Search Results for: sabine

Downtown Austin Condos For Sale

austin congress ave bridge no bats — Downtown Austin’s Congress Ave bridge by David Gottlieb

Downtown Austin has a variety of condos for sale and apartments to rent. Some new, some old. Some modern, some more traditional. Though for aesthetic reasons we differentiate Austin’s lofts for sale, the Austin building boom over the past decade has made the term “Austin condos” synonymous with downtown.

Start here and compare Austin condos for sale at our sister site TOWERS.

Downtown Austin is where I live, work, and play. I can share the inside scoop on every building in our neighborhood.

Jude Galligan, REALTOR, 512-236-8898, or email me.

Austin condos are available in many sizes, and floor plan configurations, and commensurate broad range in pricing. Average and median pricing in the summer of 2016 is hovering over $500 per square foot. At the very upper end, we’ve observed new construction and luxury condo tower pricing exceeding $1,200 per square foot. Factors such as building age, proximity to the lake, protected views of the lake, and building amenities have a direct impact on pricing.

downtown austin condo search — Click above to browse downtown condos. Call Jude Galligan, REALTOR, 512-236-8898, or email me.

If you want new construction in the downtown core, then the only buildings currently available with a handful of residences never lived in is the Austonian and recently completed Seaholm Condos. Under construction is Fifth & West Residences, 70 Rainey, and the Independent.

Generally, the higher the floor the better the view, thus prices will increase as you go up. Notably, there is a premium to live close to Whole Foods. This could change when downtown Austin gets a supermarket east of Congress Ave, and one is rumored to be going into the Rainey Street District.

Those with pets and enjoy the outdoors should consider the Milago Condos, the Shore Condos, and other buildings generally close to the trail. If you enjoy listening to live music and like to be near the historical center of Austin consider Avenue Lofts, Brazos Lofts, or The Sabine. Many people want the best views in town and should consider Spring Condos, 360 Condos, or the south facing residences at the W Hotel Condos.

Below are a few examples of downtown Austin condos for sale.

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Austin Lofts For Sale

Photo From Brazos Lofts on E 5th St. — Typical duct work and ceiling at Brazos Lofts, on E 5th St.

If you’re looking for an Austin loft for sale, you need not look further than downtown. Austin has seven residential buildings with open spaces that best reflect genuine “loft style” living. That is, these buildings are either adaptive reuse buildings and/or have open floor plans, often with exposed brick work, duct work, and concrete floors. Austin’s downtown lofts are all unique in location, character, and price.

If you are seeking that authentic, raw, creative style loft consider Avenue Lofts, Brazos Lofts, or the historic Brown Building. If you are seeking something newer, or a more refined space with soaring ceilings and lots of natural light, consider the Austin City Lofts and Plaza Lofts. The Sabine on 5th condos provide soaring ceilings (up to 13 feet) and concrete floors, while hiding the duct work.

Before clicking on the building links below to see what is for sale in each building, remember you can use our comprehensive Austin condo search to add more variables to your condo or loft search.

Below are some examples of downtown Austin lofts that are listed for sale.

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Downtown Austin Recycling Frustrations

Jude Galligan | March 26, 2010 |

I’m the first to proudly hang my green living badge on my downtown Austin condo door. But, something that has always nagged at me is that there is no comprehensive recycling plan in downtown Austin.

Compared to most Austin neighborhoods, where there is single stream recycling, downtown Austin has a long way to go. Single stream recycling is a consumer’s preferred method of recycling. One bin for everything. Single stream recycling requires little more effort than throwing stuff away. The aggregated refuse is hauled to San Antonio for processing. This might change.

These bins do not work as well in dense environments. Many single family homes will keep the recycling bin in the garage. This is what my parents do, and they easily leave the smelly bin at the sidewalk [outside] to be picked up. This model doesn’t work well in dense buildings, especially in high rises.

Most downtown buildings have a trash chute (not a recycling chute) on each floor, or provide nightly door-side trash pick up. THIS is the motivational inflection point – living in a high rise, it’s simply easier to throw everything down the chute. The obvious solution is to enable recycling at the users most convenient point – the point where many users (specifically, this author’s) motivation breaks down – the chute.

At the Sabine we have a trash chute, and no clear recycling program. There is a garbage bin in the Hilton Garden Inn’s loading dock that can be accessed by winding through the basement, or outside via a 500lb door. There we can dispose of cardboard, only. The next best alternative: we would make the weekly effort of gathering our recycle-ables, and driving them over to Ecology Action on 9th Street @ I-35 Frontage Road.

At the Shore we have dedicated bins for various materials. It’s a cumbersome process, but an available option, which is nice.

What buildings do it right? That is, who is using dedicated single stream recycling chutes on each floor? Gables Pressler and the Austonian. Kudos.

OK, what happens to the thousands of beer cans and bottles consumed at downtown bars?

