer. From a ticketing and marketing perspective, the folks at ESPN must know that Austin is going to have the best draw among the kids and also know that marketing machines like Nike and Samsung already have the ground troops and past experience to tackle Austin from a marketing perspective, due to SXSW.

ESPN is sending envoys here next month and expects to pick a winner this summer.

KXAN has more

The saga of an expensive parking garage coming to a close?

For you readers who are devotees of downtown palace intrigue, the saga of Whittington v. City of Austin could finally be coming to a close.

The case started almost a decade ago, in relation to the public-private partnership the city got into to build the Hilton next to the convention center. The city seized Harry’s downtown lot and he sued them for it.

After a series of trials, the case made it all the way up to the Texas Supreme Court, which sided with the city.

Got to give it to the man, he knows how to dig in and raise hell. Although, he must have asked himself several times over the past few years: What would that lot have been worth today if the city hadn’t tied it up in litigation 10 years ago?

Maybe now, they will put all of that vacant retail space, which wraps the ground level of the garage, to good use.

ABJ has more

9th Annual Downtown Living Tour – May 19th, 2013 – Reserve Your Tickets

AG | May 5, 2013 |

The 9th Annual Downtown Living Tour is a couple of weeks away. Produced by the Downtown Austin Neighborhood Association (DANA), the tour is a great way to tour downtown living, at your own pace, all in one day!

[standout-css3-button cssclass=”button-tangerine” href=”https://dana.ticketbud.com/2013-downtown-living-tour-shuttles-and-champagne”]Get your DLT tickets now[/standout-css3-button]

This year, although the tour will still be self-guided, the tour will also have shuttle service to facilitate access to each tour stop (nice!), and will showcase the following buildings:

The Whitley Apartments
The Shore Condos
Park West Residences
360 Condos
Avenue Lofts (one of the few Art Deco buildings downtown)
The Four Seasons Residences -RECEPTION – (VIP only, and only open from 4pm-5pm)
Brazos Lofts (check out the history, formerly Capital Chevrolet)
Towers of Town Lake (Penthouse, VIP only, only open from 1-4pm)
Capital Studios (to-be-built Foundations Communities project designed by Dick Clark Architecture)
LBJ’s apartment at JJ Pickle Building (VIP only, only open from 1-4pm)
More stops to be announced!

There are some stops of particular note, primarily the official office suite of President Lyndon Baines Johnson at the JJ Pickle Building, an office suite he used during his presidency and the site of such landmark meetings as the Cold War discussions on December 6, 1966, which culminated in the first agreement with the Soviet Union to limit nuclear weapons, known as the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT).

The JJ Pickle building itself is part of a two-block complex of Federal Buildings in downtown Austin, and was designed by Texas Firms Page-Southerland-Page and Brooks & Barr, and is textbook 1960s high-rise design.

Here are a few exclusive pictures of the interior of the office suite, which is remarkably intact.

The LBJ Suite is only open to VIP ticket holders, and there a very limited amount of VIP tickets – so we would recommend…

[standout-css3-button cssclass=”button-tangerine” href=”https://dana.ticketbud.com/2013-downtown-living-tour-shuttles-and-champagne”]Get your DLT tickets now[/standout-css3-button]

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.

Bank of America Drive Through at 5th & San Jacinto to Shut Down… What Will Replace It?

Jude Galligan | May 2, 2013 |

One of the most underutilized development sites in downtown Austin is about to transform.

Categorize this discovery as random: because I am a customer of Bank of America, I received a letter stating the drive through at 5th & San Jacinto will be shutting down. That’s as official as it gets!

This harks back to March, when Stream Realty has contracted to purchase Tom Stacy’s mega-assemblage extending from Congress to San Jacinto.

Another parcel — a half block site on East Fifth Street between Brazos and San Jacinto — will be sold once Stream closes on the purchase. Sallis said there’s been interest from developers looking to build hotel, apartment and mixed-use projects there. Source: Austin American Statesman

The intersection of 5th & San Jacinto is anchored by Eddie V’s restaurant, the Brazos Lofts, and a new hotel is expected to break ground this year. Directly across San Jacinto, White Lodging is planning a 17 story, 326 room “Westin Austin Downtown.”

The Bank of America drive through can be seen in the bottom right of the image below.

Austin’s Top Ten Coffee Shops: 2013

dab | May 1, 2013 |

UPDATE: We’ve posted our updated list of Austin’s Best Coffee Shops for 2015

[Guest post by DAB Contributor, Jacob Dirr]

Preamble: For years I secretly scoffed at what I perceived to be pseudo-intellectuals reading or working in coffee shops. You know who I’m talking about: Frasier Crane types who say things like “preamble” “scoff” and “perceive.”

