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Austin is king city of downtown jobs

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I have heard off and on over the years that the urban core of Austin holds about 30 percent of the jobs in the Austin region. It’s a mantra often repeated, especially as it relates to transportation discussions. But, as I thought about it, no one has ever been really able to say how or where that sound bite came from.

Thankfully, we now have a bonafide source, The Brookings Institution, who says it is about 25 percent (if we count “downtown” as the three-mile zone surrounding it and not the bureaucratic political boundaries City Hall assigns to “downtown” as the 78701 and part of 78703 zip codes).

The Austin American-Statesman just posted a story on downtown Austin job growth, based on a report by the Brookings Institution’s Metropolitan Policy Program.

You can read the whole Brookings report here, or download the Austin snapshot here. 

If you’ve followed us at the Downtown Austin Blog for a while, you’ll know that from time to time, we like to dive into data around condo sales. This time, I’m diving into these job numbers.

Report on the report

The Brookings report puts into numbers what we all already know intuitively: downtown Austin keeps adding jobs. What we don’t always realize is how exceptional that fact is, relative to other cities.

Between 2007 and 2010 – the years of the Great Recession – downtown Austin was one of only FOUR of the major cities across the entire country where the number of absolute jobs in the urban core *WENT UP*.  Amazing.

Austin joined Charleston, Cincinnati and New Orleans in this distinction, but Austin was the only one that did not lose jobs overall during this time period. (I’m not smart enough about this, but does that mean Austin never had a recession??)

If we count on the number of office developments, and hotels underway now in downtown, it’s safe to assume downtown Austin will continue to lead the country in adding jobs.

Food for thought

One might think that this puts Austin in a magic realm of urban development and new urban development. Well, it does, in a way, but paradoxically, the share of jobs in downtown Austin, relative to the jobs in the metro area actually fell from 2000 to 2010 by about 3 percent.

Why? Because even though Austin added about 6,000 jobs downtown from 2000 to **2010** – which in and of itself is remarkable – in the zone that is 10-35 miles from the Central Business District, the city added a staggering 74,000 jobs.

It is interesting to me because, if you look at other American cities especially in the past three decades, most of the cities that had surges of jobs surged in the suburbs, while downtowns languished. This means, matter of fact, downtown Austin is special.

So rather than opening up a debate on whether downtown is “the economic engine” of the region, this new report confirms that downtown is definitely a pumping piston in the engine.  As a downtown lover, I’ll cheers to that.

If you are curious about what 3, 10 and 35 miles looks like, here ya go:

35 miles from downtown

10 miles from downtown

3 miles from downtown

Downtown News and Rumor Round-up

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Whitley apartment building opens doors

Announced in September 2011, The Whitley apartment building, at Brazos and Fourth, welcomed its first tenants this month. The 16-story building brings 266 apartments, and is the vanguard of an apartment building boom in the core.

There are at least another 1,100 apartments coming online, not including the projects recently detailed on this blog. Downtown apartment occupancy remains at a stunning 98 percent occupancy as of late February.

The Statesman has more

Downtown braces for more convention business

Its long been part of local king-makers’ narrative that Austin is missing out on tourism business – or essentially free money for the local economy – due to a shortfall of hotel rooms.

Now, some 4,000 hotel rooms are coming online in and around downtown, which means we get to share our awesome downtown with more people.

Tourism dollars, for those who don’t follow this stuff, are highly-coveted because they pump a ton of sales tax into the local economy, but tourists cost little in terms of core-city services, such as police and fire.

The Statesman has more

Cousins Third & Colorado project kaput?

Cousins property last year announced a pretty cool-looking office tower at Third and Colorado, in the Warehouse District.

Cousins said it had hoped to break ground late last year, and to date, there is no physical progress.  One reason for the delay is they still don’t have their zoning, but it’s on the council agenda this week.

This is creating fears that the project may be put on ice as other office project jockey for tenants.

Austin Towers has more

Block 51 – aka IBC Bank tower – and 7 Rio set for groundbreaking

Two longtime downtown projects, which have been germinating for half a decade are finally getting ready to sprout.

Block 51, which is just north of the new federal courthouse, and 7 Rio (located at 7th and Rio Grande) both filed paperwork to start partially blocking the streets to begin construction.

Austin Towers has more

City Council finalizes new parking requirements: There are none

City Council has waved future parking requirements for new downtown development.

This is a symbolic and legal step forward because minimum parking requirements have many negative effects, including:

  • Generate greater automobile usage and reduce use of transit and walking.
  • Increase building construction costs and make units less affordable.
  • Negatively affect the aesthetics of the built environment.
  • Perpetuate the inefficient use of available parking. (Currently many parking spaces in garages downtown sit empty throughout the day and night.)