Jennifer Herber with City of Austin Solid Waste Services (SWS) helped me by explaining the ordinances in existence that would affect downtown Austin. SWS provides recycling pickup for anything up to four-plexes, anything more than four-plexes are serviced by private sector companies like EFI and Waste Management, for example. Dumpster service is most popular type of service available downtown.

The Commercial and Multi-family Recycling Ordinance became effective in April 1999. This law requires any business with 100 employees to have recycling for at least four materials, and multifamily complexes over 100 dwellings to provide recycling service for at least two materials. For example this could be one bin for cardboard, one for plastic bottles, one for newspaper, and another for glass. Problem is, SWS has only two people code enforcers they rely on to confirm compliance.

Lacy Laborde with the Downtown Austin Alliance informed us that last year, City Council directed the City’s Solid Waste Advisory Commission (SWAC) and Solid Waste Services Department to make recommendations to amend the Commercial and Multi-Family Recycling Ordinance. SWAC continues to hold meetings with stakeholders, includes subcommittees for restaurants and retailers, to understand how to best amend the ordinance.

All buildings within the Downtown Refuse Contract District (6th Street, Warehouse District and Congress Ave) can currently recycle paper and cardboard products. There is a voluntary program that bars can opt-in to for glass recycling. This includes several dumpsters placed throughout the alleys of East Sixth Street. Only 10 bars participate in this program.

I want to emphasize this point: The vast majority of beer bottles and cans in downtown Austin bars are NOT recycled. They’re just thrown away. Take a moment an envision how many beers are consumed during a given week. Now, imagine those beer cans and bottles piling up at the dump. Next, imagine that they’ve been doing this for decades.

Frustrating, isn’t it?

SWAC should receive all subcommittee recommendations by April. Hopefully, council will review them soon after and push for improvements.

-Jude

p.s. Thanks to Lacy Laborde with the DAA, and Jennifer Herber with SWS for helping me navigate the various recycling rules and programs available.

Chilled Water

Jude Galligan | March 25, 2010 |

dana-chill-water-crew — Something like an '80s album cover - DANA Chill Water Crew. From left to right: Jude Galligan, Mitch McGovern, Dale Glover, Greg Anderson, Darron Ross

At your single family home, you likely have a big 3 x 3 ft. HVAC compressor resting along the side of your property. Now, imagine you’re building 440 residences in the 360 condos each requiring its own compressor. Where do you put them? You don’t put them anywhere, usually. Most large buildings use chillers and cooling towers that take up valuable downtown Austin real estate and incur significant capital cost and maintenance expenditures. So, what’s a builder to do?

downtown-district-chill-water-map — downtown chill water district connections

You tap into the City of Austin chilled water system designed to cool high rises efficiently. An underground network of pipes that provide chilled water to meet the cooling needs of multiple buildings. There are two chill water plants serving the downtown Austin district. The first is located in the state parking garage at 3rd and Nueces.

Basement of downtown chill water plant #2

No doubt, you’ll recognize the second plant and its blue tile facade on the northeast corner of the City’s Harry Whittington’s(?) convention center parking garage at 5th @ Sabine. Inside those walls is a 1,000,000 gallon tank filled with water and ice. Glycol infused water runs through a winding system of tubes chilling the water that passes over it. Below are photos from a tour provided to DANA last week. We couldn’t get a photo of the ice room as there is no light, and what you can see looks like murky water. My camera’s battery ran out before we got to the roof, hopefully someone else from the tour has a photo. Thanks to Greg Anderson for organizing, and Austin Energy’s Darron Ross for guiding the tour.

Basement of downtown chill water plant #2

downtown chill water district connections

Something like an ’80s album cover – DANA Chill Water Crew

Latest From Downtown Austin Facts

Jude Galligan | March 24, 2010 |

What’s it like to be a single mom, or a married couple in downtown Austin? Take a listen…

The audio links above represent the latest radio spots from DowntownAustinFacts.com (link). I still feel compelled to qualify their proclamation that there are only 400 condos remaining. From one perspective, that number is insufficient to describe the number of units available for purchase. From another perspective, that number paints an overly rosy picture of what’s available to the average buyer. To elaborate further:

First, this number (400) represents new construction and doesn’t include the approximately 175 resales that are on the market.

Second, this number represents the inventory at four buildings: the Austonian, Block 21 Residences (aka W Hotel Residences), Residences on Town Lake (aka Four Seasons Residences), and Spring condos.

Third, how many new “attainably” priced units are available? Nearly ZERO – ok, there are five units at Sabine and two units at the Shore condos.

Let’s get this out of the way for the trolling skeptics… DowntownAustinFacts.com is a website sponsored by a consortium of builders. That fact doesn’t change the reality that downtown Austin is facing a shortage of condos for sale over the next 5-10 years, especially priced in the 200-400k range. THE INVENTORY IS LOCKED IN. You will not see any new projects come out of the ground until at least 2013, perhaps longer.

-Jude

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