Then about two years ago today, I quit my day job and struck out as a contractor, in the process developing an appreciation for coffee shops. To me, it is a place to get work done, but do so close enough to humanity that I don’t feel like a hermit. It needs three things: free wi-fi, coffee and seats to qualify as a “coffee shop” in my book (Caveat: I drink black coffee. It makes me feel like Kevin Costner in Field of Dreams, whatever that means.)

Here are my personal top picks in Austin.

Dominican Joe

Nestled into a little shopping plaza on the south shore of the Colorado River, DomJoe is my go-to joint for breakfast meetings or getting work done on my laptop. Although it can get a little crowded, there is usually a seat available. It is a good balance between being vibrant, but calm enough to focus. To reap the full rewards, come on a nice day and enjoy the outdoor patio (where you can smoke, if you are a smoker-writer). The line is not always the quickest, especially when customers want a sexy drink. However, the employees are all totally cool, down-to-earth folks. Overhead music is usually a chill mix, and the coffee is good enough to drink. They sell Taco Deli tacos, which hands down are the best breakfast tacos in town, if not a little pricey. They also sell other food. Pro-tip: If parking is full, head south on Congress (opposite direction of downtown). Not far away there is free on-street parking at the Texas School for the Deaf.

Caffé Medici

Caffé Medici has multiple locations, but the one I frequent most often is on the ground floor of the Austonian condos. (Finding it is easy: 1) Locate Austin skyline, or if you are downtown then simply look up. 2) Identify the tallest freaking building in Austin. 3) Travel there by car, bike or foot.)

The atmosphere at each Caffé Medici varies by location. Even though I most often go to the one in the Austonian, I do so out of convenience more than anything. The vibe there is okay, the patrons and the employees are not unfriendly, but are often are too cool to smile. The coffee is hands down the best I’ve found in Austin, and among the best I’ve had anywhere. In addition, the upstairs seating is very often chill and a great place to get work done or whathaveyou. Pro tip: For a traditional “coffee shop” experience, visit the Medici in West Lynn. For a college vibe, visit Guadalupe. (Ed note: The coffee there is Cuvee Coffee, from a local Austin roaster. Props to Cuvee for providing a product that rocks.)

Summermoon Coffee

Summermoon’s shtick is wood fire-roasted beans. It adds a distinctive flavor to their brews, which is pleasant, but not good enough to warrant a special trip to buy beans to brew at home. They sell an assortment of food items. I’ve only tried out the breakfast tacos, which are edible if you’re hungry in the morning, but not especially tasty. Summermoon is a super place to hunker down with a laptop though, and the outdoor deck is a great place to have a conversation during the cool mornings. In particular, I tend to come here every time a good friend visits from Ohio, and find that our best time together is spent bull-crapping with coffee on the porch. Pro tip: Invite someone to join you, set up camp on the comfy rattan outdoor furniture, caffeinate and get to know them better.

Whole Foods

Blasphemy. I know. If I wanted to drink coffee to fund publicly-traded corporations, I might as well join the Republican Party. But hear me out. Whole Foods has all the hallmarks of a coffee shop: tables, coffee, wi-fi, young people. Whole Foods is a great place to people watch, probably one of the best places in Austin, and people watching is also among the reasons people go to “coffee shops.” It’s a place I go to work when I want to feel connected to humanity, but when going to a typical coffee shop feels a bit too Strong Sad. The downtown Austin flagship Whole Foods is accessible by bike or car, and offers a plethora of outdoor and indoor seating options. Coffee and food are also good. Pro tip: Find a seat in view of the escalator and document the absurd variety of people who buy expensive organic food.

Thunderbird (on Manor)

Thunderbird Coffee (there is another one up north, too) is about as hipster as I can tolerate, but adds points for people watching elements. Unlike some other coffee shops, Thunderbird sells beer too, which makes it an equal-opportunity place to meet-up with someone to brainstorm, flirt or collaborate. They offer good food (Taco Deli tacos here too) and the coffee is also good enough to drink. This place, more than any other on the list, has a regular live-music line up. This is a good and bad thing depending on your objectives for the visit. Fortunately, there are outdoor picnic tables which can offer peace and quiet, weather permitting. Pro tip: If you just moved to Austin, visit a Thunderbirds, snag one of their logo tickers and slap it on the top of the laptop clamshell. You’re a “local” now and permitted to talk trash about all the people moving here.

