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DAB STATS – June Transaction Summary

Jude Galligan | July 1, 2010 |

In June we made local real estate history.

1) We observed the most expensive (per foot) recorded transaction ever in downtown Austin: the 43rd floor 2bd/2ba 2022ft penthouse at 360 Condos, once owned by the building’s developer, sold for $717psf.  Note, this sets the record for a recorded transaction in downtown, that is auditable via the MLS.  We’re familiar with the off-record purchase of the 11,000ft penthouse at the Four Season Residences for more than ~$1,000 per square foot.

2) The Austonian posted in June a 3bd/3ba 45th floor unit for sale @ $1120psf.  This is the most expensive (per foot) unit ever listed in the MLS area “DT”.  Mind you, the 45th floor is well below the penthouse.

3) The Austonian and Four Seasons now have residents, and each building has closed more than a dozen units, with more in queue.  These transactions are not reflected in the summary data below.

The transactions in aggregate show year-to-year growth for the month of June from 13 to 17 transactions, selling at an average of $296psf to the current $321psf, respectively.  Compared to last month, prices are up from May’s average of $284psf.  As always these numbers require qualification.  Prices did not surge 13% from last month as the raw data would indicate.

In May, nearly 25% of the transactions occurred in buildings outside of the downtown core (Cambridge Tower, Penthouse, Greenwood Tower).  These buildings can generally trade $100psf less than the average, so when there is an abnormal number represented in “DT” sales, it brings the averages down.  In June, there were only two of these transactions.

I’m increasingly using a modified version of the DT boundary that brings the boundary south from MLK to 15th Street, as this better represents the core, but I will always indicate this to you when doing so.

Registered members of DAB can download a complete statistical and transaction detail report here.

-Jude

Filed Under: Austin Real Estate Data & Statistics, DAB Stats, data, statistics

Downtown Austin Open Houses

Jude Galligan | June 26, 2010 |


downtown Austin open house listings for Sunday, June 27th

  1. 800 W 5th St, Austin City Lofts #505, 2bd/2ba $530,000 2-4pm [AvenueOne]
  2. 360 Nueces St, 360 Condos #3011, 2bd/2ba $599,900 1-3pm [Urbanspace]
  3. 360 Nueces St, 360 Condos #1311, 2bd/2ba $429,900 1-3pm [Urbanspace]

When you’re done with the open houses, you can enjoy an afternoon on Lady Bird Lake by renting a canoe or kayak from at the Texas Rowing Center. Or, dine al fresco at Annie’s Cafe on Congress Ave for breakfast, lunch, or dinner.  Make sure to download my transactional report from May (registered members only) and discuss with a Realtor who lives and works in downtown Austin.

-Jude

Filed Under: austin open houses, Downtown Austin lofts, condos, apartments

Downtown Austin Open Houses

Jude Galligan | June 19, 2010 |


downtown Austin open house listings for Sunday, June 20th

  1. 710 Colorado St, Brown Building #3i 1bd/2ba $367,000 12-2pm [Urbanspace]
  2. 603 Davis St, The Shore condos #1603 2bd/2.5ba $640,000 11-2pm [Urbanspace]
  3. 54 Rainey St, Milago Condos PH #2 2bd/2ba $890,900 1-3pm [Urbanspace]
  4. 54 Rainey St, Milago Condos PH #5 2bd/2.5ba $499,900 1-3pm [Urbanspace]
  5. 800 W 5th St, Austin City Lofts #505, 2bd/2ba $530,000 2-4pm [AvenueOne]

When you’re done with the open houses, you can enjoy an afternoon on Lady Bird Lake by renting a canoe or kayak from at the Texas Rowing Center. Or, dine al fresco at Annie’s Cafe on Congress Ave for breakfast, lunch, or dinner.  Make sure to download my transactional report from May (registered members only) and discuss with a Realtor who lives and works in downtown Austin.

