Search Results for: austonian

Downtown Austin Open Houses

Jude Galligan | October 11, 2009 |

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

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.

Today is the Downtown Living Tour, which means on this weekend’s calendar you’ll find the Austin City Lofts, 360 Condos, and the opportunity to tour the inside of several other buildings. I will be working registration for the DLT at Gables Park Plaza. Hope to see you there!

Sunday
1) 800 W. 5th Street #908, 2bd, 2ba, $995,000, 1-4pm [Tate Property]
2) 360 Nueces St #1616, 2bd, 2ba, $450,000, 2-4pm [Keller Williams]
3) 360 Nueces St #3801, 1bd, 1ba, $334,500, 1-3pm [Urbanspace]
http://actris.mlxchange.com/Pub/EmailView.asp?r=1076900420&s=AUS&t=AUS
4) Downtown Living Tour buildings, 12-5pm

Round Up

Jude Galligan | September 18, 2009 |

It's Better To Build Vertical Than Horizontal

As we’re traveling this week, below is what’s happening in downtown Austin.

1) ROMA’s density bonus proposal (a must read pdf) is getting lots of attention, especially the conversation surrounding the Warehouse District. Thanks to Miggy, M1EK, and Roger for the informed commentary.

Update: I encourage DAB readers take few minutes to familiarize themselves with ROMA’s proposal. Page 21 highlights gradually sloping height limits from neighborhood to core. The Warehouse District recommendations are a small component of a larger thought process. Equal attention could be paid to the 3:1 FAR recommendation for the Market District along Lamar. Philosophically, the entire proposal is still a “tax” on density in downtown Austin, which seems backwards to me.

2) The Austonian tops out. Did you know that you can now see the Austonian from four counties?

3) J Blacks’ menu gets some respect from Maggie’s Austin.

4) ThunderCloud will soon serve subs below 360.

A Residence On 6th Street? You Bet.

Jude Galligan | August 21, 2009 |

This couple, David and Jean Graeber, has been doing it for 35 years! During that time bars have become the defacto use along E 6th Street, the facades have taken a beating, and the recent string of bad press may have you thinking this is a ludicrous idea. It’s not – it’s an opportunity! You could own a property, including the dirt below it, on Austin’s most notable street. Right now there are at least three properties on E 6th for sale. Asking prices begin at $995,000. Even if you spent an additional $200 per foot to renovate, you could spend the same amount of money at the Austonian. Of course, this lifestyle decision isn’t for everyone, but it is a lifestyle that will appeal to lots of people.

Below are three properties for sale on E 6th, none of which need to be occupied by a bar 🙂

502 E 6th
410 E 6th
719 E 6th

-Jude

Downtown Austin Retail Space

Jude Galligan | July 22, 2009 |

One of the better trends in urban design is to include retail space below residential buildings. I see downtown Austin’s retail offerings as overly homogeneous: salon, boutique, restaurant, or bar. Feedback from DANA members, and urban-Austinites in general, is the desire to see more practical stores to serve the many thousands of people that live and work here.

After the jump are a few examples of the ground floor retail space currently available below some of downtown Austin’s luxury buildings. You’ll see that space below these buildings is not cheap and ranges from $30-36 per foot plus NNN. This could yield a monthly lease payment of $3,500-4,000 per month per 1,000 feet of retail space.

The Downtown Austin Alliance has a great list of retail vacancies you should check out, too.

Chronicle Takes Notes on the Downtown Austin Condo Market

Jude Galligan | March 13, 2009 |

OK. I just got blindsided by this story.

The Austin Chronicle has just published one of the most balanced and insightful articles about Downtown Austin condos I’ve ever read. Below are a handful of quotes taken from our beloved local-leftist-zealously-liberal rag(?)

“…Austin has a reputation nationally as being a pain-in-the-ass city in which to get a project done. (Thank demanding city regulations and laborious processes, environmental protections, and our activist neighborhood associations and citizens.) Our reputation actually helped stabilize the Austin market, discouraging overbuilding and a Miami-like volume of investor-driven projects.”

Benefits to the city:

“As Mayor Wynn points out, on average, 80 percent of all taxes generated Downtown go to provide services outside of Downtown, in effect subsidizing other areas of town”

Benefits of high density:

“High-rise development also contains city costs, in comparison to the suburban model. “If 178 families live on 1-acre lots, the city is charged with maintaining four to five miles of streets, water lines, wastewater lines, drainage pipes,” and so forth, said Mitchell, as well as city services to 200-plus acres. “The Austonian abuts 334 linear feet of streets, water and wastewater pipes, and drainage pipes and consumes less than an acre of land. That makes it far more sustainable, and less expensive to the city, than a sprawling subdivision of similarly priced homes.“