Cherrywood Coffeehouse

Cherrywood is often very crowded parking-wise. If you live in anywhere in the upper east side relative to downtown you can get there comfortably by bike. Cherrywood has coffee, beer and legit food. I seldom do work here, but what makes it standout is the atmosphere. The two or three large palm trees in the gravel-lined courtyard transport you to another place, someplace tropical, where Hunter Thompson and Earnest Hemmingway would hang out. When the weather hits that supreme zone of 70 to 85 degrees fahrenheit and it is sunny, do yourself a favor and visit. If you are too anxious to relax, then get a little drunk. If you are too depressed to feel appreciative, then get caffeinated. Pro tip: Bring a notepad, so you can jot down ideas know you will never follow-through on.

Curra’s Grill

Located on East Oltorf between I-35 and Congress, in an area practically impenetrable without a car, Curra’s offers homemade Tex-Mex food, and probably better qualifies on a Tex-Mex restaurant list than coffee shop list. However, it offers free wi-fi and covered outdoor seating and superb coffee, so I’m counting it as a coffee house. It’s a great place to eat a little breakfast, and putz-around on your tablet of choice on a lazy weekend morning. Behind Café Medici, they offer the best cup of Joe in Austin. Unlike Café Medici, refills are on the house and the employees are not indignant. I don’t know who makes the coffee, but I’ll drink enough to have a heart murmur. Enough said. Pro-tip: There is overflow parking somewhere nearby. Not sure where, though.

Austin Java (multiple locations)

Austin Java is an Austin staple, primarily because it was clever enough to incorporate “Austin” into its name before Austin was a global brand. I can’t say a lot about it, other than there are multiple locations, plenty of outdoor seating, beer, coffee, wi-fi, good service and good, filling food options. Austin Java is like a CD investment: safe, stable, but not super exciting. If you’re risk adverse or short on patience, Austin Java is a safe bet. Pro tip: keep an eye on the artwork at Austin Java, and you might have an experience like Jude did.

La Peña

Technically a museum, La Peña is the antithesis of the modern snobbishness, and it is serendipitous that it is across from the Austonian Caffé Medici downtown. For starters, they only take cash. La Peña has coffee, but it is pot-brewed and of gas station quality, served in styrophom cup. However, its saving grace is the breakfast tacos are tasty and hella-cheap, something like $1.17 after tax. Pro tip: Grab a coffee at Café Medici, walk across the street and get tacos at La Peña, sit on bus stop bench outside and enjoy.

Lavazza

Lavazza is among the newest editions to the downtown coffee shop landscape, and is a franchise of an Italian company. There are shirtless men photos on the wall. However, don’t not check it out because it isn’t very “Austin”. (Double negatives, anyone?) The local franchise owner is as Austin as you can get: 24-year-old Christina Hales, an entrepreneur who graduated from St. Edwards University down the way. If you are a pastry fiend, this is the place to go, they make all their offerings from scratch in the back and on Saturday mornings they are coming out of the oven, onto the display rack and can happily end up in your stomach. Pro tip: Park downtown in the San Jacinto Capitol Visitors garage for free, walk to Lavazza, get a coffee and pastry, then walk back up to the Capitol and enjoy the best public space in Austin.

Downtown News and Rumor Round-up

Jude Galligan | April 28, 2013 |

Leasing ABIA = urban rail?

Getting better public transportation is so centric to the future of downtown, it always surprises me that there are not more occasions to write about it. In Austin, our current plan is called “urban rail” and it has almost become this amorphous type of buzz-word over the years. If you asked ten people “what is the urban rail plan?” I bet you would get 10 answers (or more likely you’d get seven blank stares and three answers).

The long-short of urban rail is this: It is a project the old Austin mayor (Will Wynn) pitched for downtown, and one that our current mayor (Lee Leffingwell) keeps bringing up, but no other council members, or any of our main business groups, ever seem to get very vocal about.

A little while ago, the Statesman reported that City Council was hot to trot to get something passed by voters before we switch our council makeup from seven-at-large members, to ten district members and one at-large, but we have still not seen very much action.

Suddenly, this week, the Statesman reported that Mayor Leffingwell is proposing a plan to lease out our airport, aka “ABIA”, in order to fund urban rail.

Statesman has more

KUT did a follow up that notes airports in Chicago and Puerto Rico have leased their airports, but six others abandoned the privatization idea after pursuing it.

Downtown adds more retail

Toy Joy, one of the coolest shops in the city, has been up near UT for years, announced it is moving to downtown, just below the Violet Crown on Second Street.

Recently another shop, Consuela, opened up at Ninth and Congress.

This is exciting news for downtown, because retail shopping – regardless of our personal preferences – is a vital component to a thriving urban ecosystem.

Culture Map has more on Toy Joy

Statesman has more on Consuela

Eighth and Neches hotel to be eight stories

I’ve done a couple posts about this hotel, but we finally have some specs on the new hotel across from Stubbs on Red River and 8th St.

The developer plans demolish the existing 117-space (hideous-looking) garage and build three stories of parking into the sloped lot with a five-story hotel above.

