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Kanye West Purchasing Austin Loft? Perhaps, But Not The Austonian Penthouse

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The Austonian

I love to see effective guerrilla marketing in action.

Earlier this month it seemed as if every Austinite on twitter was sharing rumors that hip-hop fashionista Kanye West purchased the top floor of the Austonian. Skeptical, as is my nature, I was doubtful – I had just toured the top floors. The Austonian is the furthest you’ll get from a proper “Austin loft“. The rumor propagated with Kanye’s lyric “New crib-LOFT IN- where its at-AUSTIN-where is that-Texas!!!”

I was scratching my head, and thinking “really?”. Pushing down my gullible pride, I bashfully confirmed with the Austonian. The rumor, of course, is 100% false, but it resulted in discussion and intrigue. This was cunning guerrilla marketing. 🙂

Think about it. Eventually, perhaps this year, a buyer will emerge for the Austonian penthouse. There are a handful of buyers that have their eye on this space, but are biding their time, waiting to see if the fierce competition among the luxury towers will further soften prices across the board. These towers are already negotiating, very discretely, behind closed doors. But, for the buyer that has their eye on a product with no substitutes, one day soon, they could wake up to real news that what they desire is no longer available.

Below, I’m reposting a comment I shared in another thread

Jude Galligan wrote:

The current market for these buildings [Spring, W, Four Seasons, Austonian] works like this: There are buyers right now paying for a specific view, or floorplan, or the flexibility of combining units. We’re negotiating hard, and seeing deals with 10-15% discounts from asking. More or less depending on the specific space and the buyer’s desire for customizations. At this level, buyers often just want a shell space and the ability to bring their architect into the discussion. There are other buyers waiting patiently for better negotiating posture in a softer market – they are less concerned about having a specific space.

Until each building receives a certificate of occupancy, and we can observe the velocity of closings on the existing contracts, it’s challenging to gauge a market for a product that Austin is unfamiliar with (i.e. luxury urban condos).

I don’t expect they will sell out before they open, unless they soften their prices in a blanket fashion come springtime. However, I don’t expect you will see auctions (with the possible exception of the attainably priced Sabine) as the financing for the Austonian, W, and Spring give them a couple of years from construction completion before they need to repay the debt.

Grapevine stories:
http://austinist.com/2009/11/04/kanye_probably_wont_be_at_the_runwa.php
http://modernmanmusic.wordpress.com/2009/04/13/gotta-loft-inaustin

Reltated posts about penthouse living:
https://downtownaustinblog.org/2009/10/09/pros-and-cons-of-living-on-the-top-floor/
https://downtownaustinblog.org/2009/06/12/the-downtown-austin-penthouse-part-one-economics/

Starr Building SOLD!

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The Statesman is reporting that last summer’s sale of the Starr building, located at 6th and Colorado, has finally closed.  Earlier this year we did a little bit of research to discover what used to occupy this space… check it out.

Birds' Barbershop 3rd Annual Manfest Event

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Hear Ye! Year Ye!

Birds Barbershop Calls All Barbarians,
Centaurs and Beastmasters for 3rd Annual Manfest

On Saturday, Dec. 5th from 2 to 7 p.m. Birds Barbershop on S. Congress Ave. and PartyEnds.com will bring Austin its 3rd annual Manfest. The merrymaking kicks off a month-long promotion at all Birds locations, where men will get half-off hair product all December long.

Moving from S. Lamar to its new location at Birds on S. Congress, this installment in the series leans more primal than Manfests of yore, with a parking lot overrun with olde tyme fixtures like smoked turkey legs, live action role players (LARPers), a jousting competition and a Conan-era photo booth featuring a real-live Centaur.

Birds will offer free “Barbarian Blowouts” inside, while Lone Star Beer and Cazadores Tequila sponsor with spirits served in Manfest signature steins. Attendees who arrive in full barbarian-through-renaissance gear will receive a drink line “Fast Pass” as a reward. In other words, if you wear chain mail or a loincloth, you get a dedicated bartender and no lines for all that free man milk. Come hither all you Stygian wizards, Seraglio concubines and Cretan Minotaurs: this Manfest’s for you.

All My Friends, our favorite LCD Soundsystem cover band, gets even the manliest of men to dance at dark, while a confidence rock DJ fills in the gaps throughout the day. Manfest the Third is located at 1902 S. Congress Ave., 445-0500. Sat. Dec. 5 from 2 to 7 p.m. For more details, visit birdsbarbershop.com.

The Gen Y Guy: Jason Dorsey @ BookPeople

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Jason Dorsey, local author and friend of Downtown Austin Blog, is launching his latest book, Y Size Your Business, tonight at BookPeople.  Jason is known across the globe as the “Gen Y Guy” from his 1800+ keynote speeches on engaging and retaining Gen Y in the workplace.  Come on out and support a local author.  If you’re interested in generational dynamics, and/or interested in new and effective tools to improve your company’s corporate culture, you will be impressed with Jason’s message.  I hope to see you there!

Location: Bookpeople
Date/Time: Tuesday, December 1st @ 7pm

-Jude

Qua Dance Club Now Admits Toddlers

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Well, at least on the first Saturday of every month from 1pm – 4pm…..

Qua No Longer Just for the Butabi Brothers

I read this article in the Statesman over the holiday weekend, and I must admit, I was a little intrigued.  Apparently, a group of parents (The Little Lounge Lizards) have organized a monthly family-friendly dance party at downtown Austin dance club Qua (213 West Fourth) on the first Saturday of every month (skipping January 2010) from 1pm to 4pm.

I tend to applaud the daytime use element, and, although I’m not sure I had daytime clubbing for little ones in mind, the Statesman article makes it appear to be harmless enough and to be something that seems engaging….

