Search Results for: w hotel

Seaholm Intake given new lease on life

This Thursday, City Hall will announce the top three submissions for the Seaholm Intake reuse project, which seeks to breath life into a behemoth concrete building on the north shore of Lady Bird Lake.

The top ten visions were announced just recently and KVUE did a nice job of compiling an in-depth 27-pic slide show of the ideas.

This is a project long simmering that is starting to boil. A big hat tip to Council Member Chris Riley’s office and the City Parks and Rec Department for keeping the heat on.

Look back here Thursday for the Top 3 finalists.

Travis County Courthouse update

Travis County Commissioners Court has decided how it wants to build a proposed new civil and family courthouse, Community Impact reports.

The project is controversial because the county paid a hefty sum for a parking lot, effectively removing one of the last remaining developable blocks for a mega tower in downtown from the tax rolls.

The county is going with the design-build route, which puts the risk on the county but allows it to retain more control of the project. The alternative would have been a public private partnership, which would have deferred risk, but loosened county control.

The county plans to float bonds for the project, and confirmed plans to go to voters for approval at some unknown date.

I’m not going to hold my breath until a new county judge is elected. Either Andy Brown or Sarah Eckhardt could change course if elected, and I’m not entirely sure the public will approve the project to begin with.  If you’ve ever suffered through a Travis County Commissioner’s Court hearing, the court doesn’t exactly inspire confidence.

Dropbox moving into downtown Austin

Silicon Hills darling Dropbox is following other tech leaders and establishing another office in Austin, rumored to be downtown. Take that, Domain and Williamson County!

Two downtown developments gained site plan approval

When proposing a new project, the site plan approval period is the longest phase of city bureaucracy, laden with risks that can delay or derail a project. Getting the plans approved is a milestone.

In July, Capital Studios — a smart project adding affordable multifamily to downtown — and a new hotel at at Fifth and San Antonio (Derp: San Jacinto) both received site plan approvals.

The next step, which can happen in relatively short order, is to get a building permit, and break ground.

Here’s to hoping the hotel changed the architectural design a little. You may recall a January post where I poked fun at it for being a carbon copy of another hotel down the street.  You be the judge.

I-35 Cut ‘n’ Cap proposal getting national attention

I haven’t posted on the Reconnect Austin campaign to bury I-35 yet. For the record, I am for it, not the least for how it would open up the Waller Creek district in an unimaginable way.

If you’d like to learn more about the project, the national sustainable transportation advocacy blog Streetblog.net recently featured it.

One of the most underutilized development sites in downtown Austin is about to transform.

Categorize this discovery as random: because I am a customer of Bank of America, I received a letter stating the drive through at 5th & San Jacinto will be shutting down.  That’s as official as it gets!

This harks back to March, when Stream Realty has contracted to purchase Tom Stacy’s mega-assemblage extending from Congress to San Jacinto.

Another parcel — a half block site on East Fifth Street between Brazos and San Jacinto — will be sold once Stream closes on the purchase. Sallis said there’s been interest from developers looking to build hotel, apartment and mixed-use projects there.  Source: Austin American Statesman

The intersection of 5th & San Jacinto is anchored by Eddie V’s restaurant, the Brazos Lofts, and a new hotel is expected to break ground this year.  Directly across San Jacinto, White Lodging is planning a 17 story, 326 room “Westin Austin Downtown.”

The Bank of America drive through can be seen in the bottom right of the image below.

Leasing ABIA = urban rail?

Getting better public transportation is so centric to the future of downtown, it always surprises me that there are not more occasions to write about it. In Austin, our current plan is called “urban rail” and it has almost become this amorphous type of buzz-word over the years. If you asked ten people “what is the urban rail plan?” I bet you would get 10 answers (or more likely you’d get seven blank stares and three answers).

The long-short of urban rail is this: It is a project the old Austin mayor (Will Wynn) pitched for downtown, and one that our current mayor (Lee Leffingwell) keeps bringing up, but no other council members, or any of our main business groups, ever seem to get very vocal about.

