Downtown Austin Blog — Page 10 — downtown Austin's real estate and neighborhood blog

Get your Fixe for Southern Comfort Food in Downtown Austin

AG | March 11, 2015 |

Southern style restaurants are not a new concept for downtown Austin. With great restaurants like Olamie, Bess Bistro, and Moonshine, I would say the bar is set fairly high in this particular arena.

Fixe, the newcomer on the scene, recently opened in the very slick, very new IBC Bank Building, right across 5th street from the Federal Courthouse complex, and is a hop, skip, and a jump away from downtown Austin condo towers like Plaza Lofts and the 360 Condos.

Given the lack of historical character on the building’s exterior, I was setting my expectations low, prepping myself for an upscale, but watered-down experience – a business-lunch destination, with a general lack of gumption.

Austin’s Top Ten Coffee Shops 2015

Lesley Taylor | March 5, 2015 |

Every couple of years Downtown Austin Blog likes to take inventory of Austin’s best coffee shops. With SXSW approaching, thousands of visitors will be looking for a respite, so it is a great time to update our picks. Coffee shops in Austin are everywhere. They’re a dime a dozen. They’re right up there with the food trailer trend. There are even coffee shop-food trailers. You can find coffee shops inside book stores and even inside bike shops.

So how does one navigate through the multitude of places to grab a cup of joe in Austin these days?

Downtown Austin News Bites

AG | February 26, 2015 |

Signs of Progress for Waller Park Place

An application to re-subdivide the lots at 92-98 Red River, 504-505 Willow St., and 503 and 511 E Cesar Chavez was filed recently. We’re eager to see Waller Park Place break ground. This is notable as the largest private development ever proposed in downtown Austin, and when complete will be bring more daytime activity for the burgeoning Rainey Street District.

Bed & Breakfast Proposed for 1304 Rio Grande

A bed & breakfast concept could potentially breathe a little new life into a district of downtown mostly filled with older homes hosting small offices. Very little info exists on the project right now, but we’ll update you as we get additional details.

Google Streetview

A Walk in the Clouds in Downtown Austin

No, this isn’t the 2015 Downtown Austin Blog Prom Theme. It’s another way of saying that downtown Austin is getting another really cool sky bridge concept, a la Fairmont to the Austin Convention Center.

Rendering of skybridge that will connect Fairmont to Austin Convention Center

This time, the “aerial right-of-way encroachment” (sky bridge is catchier, admittedly), is being proposed between West 5th and West 6th Street on Bowie street, and will connect ~~slick new Bowie Apartments~~ Shoal Creek Walk (Class A office and ground floor retail, by Schlosser Development) to Whole Foods Headquarters, a development that has just started site work.

Per developer, this was REQUIRED by city code, since at least one of the buildings it will be connecting are in the flood plain. An additional escape route was required to avoid a fire hazard. It’s our understanding that this concept is a go – as the time for objections has passed, and it’s a safety requirement. We think it’s kind of neat.

Millenium Rainey Restaurant Space Available for $36/sf NNN

Speaking of Rainey Street Happenings, the marketing for the commercial space at Millenium Rainey Apartments is in full force. CBRE is marketing the property – take a look at the marketing packet they created:

(Click on the images for a larger view)

First Crane for Aspen Heights Apartments at 8th and Nueces

It’s alive! Aspen Heights Apartments moving forward with construction, as evidenced by the massive crane recently erected on the site.

Rainey Street District Welcomes Salvation Pizza… and More

AG | February 20, 2015 |

The Rainey Street District continues to evolve, most recently with the opening of Salvation Pizza at the base the Skyhouse Apartments, and across from Milago condos. And another pizza is apparently underway just down the block at 78 Rainey.

When Skyhouse apartments opened last year, their first retail tenant was the enormously popular Royal Blue Grocery. For months a TABC permit application donned the window and residents wondered when Salvation Pizza would finally open.

Jude and I stopped in the other day and enjoyed a white pizza and it was very, very [Read more…] about Rainey Street District Welcomes Salvation Pizza… and More

“Adult-Oriented” Use proposed for 422 Congress

Jude Galligan | February 10, 2015 |

Congress Avenue – the Main Street of Texas – is about to “make it rain!”

An “adult oriented use” has been proposed for the site at 422 Congress Ave. Lanai and other various cocktail lounges inhabit / have inhabited the space previously.

The city permitting office states: “The applicant is proposing a conditional use application for an adult oriented business” and the business is referred to as a “nightclub” in parts of the application for permit.

The legal term “adult-oriented business” means an adult arcade, adult bookstore, adult cabaret, adult lounge, adult novelty shop, adult service business, or adult theater. Link to Austin’s land development code. I think most observers would agree that “adult oriented business” is clearly a euphemism for strip-club.

This would be a first for downtown Austin, at least this century.

More to come.