downtown Austin's real estate and neighborhood blog
News broke Friday that the shelved White Lodging Services Corp. plans for a 1,000-plus hotel at 2nd Street and Congress Avenue are back on the stove.
The news seems to echo what Assistant City Manager Robert Goode told council at a recent hearing: “We are a big city, get over it.”
[Read more…] about New Mega Hotel Planned, City Waiving $3.8M In Fees
The 2nd Street shopping district is likely to get a jolt from patrons still paying off college loans with a new Urban Outfitters clothing store.
As evident by the colorful graffiti, the faux-thrift store (call it ironic?) retailer has plans to move into the ground floor of The W Austin Hotel, which opened in December 2010.
I shop exclusively at Kohl’s, but allegedly Urban Outfitters’ new spot is a big deal because their only other Austin location is not so far away on Guadalupe Street, up near the University of Texas main campus. Perhaps they are targeting the PBS Austin City Limits crowd from shows taped there?
Jokes aside, this is a vindication that downtown Austin is becoming a destination and not in the way of “urban pioneers” loading up on Gatorade and PB&J to venture out of suburbia, like they do in Ohio.
For a number of reasons, Urban Outfitters joins the ranks of business interests investing in downtown Austin.
Cole Broadhead, a principal at Retail Solutions, said the folks at Urban Outfitters “do their homework.”
“Those deals take a long time,” he said. “They do a ton of research.”
According to Jacob Dirr’s twitter feed, paperwork was filed today by Bury and Partners for the construction of Hotel Van Zandt. This time sans condos. We confirmed this with the city, and indeed the .68 acre site is back in play. Owned by JMI Realty, the site sits adjacent (north) of The Shore Condos in Downtown Austin’s Rainey Street neighborhood. [Read more…] about Hotel Van Zandt Returns
Downtown Austin Blog learned this past May about a project to erect a boutique hotel over what is currently Sky Lounge. Known simply as “416 Congress” we now have images and renderings from Dick Clark architecture that will be presented to the Downtown Commission. The proposal calls for 130 rooms and 26 stories. Downtown Austin rarely sees tall mid-block construction.
This could be a harbinger for more mid-block development and we hope the city supports the concept, not that it’s perfect. Expect some discussion around parking and sidewalk width. The site is not encumbered by a Capitol View Corridor, but there are setback requirements. The developer is seeking CBD-CURE zoning in order to bump the FAR from 8:1 to 13:1.
More info and pics after the jump. [Read more…] about 416 Congress Ave: Boutique Hotel Renderings
The ABJ’s Jacob Dirr scoops that Crescent Hotel Group has placed under contract the historic Hogg Building located at 804 Congress Ave. After the announcement in May of a possible hotel on the 400 block of Congress Ave, this is the second boutique hotel possibility for Congress Avenue. The article indicates that the lender, Wells Fargo, says it’s a “pipe dream”.
There is such a shortage of hotel space in downtown Austin, and there is much less “cool” hotel space that can invigorate the area immediately surrounding it. My fingers are crossed that the stars align for this project.
-Jude
