Austin Development News

[jonathaninATX]

Webcam up and running for 2400 Nueces

http://oxblue.com/open/EDRTrust/2400Nueces

[jonathaninATX]

Originally Posted by TXForever

I know its controversial, but I like the new Green Water development plan. While not as Sims-clectic as the original renderings (from 2008) it has an appropriately Austin ambiance nonetheless, adding uniformity to the warehouse district as well as still offering the possibility of green roofs, urban H-E-B (I dont care who's design this was, you gotta do it), plus solid density. I think we have to give 2 thumbs up.

Yeah the newer rendering is okay but perferably like the older one best, either way I'm happy not only is it just abunch of tall buildings but it's adding a new district to Austin.

[greencitizen144]

Old one was better but The new render is okay... But does anyone know the actual height? It looks a little tall for 30 floors.

[AusTxDevelopment]

Buyer to redevelop Freescale's former East Austin campus
By Shonda Novak AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF

Updated: 10:19 p.m. Friday, March 30, 2012

New life could be coming to an old campus that once housed Motorola Inc. and later its spinoff, Freescale Semiconductor Inc.

Manny Farahani, a local investor and developer, is buying a significant portion of the former Motorola/Freescale campus in East Austin, with plans to fill its 935,255 square feet of vacant office and manufacturing space with new companies and workers.

Farahani and Freescale would not disclose the price of the pending purchase, which is expected to close April 23. The campus encompasses nine buildings on about 109 acres at 3501 Ed Bluestein Blvd.



NAI REOC Austin, a commercial real estate services firm that has been marketing the property for Freescale for several years, listed the property at $9 million. The property is valued by the Travis Central Appraisal District at $8.64 million.

Farahani said there will be a "tremendous amount of money invested in the property above the purchase price."

Just north of the campus, Freescale operates a semiconductor chip manufacturing plant with about 1 million square feet.

The sale won't affect operations at that plant, which is one of three Freescale facilities in the Austin area that together employ about 5,000 people, said Robert Hatley, a spokesman for Freescale.

The campus became part of Freescale as a result of the 2004 spinoff. The space sat empty for several years, and NAI began marketing it for the chipmaker in 2007. Hatley said Freescale is pleased an agreement was reached that will allow the site to be used "for other employers and opportunities in Austin."

With walking and running trails, a cafeteria and its location near Austin-Bergstrom International Airport, the campus "will be very attractive to large companies," said Helen Jobes, regional director of marketing and investment sales for Kennedy Wilson, a real estate investment and services company. Jobes is representing Farahani in the sale and will handle leasing for the campus.

Jobes said she hopes to attract new companies to Austin, as well as local companies looking to relocate, by offering "large blocks of space at a very reasonable cost."

"We are looking forward to working with the City of Austin, State of Texas and Austin Chamber of Commerce to use this campus to bring more jobs to Austin," Jobes said.

The purchase price will enable Farahani to charge gross rents of $10 a square foot per year for any tenant leasing more than 50,000 square feet of space and $12 a square foot for tenants leasing less than 50,000 square feet, Jobes said.

"It's way below market," considering that the least expensive office space in Austin has gross rents of about $15 to $16 a square foot, Jobes said.

Royce Lacey, senior vice president with NAI REOC Austin, said the campus could house "a very wide variety" of companies. Immediately south, Hewlett-Packard has a data center of about 400,000 square feet in a building it acquired from Freescale in 2006.

Jobes said much of the office space has cubicles already set up, so a company "could literally go in and put their phones and Internet in and start operating immediately."

Construction started on the campus in 1974, and the last building, which H-P occupies, was built in 1990, Jobes said.

Farahani has been buying and selling buildings in Austin since the 1980s. His niche is finding distressed or empty buildings, Jobes said, then renovating them and bringing in new tenants.

A signature project he partnered in was the restoration of Penn Field on South Congress Avenue. The former military airfield was transformed into a mixed-use property with office, restaurant and warehouse space.

http://www.statesman.com/business/bu...s-2273180.html

[jonathaninATX]

National homebuilder buys high-profile site in Dripping Springs area

As the local housing market continues to heat up, Arizona-based homebuilder Taylor Morrison has purchased most of the 524-acre Reunion Ranch, a high-profile site in the Dripping Springs area where the company plans to construct 436 houses.