KVUE has more

Cirrus Logic campus plan OK’d by Planning Commission

Apple supplier Cirrus Logic’s plans to build a new building that is as tall as its new headquarters got the green light from the Austin Planning Commission recommendation despite opposition from neighborhood associations.

Austin Business Journal has more

 

Sayonara, downtown Arby’s shell

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When I posted earlier this year that a student housing project was slated for the intersection of 17th and Guadalupe – a site haunted by an abandoned Arby’s – some folks were less than sure it would happen.

The catch was that the developer needs to build underground parking and the new building in time for the August UT move-in.

Today, I bring you evidence that the project is indeed moving forward, and with gusto.

As you can see, the Arby’s building there has been wiped from the face of the earth. On April 8, a permit was also issued for excavation to begin, so expect that soon. If you headed around there, a quick heads up that the construction crews are going to use the south side of 18th Street for construction of building an the sidewalk will be closed.

No word yet on what the building will look like, by the way.

Downtown News and Rumor Round-up

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Fairmont hotel spurs nearby land deals

The dirt parking lot across the street south of the Fairmont hotel site, plus with the Iron Works BBQ auxiliary parking lot (due south of Iron Works BBQ) are both under contract, which hints at future development.

Plans are not being disclosed, but one buyer group is reported to be local and the second is from California. Robert Knight and Perry Lorenz own the land are are also selling a lot at Red River and Fourth Street.

The Austin Business Journal has more

Austin Towers has more on the Fairmont

Contract map

Downtown a major draw for new residents

The Austin American-Statesman parsed some census data and confirmed that downtown is a major destination for the hoards of people migrating to Austin.

Downtown Austin had the highest percentage of Austin residents who had lived in another state one year earlier. About 1 in 10 of downtown’s population moved from another state.

A commenter to the story, said: “The first thing the agent showed us when we moved here was Steiner Ranch. We asked her to turn the car around and leave. Steiner is exactly the kind of place you find in Anytown, USA. Why bother to move here? We opted for downtown. DT is Austin.”

Statesman has more

Downtown businesses launch car-reduction program

The Austin City Council approved a measure to help fund a pilot program for downtown business tenants to encourage their employees to get to work without a car.

This could include bike parking, employee subsidies for car sharing or transit passes, alternative work schedules or workplaces with locker and shower facilities. (Still waiting on bike share, City Hall people. What gives with the hold up?)

Businesses will have to apply to participate in the pilot project. Applications will be accepted through April 30, and the program will be activated between May and June. For more information visit the program website.

KUT News has more

Local Texas lawmakers take on Congress Ave. development

Bills filed by State Sen. Kirk Watson and State Rep. Donna Howard would make the stepback standards that the city currently enforces in the area into a state law. It is being reported that the Downtown Austin Alliance supports the bill.

The Austin Contrarian blog posted a critique, which drew a full-fledged response from Sen. Watson.

The Austin Business Journal has more

Rumors Surround Medical School Downtown

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The Austin American-Statesman ran a front page story today teasing a bio-tech innovation district downtown around the new Dell Medical School. (That the story ran one day after The Mohawk issued an April Fools press release lamenting the demise of cool Red River is pretty funny.)

Mohawk shenanigans aside, the Statesman story didn’t really say much new, but it did put ink to paper on a handful of rumors that have been floating around and I had heard, which I’d like to capture for you here.

1) There is universal consensus is that the teaching hospital will be built by Seton’s Brackenridge Hospital. No one with a six-figure salary will confirm it unequivocally, but the key suspect location for the hospital is the parking lot on the south side of the Erwin Center. This site is known as the “Elephant Lot” and is so named for the elephants who call it home when the circus comes to town.

2) The medical school is being proposed to exist atop the site where the tennis courts are now, which is UT land. The medical school will be housed in two buildings: an administrative and classroom space and a research area. Recently, UT hired Boston planning and design firm Sasaki Associates Inc. – which is currently developing an update to the UT-Austin campus master plan – to also develop a medical district master plan.

3) Some people are talking about tearing down the Erwin Center eventually to make room for more medical stuff. Whether this comes to fruition remains to be seen. Where UT would house indoor sports and where older people would go to replay their high school rock years is undetermined. This would perhaps be laid out when UT unveils its updated master plan. At a recent regent’s meeting, President Bill Powers said it was almost ready. (That was before all the drama unfolded and his job appeared in peril, so unveiling the master plan is probably on the back burner for now.)

4) Brackenridge, the current hospital, would not be demolished. Instead the majority of the facility will be re-purposed into things like meetings spaces. A simulated treatment center, used to train nursing students from colleges all over the area, would remain in use at Brackenridge.

5) Something I had not heard before is talk of “straightening out Red River Street, whose current path includes an westward bulge where it intersects with East 15th,” as noted by the Statesman. How this would be paid for is not mentioned and I presume it would be a heavy Public Works project that would have to come out of another city bond measure to fund the job. We’re talking major engineering, not the kind of construction we see for Great Streets downtown.