-Jude

Filed Under: austin open houses

DAB STATS – May Transaction Summary

Jude Galligan | June 1, 2010 |

WHEW…

In May, we saw at least four articles suggesting that more downtown Austin buildings are forthcoming: Block 51, Austin Energy building on West Ave, City planning a new parking garage, State capitol considering more density.  We haven’t seen that many speculative media reports about downtown development since 2006.

We’ve been hammering the point that there is no more new inventory under $400 per foot.  It’s gone.  But, don’t get caught up in the hype about new construction, at least not yet.  Even if the data suggests that there is capacity for more new attainably priced product (2bds/2ba+ for under $400k), the capital markets aren’t racing to provide financing.

Conversely, there’s a robust resale market working like a well oiled machine.  The difference between average asking price and average sale price is shrinking.  Last month, across 22 transactions, this spread was ~4%.  Timid buyers and sellers should take confidence in this stability.  To drive home the point even further, we witnessed at least two bidding wars last month.  Many buyers are longing for the days of 2008 and 2009 when 25-30% discounts were being offered.

Area “DT” – MLS defined market area for downtown Austin – has such diverse product that average numbers cannot be used without qualification.   For instance, it is necessary to qualify the age, location, and level of amenities when comparing Cambridge Tower to 360 Condos. ($226psf vs. $385psf, respectively)

Average price for area DT was $283.91 per foot, based on data collected from 22 transactions recorded in May.  That is down from May of 2009 when pricing was $303 per foot across 13 transactions; however, the spread between list price and sale price in 2009 was closer to 10% – much more volatile.

The MLS data does not include private developer sales (Spring, Austonian, W Hotel, Four Seasons).  Multiple sources have shared with us that the W entered into approximately 10 deals in May, and will not accept offers with more than a 5% discount.   The Austonian recieved their certificate of occupancy and is planning it’s first closing next week.  No news from the Four Seasons.

Registered DAB subscribers may access the complete May 2010 transaction report.

-Jude

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Filed Under: Austin Real Estate Data & Statistics, DAB Stats Tagged With: austin real estate data

Wild About Music – The Real Estate Tale of an Iconic Downtown Business

Fred Schmidt | May 24, 2010 |

The Wild About Music booth inside Bluebonnet Market

When Jude recently asked me start writing some stories for DAB, he thought it might be beneficial for folks to get a sense of my “downtown history” from the perspective of a local retail business owners’ leasing odyssey over 16 years.  OK, here goes!  I’ll stick with the angle of space and location because you can find out more about the business itself, Wild About Music Art & Gift Gallery (WAM), by stopping in at 115 E. 6th, across from the Driskill Hotel, or checking out our fine website here.

My partner, Shelley Meyer, and I started out in 1995 by buying the name and assets of a tiny sole-proprietor hobby business located inside the old Bluebonnet Market on the NW corner of Neches and East 3rd.   A late-90s expansion of the Convention Center resulted in demolition of the Market which stood right where Exhibit Hall 4 is today.  We took that little 200-sf booth and set out to expand it into our vision of a 5,000-sf all-music-themed art and gift gallery, plus office and warehouse space.

The Wild About Music booth inside Bluebonnet Market
The original Wild About Music: a 10×20 booth inside Bluebonnet Market, 1991-95

We knew we wanted the business to have a heavy Austin and Texas flavor — to celebrate the confluence of art and music in this region and its influence on local culture.  As a dedicated “urban retailer” we wouldn’t have anything to do with malls or strip centers.  We required authentic vintage buildings/spaces with a more natural local vibe.  Downtown has always been the only choice for us, no matter what the challenges have proved to be.

Ironically, even though WAM’s heart and soul is grounded in music, we wanted nothing to do with East 6th Street at the time.  We had watched it decline in the late 80s and 90s to a cheesy array of shot bars raided by late night college kids and mostly vagrants wandering the blocks by day.