Taylor Morrison closed Monday on the sale of 472 acres of the ranch, which is in Hays County, about 16 miles southwest of downtown Austin. The builder declined to disclose terms of the sale.

The asking price was $27.5 million, according to the sale offering by CASE Commercial Real Estate Partners Inc. CASE Managing Director Bruce Endendyk and Senior Director John Endendyk represented the seller, Frank Krasovec, who owns Norwood Investments, an Austin-based private investment firm.

"We're really excited about the project," Khoury said. "It provides a great opportunity for people looking for a new home in the Hill Country."

Taylor Morrison plans to start installing utilities and other infrastructure in the next 60 to 90 days, Khoury said. The first 60 lots are expected to be ready for building early next year. Home prices will start in the mid-$300,000s. The average lot size will be about three-fourths of an acre.

http://www.statesman.com/business/na...g-2283856.html

[jonathaninATX]

Construction starts on Asian American Resource Center

A year from now, Phase 1 of the Asian American Resource Center, which will cater to Austin’s growing Asian-American community that now comprises 6.3 percent of the total population, will fill what is now low-cropped grass on Cameron Road just north of US 183. “This construction of the Asian American Resource Center, like the Carver Museum and Cultural Center and the Mexican American Cultural Center before it, is a reflection of our community values. And we have a lot to be proud of. We are keeping it weird, we are keeping it prosperous and we are keeping it diverse,” said Lesley Varghese, the recently appointed executive director of the center, at the ground breaking ceremony March 29. The idea for the project came about in the 1994, Varghese said. In 2001, council passed a resolution to find a site for the centering, and in 2006, voters approved $5 million in bonds to go toward building the center, which also received a $750,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Economic Development.

http://impactnews.com/articles/const...esource-center

[jonathaninATX]

New renderings of Zach theatre which is near completion.







http://www.zachtheatre.org/donate/topfer-theatre-images

[jonathaninATX]

Ground breaking set for higher ed center in Hutto

A ground breaking ceremony for the first building of the Hutto campus for the East Williamson County Higher Education Center is scheduled for May 22. The more than 100,000-square-foot building is scheduled to open in fall 2013 near Toll 130 and CR 108, said Jan Osburn, director of marketing and communications with Texas State Technical College. Osburn said the ground breaking event is open to members of the community. Students began meeting at the school’s temporary location—Hutto ISD’s Veterans’ Hill Elementary—in fall 2011. The higher education center in Hutto is a collaboration that includes Temple College and TSTC.

http://impactnews.com/articles/groun...enter-in-hutto

[jonathaninATX]

Downtown urban rail on track for November vote

Faced with a population that is growing faster than the city’s infrastructure can support, Austin City Council may ask voters in November to approve the first phase of a $1.3 billion urban rail network for downtown Austin. The electrified rail service would provide connectivity from the downtown business district to The University of Texas, and proponents say it would grease the wheels of the downtown economic engine, which provides employment for nearly 22 percent of Austin residents. “It [would] bring a real breath of new mobility, new capacity … that we otherwise don’t have the ability to bring into downtown,” said Robert Spillar, executive director of the Austin Transportation Department, which is helping develop the urban rail initiative. But Spillar and other transportation leaders say that just as importantly, the urban rail network would be part of a larger, interconnected, high-capacity transit system—composed of rapid-bus transit, commuter rail and regional rail—that would eventually give all Central Texans much-needed options. “The idea is not to just get rail for downtown Austin; it is to provide a core of rail that can help start to link all the [population] centers with one another,” said Glenn Gadbois, executive director of the newly formed nonprofit Movability Austin, which provides consultancy and policy advocacy services to its members. In the meantime, the trick for leaders is to convince constituents who live and work outside of Austin’s central core that investing in mobility improvements downtown will pay off for them down the road.

http://impactnews.com/articles/downt...-november-vote

[tampasteve]

Originally Posted by jonathaninATX

Downtown urban rail on track for November vote

I have seen that map before and they always color the urban rail one color. It is confusing to the casual observer as to how the trains would run and in which/what direction. I would like to see a map with just he urban rail and the different rail lines and routes for each line.