6) The Statesman also quoted the Mayor as saying that the HealthSouth Rehabilitation Hospital and the Travis County medical examiner’s office, both of which occupy city-owned land under leases, could be re-purposed.

7) Two things not mentioned in the Statesman story: The medical arts master plan impact on the Waller Creek taxing district, or the impact of Urban Rail on this plan (if it ever goes to a vote and is passed).

8) It must also be said: A medical arts district downtown will continue to drive housing demand in the core for a variety of reasons. For that reason alone, I am for it.

Downtown News and Rumor Round-up

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There’s a number of interesting items relating to downtown in the news recently. With so much going on these days, along with the demise of Google Reader, we’re going to try something new at DAB: an end of the week wrap-up of what’s been in the news related to downtown. If you are like me, it is hard sometimes, to keep up with everything, especially during personally busy weeks.

Do me a huge favor and be sure to leave a comment if this is helpful and if you’d like to see this as a regular feature.

Rainey Street Ramps Up (again!)

Two new projects have filed site plans for new construction within the Rainey Street neighborhood district.

The vacant lot across the street from the Mexican American Cultural Center at 70 Rainey filed paperwork to build a mixed-use sky scraper consisting of a restaurant, residential units, and parking.

Down the street, the North Shore Lofts are moving forward with a multi-family building at the corner of the north shore and I-35, that will bring 44 class A multifamily units to the site.

Austin Towers has more

Capitol Kibosh

Texas lawmakers moved again earlier this week to make good on their sabre-rattling to freeze any development plans around the Capitol Complex.

A senate committee passed SB 894, by State Sen. John Whitmire (D-Houston), making unsolicited proposals for development of the area north of the Capitol grounds illegal.

This effectively kills plans for the planetarium and high rise development.

The bill will also force potential developers to pitch their development plans before the Legislature every two years.

Notably, this bill has more than 20 sponsors and is also being supported by Kirk Watson.

KUT News has more

W Hotel for sale?

The Austin American-Statesman got its hands on a marketing brochure that says the W Hotel, also known as Block 21 and the home of the ACL Live studio is for sale.

The tower also includes 159 condominiums that aren’t part of the sale. To date 131 of the condos have been sold or are under contract, at an average price of more than $600 a square foot, according to the offering brochure. Jones Lang LaSalle’s Hotels & Hospitality Group is marketing the property.

Statesman has more

Travis County altering development plans?

County commissioners are considering another $38.5 million building downtown in early April at the corner of West 11th and San Antonio streets. The county previously received a proposal for a $60 million building on the same site.

In December, the county purchased the land for $7.25 million. It includes part of the Texas PTA offices and a parking lot.

Statesman has more

To view or not to view

While not downtown, we’re noting that neighbors are opposing the Taco Cabana development.

Bridges’ Homeowner Association has petitioned the City to deny a zoning request there.

Austin city planner Jerry Rusthoven told KVUE: “City code does not protect people’s views. That came up recently in another case downtown.”

KVUE has more on the dispute and Austin Towers has the details on the development

Higher & Better Use For Downtown Alleys

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This effort could yield some cool results.  The idea is in focus as Art Alliance Austin will feature in April an alley installation adjacent to the Austin Club.

Councilmember Tovo’s office is capturing the attention of downtown stakeholder groups, including Downtown Austin Neighborhood Association and the Downtown Commission, which has spun off a working group, for consideration of a masterplan for downtown Austin’s alleyways.

“Traditionally [alleys] are associated with garbage collection and can be associated with crime,” Tovo says “so, there’s the notion of kind of taking another look at them and really thinking about what kind of potential they might bring to our downtown area.” – KUT News

Repurposing alleys is not a new idea, and many cities around the world have embraced them as valuable real estate.

In fact, the concept for revitalizing downtown alleys has come before Austin City Council at least once before.  Back in 1971, architect David Graeber proposed repurposing the alleys behind 6th Street, from the Driskill Hotel to Waller Creek.

