Search Results for: whitley

New Hyatt House Hotel Proposed in Downtown Austin

AG | October 14, 2014 |

Hyatt House line of extended stay hotels (not to be confused with the relatively new Hyatt Place across the street from The Whitley) has announced plans to build at 9th and Neches.

Being catty-corner from the Mohawk, steps aways from the music district on Red River, it makes sense that they would want to put something like a hotel in this particular lot, rather than something like condos. However, it just seems crazy to see even MORE hotels coming up when you have so many other hotel projects happening. I mean, the same company is building 2 hotels (300 rooms) literally right across 9th street at 805 Neches.

Admittedly, it’s going to be an improvement of what’s currently there:

901 Neches — screenshot from Google Maps, Feb 2014

Hyatt House has an existing Austin location in the Arboretum. Here’s what we know about what’s proposed for the downtown Hyatt House:

901 Neches Street
.41 Acres of land
~17k sf of building
189 Rooms
139 parking spaces
10 stories

I’m a bit surprised by the amount of parking they are contemplating: 139 spaces, for 189 rooms. Since it’s an extended stay style of hotel, I suppose they see a demand for parking, and are investing accordingly. It’s just a bit strange because White Lodging, the owner of Hyatt, recently proposed Aloft on Congress Avenue – a larger hotel just four blocks away, without any parking!

The site plan for Hyatt House has been filed with the city, and a decision regarding the application will be made before 10/20/2014.

Looks like the current owner, Journeyman Austin Holdings, bought the land in April of this year.

Austin Apartments For Rent

Whitley Austin Apartments - Pool Deck — Whitley Austin Apartments – Pool Deck. Located at 3rd & Brazos.

Downtown Austin has a variety of apartments for rent. Prospective tenants can choose from full-service apartment buildings, or to lease from individually owned condos. In recent years, downtown Austin has seen an upswell of new apartment towers emerge, filling much of the demand for downtown living. Notable apartment high-rises include: the Whitley, Seven, Skyhouse, and 3Eleven.

Below is an updated list of downtown condos for rent. Each listing below contains photos, details, and a contact request button for you to schedule a showing.

Jude’s recommendations:

Pet lovers needing easy access to grassy areas and the hike & bike trail should focus on buildings in the Rainey Street district, such as the Milago Condos or the Shore Condos.
If you’re looking for something loft-like, check the Sabine Condos, Avenue Lofts, Brazos Lofts, Plaza Lofts, and Austin City Lofts.
If you absolutely positively do not want to drive anywhere, focus on buildings near Whole Foods: Spring Condos, Austin City Lofts, the Nokonah, and 360 Condos.

[idx-listings linkid=”377990″ count=”25″ showlargerphotos=”true”]

Downtown News & Rumor Roundup

Jude Galligan | May 31, 2013 |

There’s been a smattering of interesting dining news recently:

1) The original Opal Divine’s on West Sixth Street will close on May 31st. They are currently working on a deal in the downtown area for a 5400-square-foot new Opal Divine’s. Look for an announcement soon on the exact location. Projected opening date is June 2014. (Dear lord, please don’t let another ‘effing steakhouse move in to Opal’s soon-to-be vacant space.)

2) Memphis-based Gus’s Fried Chicken is moving into the Mongolian Grill spot, on San Jacinto and Second Street. This little stretch of downtown has consistently had well-intentioned people (Hank’s Garage, anyone) fail horribly on the stretch, but who knows… Americans love chicken.

3) Dallas-based TexMex eatery Uncle Julio’s is setting up shop on the ground floor of the Whitley. By the look of the recent press releases the chain has issued, Austin is just one stop on Uncle Julio’s rapid expansion across America.

Austin homeless arrests present quagmire

Austin, with its warm weather and generally liberal leanings, have always been a home to a large transient and homeless population.

However, new data released by the city, in response to a request from Council Member Chris Riley, shows that for the first seven months of FY 2013, there have been more homeless-related downtown community court cases than in all of FY 2012. In addition, just about half of the cases originate from repeat offenders.

According to the city, the Austin Police Department began executing public order initiatives in fall 2012 – coincidentally, right about the time it rolled out the red carpet for Formula One – which has resulted in the problem offender population receiving many new charges, mostly related to City Ordinance violations, such as Camping in Public.

So says the city: “Unfortunately, there are extremely limited options in finding permanent supportive housing for problem offenders with extensive criminal histories. Without options for permanently housing these individuals, they will continue to receive new cases, further limiting their chances for acquiring housing.”

Go to the source here (PDF)

Council hands $2M to event promoters

The city is revamping its Special Events Ordinance, and a topic that keeps floating around the downtown neighborhood crowd is how much in fees City Council is waiving for these events.

Council Member Laura Morrison asked and got the answer: $2 million from the beginning of FY 2012 through FY 2013 year-to-date. These fees, from what I understand, are related to the costs of having traffic and public safety staff working on events and plans in place.