710 W. 6th in 1996
710 W. 6th in 1996

So our first stop was 710 W. 6th, the building where J.Black’s and The Ranch reside today. We figured we’d still catch some of the global  “Sixth Street brand” cachet but stay away from its problems by being west of Congress.  With a 5-year lease in hand on the long vacant former furniture store, we rolled out a fun piano keyboard entry foyer handmade with one-inch tiles, dressed out the big display windows mighty fine, filled out five giant rooms full of the coolest art and sculptures you’d ever seen, hung some outdoor speakers to lure in passersby, and waited for the customers to show up!  We waited alright.

710 W. 6th Today
710 W. 6th today

For a year we watched the cars stack up out front with the backup at the Lamar traffic light.  We soon realized we were about a decade ahead of “the scene” forming in that neighborhood.  There was only Katz’s, Opal Divine’s Freehouse and us at the time.  Oh yes, and Leslie making visits to the MHMR clinic across the street where Molotov now burns red hot.  There was supposed to be a big retail center going in where Whole Foods stands today that would help bring more shoppers to the area.  Never happened.

We knew we were doomed unless we got the heck out of there fast.  Fortunately my longtime commercial real estate agent, Don Cox, quickly found us a great sublessee, a dot.com company to use our space as offices during a growth spurt for the remaining 3.5 years of our term.  In fact, Don was so fast, we had not yet even found a new home for ourselves!  So we packed up our goods and fixtures real snug and moved completely offline into some teeny vacant space around the corner behind Katz’s.

721 Congress windows alive with light and color 24/7 during WAM tenure, 1997-2004

Finally, after three months, our search yielded an amazing new spot: 721 Congress Avenue, the Main Street of Texas, right next door to the historic Paramount and State Theaters!  It was a fabulous open building with huge display windows that wrapped around it’s great corner location at 8th.  It even came with a 60+ year retail history as the home of locally-owned Reynolds-Penland men’s store, a predecessor to today’s Keeper’s (6th & Congress).  The Stephen F. Austin Intercontinental Hotel was not there yet, but we knew that our friend, Tom Stacy, would not rest until he got that derelict building at the other end of the block completely remodeled and open again.

Wild About Music had an excellent 8-year run on Congress, growing together with the resurgence of downtown as a whole during Kirk Watson’s energetic mayoral reign.  We found profitability and success there despite nearly being driven out of business by our landlord — who was the neighboring State Theater (pre-merger with the Paramount) — when they intentionally busted through the common wall into our leased space with a crazy expansion idea for box seats during their renovation.  But I digress; that’s a whole other story.

The 8th St. display windows of 721 Congress when WAM was there

We loved being in that 700 block of Congress — the only fully intact (both sides of the street) historic block left on Congress between the Capitol and the river, I may add.  We had excellent synergy with concerts, plays and events at the Paramount, and enjoyed good camaraderie with fellow retailers a few blocks in both directions.  We would probably still be there today had fate not struck again and our lease expire about the same time.

The theaters (merged by then, along with the ownership of our building) had fallen on some hard times financially and our building was put up for sale.  With hopes of maybe owning our own real estate and getting out of leased-space vulnerability, we planned to buy the building ourselves.  But the location ended up getting cleverly bundled together at auction with undeveloped overhead “aerial rights”.  That put the bid pricing at more than double fair market value for just the land and existing building, thus also way out of our price range.

721 Congress today
721 Congress today: empty for five long years

It forced the sale into the hands of a developer who had visions of million dollar condos stacked eight floors high and a big fancy steakhouse right where we sat.  He couldn’t wait for us to have to vacate, coming in the very next day and gutting the space.  And that’s how it remains to this day: sadly empty, not even a fresh coat of paint on the outside in 14 years, dirty windows, and absent a few nice temporary displays to help brighten the corner and the rest of that wonderful block.  It’s a fitting monument to when development gets ahead of reality…runs over yet another iconic local business…and then the new building owner doesn’t even have the pride and decency to maintain his building in a manner worthy of being on The Main Street of Texas.