The $30 million project would bring about another 200 rooms to downtown. Given that this site is just a few blocks south of the proposed medical school, I think it is a smart play.

ABJ has more

Tower Planned for 70 Rainey Street

Jude Galligan | April 25, 2013 |

[UPDATE 01/11/15: 70 Rainey To Be Condos]

Details are emerging for Riverside Resources’ planned multi-use tower at 70 Rainey St. across from the MACC.

The firm, which also developed The Whitley and The Crescent, has filed an administrative site plan application to construct 182 multifamily units, and another 3,600 square feet of ground level restaurant and retail space.

The 70 Rainey development, which encompasses the lots between 66-72 Rainey Street, was pursuing incorporating the City owned 64 Rainey Street into their plan, but the neighboring MACC lobbied City Hall last fall to get the land instead.

Initially, the 70 Rainey development, which would share the same alley used by the Shore Condos, ~~and is being financed through Ft. Worth-based Kelly Capital Partners~~ [UPDATE: Kelly Capital Partners is an equity holder, but is not financing the project], was pegged at 31-stories if it could include the 64 Rainey lot.

But until this site plan is approved, and we get some elevations, or something is leaked to the press, we won’t know how many stories this 182-unit project will have.

We can use the Shore condos as a reference, which has 192 units, and is only 22 stories. The sites share a similarly sized footprint and orientation (north-south), so we are probably looking at buildings of comparable dimensions. Accounting for the restaurant/retail on the ground level, I’m going to guess this one ends up around ~25 stories.

***Based on the site clearing I’ve seen over the past week, it looks like multiple food trailers are setting up to use the 70 Rainey Street site as a temporary home until site plan is approved and Riverside is ready to build. (Looks like it’s the United Nations of Food (?) from 95 Rainey Street, making way for the Sutton project)

Downtown News and Rumor Round-up

Jude Galligan | April 22, 2013 |

Seaholm: No longer just a dream

The biggest downtown news of the week, and a major downtown milestone in general, is that the Seaholm power plant redevelopment is finally breaking ground. This will be another game-changer for Downtown Austin.

Almost every major news outlet did a story on it, but the Austin American Statesman ran an online headline that captured my sentiment best: “Seaholm redevelopment ready to break ground at last”.

Seaholm will included a 30-story tower with 309 apartments, a two-story building with a Trader Joe’s store, plus other retail, office and restaurant space. Most of the 117,000-square-foot power plant will be leased to one office tenant.

Most of the news stories are linking the imminent groundbreaking to the fact that the developer and the city finally signed their deal. However, the ABJ a few weeks ago published a great little story indicating that it was a lack of financing, not City Hall red tape, that held up the deal.

The vision for a Seaholm redevelopment started in 2005, and we should give credit to our city leaders for being bold and determined enough to see the deal through the recession and a host of other difficulties.

One of my big takeaways from this, is that anytime governments are involved in public-private partnerships, we should expect delays. This will likely play out with the new county courthouse near Republic Square. Delays are playing out as we speak with the Austin bike share program. And, they will also play out with the Seaholm Intake facility redevelopment, which is just starting to to gather ideas across the street from Seaholm proper.

Hotel confirmed across from Stubbs

The Austin Business Journal is confirming information that showed up on Austin Towers last month, about a new hotel being added across the street from Stubbs on Red River.

No new details were included, but the ABJ does let us know when we can find out what is going to happen, saying that Austin’s Planning Commission will hear the about it on May 23. Hopefully we will get some renderings then.

Austin Business Journal has more

Another Congress Ave. block changes hands

The buildings that house Annie’s Cafe & Bar, the Elephant Room and the former Capitol Metro storefront have been purchased.

I posted months ago about my excitement that Capital Metro was moving out of the 300 Congress block of downtown, with optimism that the space would serve a higher and better use. I – personally – would love to see more outdoor seating along Congress Avenue. With this purchase, I think that will now be possible.

Austin BusinessJournal has more

Austin Post profiles some dude

Maybe you’ve heard of him.

Joking aside, I’ve been egged on to post this on here after it published earlier this month, even though it feels a little self-aggrandizing I want to thank the Austin Post for the online love, and Rob Patterson for making me appear much cooler than I am in real life.

I’d also like to say that if you are reading this, and have visited this blog with any regularity since I started toiling at it years ago – much to my soon-to-be-wife’s chagrin – then I owe you, The Reader, a debt of gratitude.

It is logging into to my readership metrics and reading ya’lls comments that make the Downtown Austin Blog a true passion for me. Even though I have only a small cadre of folks contributing to this site, along with my own posts, I feel like our readers have helped build a community around it and it is an honor to be a part of something bigger than myself.