Not surprising, SXSW is granted the lion’s share, about a half million in waived fees.

I’m sure a lot of these organizations that are receiving waivers are fulfilling charity missions, but I’d be curious to know if the City Council ever asks for, or audits after the fact, how much of the profit generated by these events actually goes to a charity.

Go to the source here (PDF, hat tip to InFact Daily, which reported this this week. They are behind a pay wall, so no link guys.)

I got married!!!

After eight wonderful years, my longtime girlfriend- who is also the backbone of my real estate business and a strong DAB contributor – and I had a wonderful downtown ceremony at 9th and Congress.

I’m going to steal a page from Car Talk and ask you to refrain from posting any congrats in the comments section. Instead, write any notes of congratulations on the back of a 27-inch iMac – with a 3.2GHz third-generation Intel Core i5 quad-core processor, high-capacity 1TB hard drive and advanced NVDIA GeForce graphics, packaged in an incredibly razor-thin, all-in-one design – and deliver it to my office. (Please write any notes in a water-soluble marker as to not hamper the resell value.)

9th Annual Downtown Living Tour – May 19th, 2013 – Reserve Your Tickets

AG | May 5, 2013 |

The 9th Annual Downtown Living Tour is a couple of weeks away. Produced by the Downtown Austin Neighborhood Association (DANA), the tour is a great way to tour downtown living, at your own pace, all in one day!

[standout-css3-button cssclass=”button-tangerine” href=”https://dana.ticketbud.com/2013-downtown-living-tour-shuttles-and-champagne”]Get your DLT tickets now[/standout-css3-button]

This year, although the tour will still be self-guided, the tour will also have shuttle service to facilitate access to each tour stop (nice!), and will showcase the following buildings:

The Whitley Apartments
The Shore Condos
Park West Residences
360 Condos
Avenue Lofts (one of the few Art Deco buildings downtown)
The Four Seasons Residences -RECEPTION – (VIP only, and only open from 4pm-5pm)
Brazos Lofts (check out the history, formerly Capital Chevrolet)
Towers of Town Lake (Penthouse, VIP only, only open from 1-4pm)
Capital Studios (to-be-built Foundations Communities project designed by Dick Clark Architecture)
LBJ’s apartment at JJ Pickle Building (VIP only, only open from 1-4pm)
More stops to be announced!

There are some stops of particular note, primarily the official office suite of President Lyndon Baines Johnson at the JJ Pickle Building, an office suite he used during his presidency and the site of such landmark meetings as the Cold War discussions on December 6, 1966, which culminated in the first agreement with the Soviet Union to limit nuclear weapons, known as the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT).

The JJ Pickle building itself is part of a two-block complex of Federal Buildings in downtown Austin, and was designed by Texas Firms Page-Southerland-Page and Brooks & Barr, and is textbook 1960s high-rise design.

Here are a few exclusive pictures of the interior of the office suite, which is remarkably intact.

The LBJ Suite is only open to VIP ticket holders, and there a very limited amount of VIP tickets – so we would recommend…

[standout-css3-button cssclass=”button-tangerine” href=”https://dana.ticketbud.com/2013-downtown-living-tour-shuttles-and-champagne”]Get your DLT tickets now[/standout-css3-button]

Tower Planned for 70 Rainey Street

Jude Galligan | April 25, 2013 |

[UPDATE 01/11/15: 70 Rainey To Be Condos]

Details are emerging for Riverside Resources’ planned multi-use tower at 70 Rainey St. across from the MACC.

The firm, which also developed The Whitley and The Crescent, has filed an administrative site plan application to construct 182 multifamily units, and another 3,600 square feet of ground level restaurant and retail space.

The 70 Rainey development, which encompasses the lots between 66-72 Rainey Street, was pursuing incorporating the City owned 64 Rainey Street into their plan, but the neighboring MACC lobbied City Hall last fall to get the land instead.

Initially, the 70 Rainey development, which would share the same alley used by the Shore Condos, ~~and is being financed through Ft. Worth-based Kelly Capital Partners~~ [UPDATE: Kelly Capital Partners is an equity holder, but is not financing the project], was pegged at 31-stories if it could include the 64 Rainey lot.

But until this site plan is approved, and we get some elevations, or something is leaked to the press, we won’t know how many stories this 182-unit project will have.

We can use the Shore condos as a reference, which has 192 units, and is only 22 stories. The sites share a similarly sized footprint and orientation (north-south), so we are probably looking at buildings of comparable dimensions. Accounting for the restaurant/retail on the ground level, I’m going to guess this one ends up around ~25 stories.

***Based on the site clearing I’ve seen over the past week, it looks like multiple food trailers are setting up to use the 70 Rainey Street site as a temporary home until site plan is approved and Riverside is ready to build. (Looks like it’s the United Nations of Food (?) from 95 Rainey Street, making way for the Sutton project)