“By establishing cafes, boutiques, business offices and unusual shops, the alley could be a major economic stimulant to the downtown area.  Businesses could face either the alley or 6th Street, or more advantageously, both.” – David Graeber

Austin Architect, David Graeber's "Serendipity Alley" concept from the 1970s. Daily Texan, September 24, 1971
Austin Architect, David Graeber’s “Serendipity Alley” concept from the 1970s. Daily Texan, September 24, 1971

[Image credit Art Alliance Austin/Creative Action and TBG/Dan Cheetham (Fyoog) and Michelle Tarsney]

Plan To Revitalize 6th & Congress Announced, Underwhelms Everyone

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Stream Realty Partners has a contract to acquire the downtown block bounded by Congress, Fifth, Sixth and Brazos streets, according to the Austin American-Statesman.  Here are the details on what’s planned:

  • The deal consists of five parcels totaling 2.3 acres at the southeast corner of Congress and Sixth, plus a half-block directly east on Fifth Street between Brazos and San Jacinto Boulevard.
  • Stream Realty is acquiring the portfolio in a partnership with Wanxiang America Real Estate Group and Diversified Real Estate Capital. Heitman LLC is providing financing.
  • The site includes the 26-story Bank of America tower. Stream will continue to operate the 256,911-square-foot tower, which is 90 percent leased, as an office building and leave as is.
  • Vacant 501 Congress building will be remodeled by 2014 into a contemporary five-story building with 112,000 square feet of first-class office space and a rooftop deck.
  • Existing valet parking garage will be torn down and replaced by 2014 with an eight-story parking garage with 300 spaces and street-level retail space
  • The site also includes the nine-story Littlefield parking garage with 535 spaces, plus 24 apartments and 30,000 square feet of retail space. By the end of this year, Stream plans to renovate the apartments as well as the retail space, which has been vacant.
  • The half block site on East Fifth Street between Brazos and San Jacinto, which is home to a Bank of America drive through, will be sold for an unknown development.

6th Cong plan

Much of this site is entitled with 25:1 FAR, so it’s a disappointment to see an absence of big plans.

Still, it will be better than the vacant buildings currently occupying the 5th Street block between Congress and Brazos.  It’s hard to notice these days, given the amount of foot traffic that passes by this block creating an illusion of activity, but this is a major dead zone within the core.

The glass is half-full, though, and of the changes coming to this block, we’re most excited about street level retail being added where that valet garage is now. So much of the urban experience takes place at eye level within the street-scape.

The street belongs to everyone, whether you are a visiting hipster from Tulsa, Oklahoma in town for ACL, a Bastrop native walking to a lunch appointment, a UT student looking for love on Sixth St. or a family from Bee Caves enjoying downtown on the weekend. Having active storefronts makes downtown feel welcoming and alive, and having them lit at night adds an air of comfort and safety that an inhuman, dark parking garage does not.

This is an exciting time to be watching and writing about downtown Austin. The rate of change and investment is unprecedented and is an incredible maturation of the policy strong Austin mayors like (state Sen.) Kirk Watson and Will Wynn put in place.

-Jude

UT student housing, not condos, coming to 17 & Guadalupe

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About a month ago, the Downtown Austin Blog had a post hinting at the redevelopment of the abandoned, sad-looking Arby’s at 17th and Guadalupe, received with some skepticism.

Guess what? It’s going to be developed into an 80-unit student housing apartment complex and they want to do it fast.

About a quarter of the block at 1715 Guadalupe has been an abandoned fast food restaurant with its onsite parking use for contract parking. Recently, it has been sold to a developer for mid-rise student housing, with below grade parking.

Here’s the catch: The construction schedule requires work to begin by March 15, in order for the project to be ready for UT student move-in this August. The entire project area will have underground parking, which will required about two months of demolition, excavation and grading work.

It will be interesting to see if this still becomes student housing if the project deadlines cannot be met. Initially, this lot was going to be redeveloped into downtown mixed-use and someone literally scratched out “condos and retail” on the site plan application and wrote “apartments”.

UT had record freshman enrollment this past year, and if the market said lending was easier for that use, then that’s how the chips fall.

There’s likely to be universal consensus that a mid-rise student complex will be great for adding some life back into that part of town, and be especially good for the adjacent Dive Bar and Arturo’s coffee shop.

But, like cutting into an overcooked, yet still tasty steak, the current plan leaves bit sadness about what could have been.

Street-level retail and condo owners, which would have been vested in the community, would have been much juicier than student housing. Not to mention: the site is zoned for DMU-CURE and not in the Capitol View Corridor, which means density could have been packed in there.

We’ll also not that unlike other apartment projects percolating around the core, this one – because it is student housing – is unlikely to be converted into condos at a later date.

On the other hand, having student housing bleeding into downtown does it’s own unique part to keep the core vibrant, and really adds a level of affordability and youthfulness to downtown, which a luxury high-rise condo tower would not.

Royal Blue Grocery Announces Next Location @ The Whitley

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Big news for those living and working on the east side of Congress Ave.  Royal Blue proprietor, George Scariano, confirms with DAB that the lease is officially signed with The Whitley!

This will be the locally loved grocer’s fourth location.  The 2300 ft store will anchor the Railyard District, and we can expect an opening in July.

The store will be a full blown coffee shop, offering beer & wine, with an on-site kitchen serving baja-style seafood tacos, tacos al pastor, and flattop burgers.

We can’t wait!