A little while ago, the Statesman reported that City Council was hot to trot to get something passed by voters before we switch our council makeup from seven-at-large members, to ten district members and one at-large, but we have still not seen very much action.

Suddenly, this week, the Statesman reported that Mayor Leffingwell is proposing a plan to lease out our airport, aka “ABIA”, in order to fund urban rail.

Statesman has more

KUT did a follow up that notes airports in Chicago and Puerto Rico have leased their airports, but six others abandoned the privatization idea after pursuing it.

Downtown adds more retail

Toy Joy, one of the coolest shops in the city, has been up near UT for years, announced it is moving to downtown, just below the Violet Crown on Second Street.

Recently another shop, Consuela, opened up at Ninth and Congress.

This is exciting news for downtown, because retail shopping – regardless of our personal preferences – is a vital component to a thriving urban ecosystem.

Culture Map has more on Toy Joy

Statesman has more on Consuela

Eighth and Neches hotel to be eight stories

I’ve done a couple posts about this hotel, but we finally have some specs on the new hotel across from Stubbs on Red River and 8th St.

The developer plans demolish the existing 117-space (hideous-looking) garage and build three stories of parking into the sloped lot with a five-story hotel above.

The $30 million project would bring about another 200 rooms to downtown. Given that this site is just a few blocks south of the proposed medical school, I think it is a smart play.

ABJ has more

Seaholm: No longer just a dream

The biggest downtown news of the week, and a major downtown milestone in general, is that the Seaholm power plant redevelopment is finally breaking ground. This will be another game-changer for Downtown Austin.

Almost every major news outlet did a story on it, but the Austin American Statesman ran an online headline that captured my sentiment best: “Seaholm redevelopment ready to break ground at last”.

Seaholm will included a 30-story tower with 309 apartments, a two-story building with a Trader Joe’s store, plus other retail, office and restaurant space. Most of the 117,000-square-foot power plant will be leased to one office tenant.

Most of the news stories are linking the imminent groundbreaking to the fact that the developer and the city finally signed their deal. However, the ABJ a few weeks ago published a great little story indicating that it was a lack of financing, not City Hall red tape, that held up the deal.

The vision for a Seaholm redevelopment started in 2005, and we should give credit to our city leaders for being bold and determined enough to see the deal through the recession and a host of other difficulties.

One of my big takeaways from this, is that anytime governments are involved in public-private partnerships, we should expect delays. This will likely play out with the new county courthouse near Republic Square.  Delays are playing out as we speak with the Austin bike share program.  And, they will also play out with the Seaholm Intake facility redevelopment, which is just starting to to gather ideas across the street from Seaholm proper.

Hotel confirmed across from Stubbs

The Austin Business Journal is confirming information that showed up on Austin Towers last month, about a new hotel being added across the street from Stubbs on Red River.

No new details were included, but the ABJ does let us know when we can find out what is going to happen, saying that Austin’s Planning Commission will hear the about it on May 23. Hopefully we will get some renderings then.

Austin Business Journal has more

Another Congress Ave. block changes hands

The buildings that house Annie’s Cafe & Bar, the Elephant Room and the former Capitol Metro storefront have been purchased.

I posted months ago about my excitement that Capital Metro was moving out of the 300 Congress block of downtown, with optimism that the space would serve a higher and better use. I – personally – would love to see more outdoor seating along Congress Avenue. With this purchase, I think that will now be possible.

Austin BusinessJournal has more

Austin Post profiles some dude

Maybe you’ve heard of him.

Joking aside, I’ve been egged on to post this on here after it published earlier this month, even though it feels a little self-aggrandizing   I want to thank the Austin Post for the online love, and Rob Patterson for making me appear much cooler than I am in real life.

I’d also like to say that if you are reading this, and have visited this blog with any regularity since I started toiling at it years ago – much to my soon-to-be-wife’s chagrin – then I owe you, The Reader, a debt of gratitude.

It is logging into to my readership metrics and reading ya’lls comments that make the Downtown Austin Blog a true passion for me. Even though I have only a small cadre of folks contributing to this site, along with my own posts, I feel like our readers have helped build a community around it and it is an honor to be a part of something bigger than myself.