Downtown Austin Blog — Page 14 — downtown Austin's real estate and neighborhood blog

New Hyatt House Hotel Proposed in Downtown Austin

AG | October 14, 2014 |

Hyatt House line of extended stay hotels (not to be confused with the relatively new Hyatt Place across the street from The Whitley) has announced plans to build at 9th and Neches.

Being catty-corner from the Mohawk, steps aways from the music district on Red River, it makes sense that they would want to put something like a hotel in this particular lot, rather than something like condos. However, it just seems crazy to see even MORE hotels coming up when you have so many other hotel projects happening. I mean, the same company is building 2 hotels (300 rooms) literally right across 9th street at 805 Neches.

Admittedly, it’s going to be an improvement of what’s currently there:

901 Neches — screenshot from Google Maps, Feb 2014

Hyatt House has an existing Austin location in the Arboretum. Here’s what we know about what’s proposed for the downtown Hyatt House:

901 Neches Street
.41 Acres of land
~17k sf of building
189 Rooms
139 parking spaces
10 stories

I’m a bit surprised by the amount of parking they are contemplating: 139 spaces, for 189 rooms. Since it’s an extended stay style of hotel, I suppose they see a demand for parking, and are investing accordingly. It’s just a bit strange because White Lodging, the owner of Hyatt, recently proposed Aloft on Congress Avenue – a larger hotel just four blocks away, without any parking!

The site plan for Hyatt House has been filed with the city, and a decision regarding the application will be made before 10/20/2014.

Looks like the current owner, Journeyman Austin Holdings, bought the land in April of this year.

Downtown Austin Voting Guide

AG | October 13, 2014 |

We know you’ve heard this a bajillion-million times, but this year’s election on November 4, 2014, is VERY important. Particularly for Downtown Austin, as the new 10-1 district system has the potential to really adversely affect policies that support a vibrant and growing downtown.

First things first – when, where, and how to vote:

When

The actual election is November 4, 2014, but EARLY VOTING starts Monday, October 20, 2014, (prompting some discussion between Jude and I as to what the real difference is between early voting and just regular voting). Early voting runs through Halloween this year.

Where

Early Voting Locations: Oddly, there are no stations officially defined as “Early Voting” stations in downtown proper (weird, huh?) – but there are some MOBILE Voting locations downtown for Early Voting (sheesh – confusing, I know) – here are a few:

Mon 10/20/14 THROUGH Fri 10/31/14, 8am-7pm: Mobile Voting Station at ACC Rio Grande (1212 Rio Grande) – no voting station on Sun 10/26, and hours are 9am-6pm on Sat 10/25
Tues 10/21/14, 1pm-3pm: Mobile Voting station at Lakeside Senior Center (85 Trinity)
Mon 10/27/14 THROUGH Fri 10/31/14, 7am-7pm: Mobile Voting station at Austin City Hall (301 W 2nd)
Tues 10/28/14, 8am-5pm: Mobile Voting station at Travis County Commissioner’s Court (700 Lavaca)
Wed, 10/29/14 & Thurs 10/30/14, 8am-5pm: Mobile Voting station at HM Sweatt Travis County Courthouse (1000 Guadalupe)
Fri, 10/31/14, 8am-5pm: Mobile Voting station at the Sam Houston Building (201 E 14th St)

On November 4th:

Austin City Hall (301 W 2nd) – 7am-7pm
ACC Rio Grande (1212 Rio Grande) – 7am-7pm

Here’s a LIST of all the mobile voting locations, sorted by date. For a comprehensive map of ALL Early Voting, Mobile Voting, and Election Day Voting locations – click here.

How

Now, as to the ballot itself – we won’t go into every race, in the interest of everyone’s sanity, but, we will give an overview to a couple of the downtown-related / pertinent issues:

There’s the General Gubernatorial ballot which has things like US Representatives, State Representatives, Judges, and County offices….

Then, there’s the CITY Ballot which will have some very important races for Downtown on it:

For District 9 (the district which includes downtown Austin), we personally support Chris Riley. The Downtown Austin Neighborhood Association also supports this candidate.
For Proposition 1 (the “rail bond”), while there is quite a bit of debate about this bond, we think it’s important to note that the Downtown Austin Neighborhood Association has given $4,000 in funds to the Let’s Go Austin political action committee, who has campaigned to support the bond. The Downtown Austin Alliance and the Austin American Statesman also support Prop 1.

Also, here’s a handy dandy tool you can use to remind your friends to Go Vote!

-A

Downtown Austin Streets Are Safer With Uber & Lyft

Jude Galligan | September 22, 2014 |

Update: 10/16/2014: The TNC Ordinance passed Council with a 6-1 Vote. Council member Chris Riley’s press release HERE.

We celebrated A’s birthday this past weekend with friends and family hanging out with us at the Shore condos, and later crawling Rainey Street. Everyone had a great time… and plenty to drink.

As we wrapped up the evening I observed 6-7 people use Uber to get themselves home safely.

I was struck by how effortless ride sharing is, and that it effectively keeps a percentage of drunk drivers off the streets of Austin. Remarkable.

I think back to just last year, when getting a cab was a non-trivial event. I’ve always been frustrated with taxis in Austin. They are notoriously difficult to locate, arrive late, or didn’t arrive at all. The result is that people would make the poor decision to just drive themselves after having a night on the town.

In cities where ride sharing is embraced, I fully expect to see data showing a drop in the number of DWIs.

Austin leadership should pay attention, and we’ll be watching as this topic goes before Austin City Council on the 25th.

-Jude

Eyebrow Threading in Downtown Austin

AG | September 18, 2014 |

Warning: This post is VERY girly! If you aren’t into finding convenient beauty solutions in downtown Austin – stop reading now!

But if you are, let’s get REAL girly together, starting now:

pink-girlie — Squeee!!! Fluffy pink unicorns and rainbows and bubbles!

I am a pale, pale lady. And along with my fair skin comes quite a bit of sensitivity. So, I’m not real big on getting my eyebrows waxed, which seems to be the common way most of my other lady friends keep their eyebrows looking spectacular.

So, for a long time, I just managed my eyebrows myself, which – you know – is not fun. And then, in the early 2000’s, I was living in Atlanta and I found a GLORIOUS alternative to waxing or tweezing [Read more…] about Eyebrow Threading in Downtown Austin

Hard Hat Tour Photos of Seven Apartments (née 7 Rio), Scheduled To Open This Winter

Jude Galligan | September 11, 2014 |

Admittedly, I was one of the disappointed spectators when the original concept, proposed as “7Rio”, was reduced to 23 stories.

Still, for the past 18 months, or so, many of us have been eagerly watching the construction site at the corner of 7th @ Rio Grande. Earlier this year I speculated that Seven could even “go condo,” but it appears that multi-family development continues to have legs.

Now that downtown Austin’s Seven Apartments is approaching completion, and will be delivering residences this winter, we were invited to take a hard-hat tour of the tower. This would be a great opportunity to get some insight into a new community that’s about to open in our neighborhood. I could also start to compare how Seven will compete with existing downtown Austin apartments for rent.

I love taking hard-hat tours. There’s no better opportunity to see the guts of a building. For me, riding up the bone-jarring ear-splitting construction elevator adds to the excitement. Peeking through the elevator’s diamond perforated sheet metal, accepting your fate as it creeps higher, you get a unique sense for how each additional floor impacts your perspective of what’s around you.

Here’s what we know about Seven:
Average Residence Size = 924 sf
Average Price per SqFt = $3.05 per month
Number of floors = 23
Number of residences = 220 (172 1bds, 48 2bds)

More pictures from the tour after the jump!