Qua is probably best known as the dance club at the center of quite a bit of controversy (since 2007) about the shark “exhibit” that doubles as its dance floor, a controversy that has sparked PETA‘s interest and has also unified many Austinites against the club’s use/treatment of marine life.

Per their website, Qua offers daytime student field-trips to the shark tank, in addition to The Lounge Lizards’ dance parties.  It seems like, for whatever reason (the pursuit of profit, most likely), the club is trying to extend its money-making hours and demographic reach by incorporating daytime/family-friendly uses.

The Statesman article says that The Little Lounge Lizards group is negotiating with Qua to extend the monthly parties in 2010, however, negotiations aren’t finalized and the venue may soon change.  The next dance party will be December 5th from 1 pm – 4pm.

Source: “Kids – and parents too – can get their disco on”

Will The MACC Build A Tower In The Rainey Street District?

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It’s called Nahua Tower, and it’s a mixed-use tower design by Bercy Chen Studio.  “Bold” is an appropriate adjective to describe this design. Perhaps this is simply a conceptual exercise. But, if this or something like it were to ever get built, I believe it could be a showpiece for the city. Click the image and you’ll be taken to the Bercy Chen website where you can watch video of virtual ‘fly overs’ of the rendered building.

Nahua Tower Design By Bercy Chen Studio, Background Rendering by Mopacs @ SkyscraperPage

The Nahua Tower is being designed in collaboration with the Mexican American Cultural Center (MACC) in Austin Texas. The tower will be built as an annex to the existing cultural center and provide an extension to the MACC’s existing facilities as well as residential condominiums. The base of the tower contains event, retail, and restaurant spaces, while the upper 28 floors are primarily residential condominiums.

The project takes inspiration from pre-colombian pyramidal architecture and incorporates these vernacular precedents into a modern tower using many traditional materials such as copper, onyx, and pit-house style bermed construction.

Thanks to KevinFromTexas for the heads up – the Nahua Tower concept/vision has been on the books for a while now.

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11 Reasons I'm Thankful to Live in Downtown Austin

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I’m thankful for many things in my life.  I have a wonderful family, great friends, and I am in good health.  But this blog is about living in Downtown Austin, so I’m not going to bore you with all that mushy stuff; I’m going to talk about Downtown Austin and my top eleven (everybody does top 10, which is soooo Letterman, if you ask me) reasons I’m thankful for living here as opposed to other places.

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The Driskill Hotel, 604 Brazos St

11.  I am thankful for our historic buildings, which give our city character and roots.

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Photo courtesy of Ken Cobb

10. I am thankful for people watching and the fact that downtown Austin is a place where people want to be.

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My Yard Before I Moved Downtown. Just Kidding.

9. I am thankful for the lack of yard work, because I suck at it and I hate it.

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8. I am thankful for the feeling of neighborhood and comradery. Downtown Austin has a small town atmosphere, where people know each other. I run into several people I know throughout the course of my day, and it’s always a pick-me-up to share a wave or have a quick chat with a neighbor.

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7. I am thankful for cool boutiques, where I can buy things like glow-in-the-dark jellyfish.

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6. I am thankful for the availability of unique living spaces with high ceilings and huge windows.

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5. I am thankful for relative carless convenience.

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4. I am thankful for The Ritz, and being able to order a vodka tonic while doing a Michael Jackson sing-a-long with 10 of my closest girlfriends.

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3. I am thankful for Town Lake/Ladybird Lake.

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2. I am thankful for a reserved parking spot, which means I don’t have to find (or pay for) parking during South by Southwest.

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1.  I am thankful for the nearby concentration and variety of services like restaurants, theaters, art galleries, coffee houses, bakeries, neighborhood stores, the library, and art museums. (To search a neighborhood directory click here.)

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Happy Turkey Day, everybody!

The December Discount

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I’m sympathetic with contrarian investing practices.  You’ve likely heard that, in the real estate market, spring and summer are the “buying” seasons.  If that’s true, then there is an economic case for improving your purchasing power during the non-buying seasons.

Taking a two mile radius from downtown Austin, we show the average-discount-from-list-price ratio of sale price to list price (subtract from 1 to get the discount) for real estate sold in June and December. The data is obtained from the MLS and goes back to 2004.  On average, since 2005, you can buy central Austin property for less in December than you can in June.  Last year if you purchased in December then you saved an additional 3% from asking price.

I call it the “December Discount”.

This chart affirms, at least in part, that in recent years buyers purchasing in the “off season” are getting slightly better deals than buyers in spring and summer.  Since 2005 you can see the December Discount increasing with each year.  With the FHA loans currently filling a void in the credit markets, and a tax incentive bringing more buyers to the table, this year we might not see a continued divergence beyond 3%.

Downtown Austin Open Houses

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(Looking for this week’s open houses? You’ll find them here.)

downtown-austin-open-house

Open houses in downtown Austin for Sunday, November 22nd

The great thing about downtown Austin open houses is that you can generally walk from building to building. Take a stroll downtown now that summer is over and the temperature is cooler. If you’re into adaptive reuses of older buildings, checkout DAB’s list of downtown Austin lofts. Looking for FHA approved condos? We’ve got the info here.

This weekend you can browse at your own pace at the Milago (btw, have you visited Rainey Street recently?), Spring, and the Austonian sales center.  While you’re here, checkout DAB’s gift suggestions found on 2nd Street.

Sunday
1) 54 Rainey St #1014, 2bd, 2ba, $469,000, 1-4pm [Housepad] map
2) 300 Bowie St, Spring sales center, model units, 1-5pm map website
3) 200 Congress Ave, Austonian sales center located at 300 W 6th, 12-5pm map website

Don’t see the properties you’re interested in? Ask a Realtor who lives and works in downtown Austin.