But hey, that saga ended happily after all —  at least for us.  With contents once more loaded onto moving trucks and, once again, no new downtown home yet secured, we landed in our current funky, multi-level space in the Littlefield “Mall”/Garage/Apartments on a prayer and a lease done on a scrap of paper in about 20 minutes.  No joke.

I had inquired about this same long-vacant space several times over many months prior to our need to move.  Each time I was told: “you don’t fit what we’re looking for.”  But with nothing to lose, I tried one last time.  The leasing agent who I had spoken with previously was out of town, so I ended up chatting with his partner.  After explaining our plight, he agreed to meet us over at the space.  As prior AT&T retail space, it was perfect!  Then he said:  “Why, sure, we’d love to have y’all in this spot.  But the building is for sale so we can only give you a month-to-month lease.”

SRV In Front of OK Records at 115 E. 6thAlthough quite nervous about the term (or lack thereof), the next day we were in there painting and arranging.  A few weeks later Wild About Music re-opened downtown for the fourth time.  An interesting sidenote:  This also happens to be the very same spot (but in a previous building that stood there) of the original location of Austin’s famed Antone’s Home of The Blues, and the adjoining OK Records.  Here a young Stevie Ray Vaughan posed with his guitar out front for a classic Austin Chronicle photo that also later became the album cover of Blues At Sunrise.

Somehow we have managed to last for almost 6 years now on those month-to-month terms.  (Please, someone, knock on wood.)  This despite four changes of building ownership over the first four years.  During two of those painful interim holdings we were told we were soon going to be history again.  Once to be replaced by a high-end spa and salon to service an upscale South Beach Miami boutique hotel; clearly “WAM did not fit that formula,” we were told.  Then, later, another threat by a Walgreen’s coming to invade historic Sixth Street via our space — yes, I know, pathetic, aye? — because “a national-credit tenant could pay far more than a little local business,” said yet another very important leasing agent.

Fortunately we now find ourselves in the care and attentive property ownership of T. Stacy & Associates and their great staff.  We know full well that handwriting is on the wall and another move still looms large in our future.  Our block has been designated for some very intensive redevelopment one day.  Some of it would have already begun had the recession not intervened.  But at least with Tom Stacy on the other end, we also know that we will have loads of advance warning and likely plenty of helping hands to make sure we do alright in any transition.  Perhaps we might even end up right back in the same spot post-redevelopment (if we could survive an interim solution half intact).

Wild About Music today at 115 E. 6th
Wild About Music today at 115 E. 6th

Alternatively, our hope is to find Wild About Music a permanent home within one of the amazing old buildings of East 6th’s majestic Historic & Entertainment District — to experience a return to the days when buildings like those on East 6th were, in fact, owner-operated buildings and businesses.  As a visitor to the street you should be able to evidence an O&O shop by the pride exhibited in the fastidious exterior presentations, the warmth and genuineness of the interior business offerings, and the down home friendliness of the proprietors and staff.

That’s why I serve on the 6ixth Street Austin board.  That’s why I and my fellow board members are so passionate about the renewed vision for this street.  That’s why we and a handful of fellow dedicated E.6th property and business owners are working tirelessly to bring about much needed change to the street after two decades of dirt, neglect and despair.

Sure, it’s still fairly dowdy in spots right now.  And we know we need additional quality daytime offerings like more shops and galleries, a few more unique eateries, and more live music venues back on the street.  But we do have a vision: to become the premier destination for the best of Authentic Austin owned and developed businesses to be found anywhere.  And, importantly, a plan (to be discussed separately) to get there.

Thanks for reading.  To be continued…

Filed Under: 6th Street Historic & Entertainment District, austin history, austin small business, downtown austin, entertainment district, retail

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