Downtown Austin Blog

downtown Austin's real estate and neighborhood blog

What Type Of Retail Will Replace The AMOA?

| |

With downtown Austin’s AMOA no longer exhibiting at 823 Congress Ave, what will fill the void?  Most stakeholders I know are hoping for retail.

The corner space includes 12,000 square feet, lots of glass (fenestration for the urbanistas), and has a nice outside plaza.

It’s clear what is missing from the downtown retail mix: a large destination retail store that appeals to a broad base of customers; rather than a boutique store with a limited audience.

Will us downtown Austin condo dwellers get our wish for a Breed & Company or Target (don’t hate!).  Time will tell.  Until then it’s fun to speculate about how to achieve highest and best use of this great space.

What do you want to see?  Use the comments and see more pics after the jump.   [Read more…] about What Type Of Retail Will Replace The AMOA?

Downtown Austin’s Asian Cuisine Corridor (Mai Thai Austin MENU & Restaurant Review)

| |

Did you know, that in the two blocks between Cesar Chavez and 3rd Street on San Jacinto, there are four restaurants that fall under the category of Asian cuisine – Chinese (P.F. Chang’s), Japanese (Piranha Killer Sushi), and Mongolian (Mongolian Grille Downtown), and now, with the area’s newest addition, Thai (Mai Thai)?  I’m gonna start calling this the Asian Cuisine Corridor – I’m hoping the name will catch on.

I noticed this informal agglomeration walking back to my house after my first meal at Mai Thai.

[Read more…] about Downtown Austin’s Asian Cuisine Corridor (Mai Thai Austin MENU & Restaurant Review)

Brooks Brothers Brings Back The Brass

| |

Walking up to the entrance of the new Brooks Brothers store in downtown Austin‘s Scarbrough building, I smiled.

I thought to myself, this is how downtown retail should look and feel.  The entrance has a gilded age grandeur that we’re no longer accustomed to in a downtown retailer.  Big window displays run the length of the building.  You’re greeted by brass doors with elegant hardware.  It’s the details that matter. [Read more…] about Brooks Brothers Brings Back The Brass

DANA – “Spotlight on Safety” Event, November 15th, 6:30pm

| |

We’ve mentioned KrimeLabb on our blog before – it’s this great database querying, mapping website where you can see the crime that’s happening in different parts of Austin.

For instance, I just did a pull for criminal activity that’s happened in 78701 (Downtown Austin’s major zip code) for the month of October, and I learned that we’ve had 1004 reported incidents, and 491 arrests so far this month.   From a very quick glance, it looks like a good number of incidents are related to DWI / public drunkedness, which, you know – isn’t good, but isn’t necessarily as alarming to me as, I don’t know – [Read more…] about DANA – “Spotlight on Safety” Event, November 15th, 6:30pm

DAB EXCLUSIVE: Sales Data From The Austonian, W Hotel Residences, Four Seasons, Spring Condos

| |

[Personal update why we’ve not published data for a while. A couple of months ago, I began work on obtaining sales data from the newly constructed buildings. Not a quick and easy task.  However, after several conversations and a leap of faith by everyone involved in assembling the data (thanks!), we’ve got some REALLY interesting data to share. –Jude]

Back in 2010, when downtown Austin’s luxury condos started closing, the actual sales prices were closely guarded (not entered into the MLS).  I’ve been publishing monthly sales of Downtown Austin condos for years, and began tracking sales of new construction condos by laboriously tracking new deed records. That data was [at least] an accurate count of how many new constructions units had closed, and what floor plans were selling best.  That was real data my clients could rely upon, but actual closing prices were simply not available.

As a result, I have only been able to consistently highlight resale pricing.  With all of my talk about the average sale price for downtown is solidly planted at $300 per foot, I would always qualify it as incomplete without closing price data for new condos.

My goal has always been to combine the resale numbers and the new construction numbers into a single statistic.  The closely guarded luxury condo sales data has kept me from doing that.

Until now…  [Read more…] about DAB EXCLUSIVE: Sales Data From The Austonian, W Hotel Residences, Four Seasons, Spring Condos