For example, there is a rather short E/W line from Bowie St. to Trinity St. Is that a separate line or a part of one of the N/S lines? Is the line to UT and the line to the Mueller development two different lines...IIRC the two lines shown on Lavaca and Guadalupe is the same line with one way direction on each st. (IE, travel South on Lavaca and North on Guadalupe).

Steve

[jonathaninATX]

Originally Posted by tampasteve

I have seen that map before and they always color the urban rail one color. It is confusing to the casual observer as to how the trains would run and in which/what direction. I would like to see a map with just he urban rail and the different rail lines and routes for each line.

For example, there is a rather short E/W line from Bowie St. to Trinity St. Is that a separate line or a part of one of the N/S lines? Is the line to UT and the line to the Mueller development two different lines...IIRC the two lines shown on Lavaca and Guadalupe is the same line with one way direction on each st. (IE, travel South on Lavaca and North on Guadalupe).

Steve

If im not mistaken its one line.

[Dale]

Any prediction on how the vote is likely to go ?

[jonathaninATX]

Originally Posted by Dale

Any prediction on how the vote is likely to go ?

I hope it goes smoothly and passes.

[jonathaninATX]

Two projects in works on Lamar, near Whole Foods complex

y Gary Dinges and Shonda Novak AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF

Published: 9:26 p.m. Friday, April 13, 2012

Austin-based Schlosser Development Corp. will soon begin work on two new buildings in high-profile spots on downtown's western edge with a combined price tag of more than $7 million.

The newest project, announced this week, calls for the former KVET radio studios at 705 N. Lamar Blvd. — adjacent to BookPeople, Anthropologie and REI — to be demolished and replaced with 15,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space topped by four levels of parking.

None of the retail space has been leased yet, said Rick Duggan, Schlosser's director of design and construction. The parking spaces, he said, will serve customers and employees of businesses near the West Sixth Street and North Lamar Boulevard intersection.

A site plan was filed in March for the KVET site, and Duggan said construction is expected to begin within the next six months, pending city approval.

Next week, Schlosser will start construction on a previously announced three-story building with a mix of retail and office space just south of the downtown Whole Foods Market location.

The 25,000-square-foot building at 405 N. Lamar Blvd. will have two stories of offices over street-level retail space that will face north and west, Duggan said. It will occupy the southwest portion of the parking lot for Schlosser's existing project at West Fifth Street and North Lamar Boulevard, which has a Starbucks, OfficeMax and the Pure Austin gym.

http://www.statesman.com/business/tw...e-2303489.html

[jonathaninATX]

Pilot art center proposed for historic fire station

The City of Georgetown is developing plans for an art center that could go into the historic fire station at 816 S. Main St. if the project is approved by City Council, which could vote on the issue in May, possibly at the May 22 meeting. Library Director Eric Lashley, who serves as the staff liaison for the Arts and Culture Board, said the ultimate goal for the art center is to take up residence in the police department building at 809 Martin Luther King Jr. St. after the building is vacated in 2014. In the meantime, the pilot program is designed to determine if an art center can thrive in Georgetown, Lashley said. It could start in late 2012 after the fire department administration relocates to Fire Station No. 5. “We want to show that we can do [an art center] in a small facility before we tackle something even bigger,” he said. Pilot program Around the same time that the political action committee was formed to support the bond election for the public safety operations and training facility in 2011, Lashley said the Arts and Culture Board began a feasibility study for an art center in Georgetown. The board looked at other nearby towns with similar venues such as Round Rock and Salado. The project gained momentum with the passing of the bond election in May 2011, and the board approved a business plan for the art center on Jan. 17. According to the pilot plan, the city would partner with a nonprofit arts organization that would manage the center for one year. The city would be responsible for paying for renovations to the building. At a March 27 City Council workshop, Deputy City Manager Laurie Brewer said preliminary estimates were $150,000 for interior improvements and $25,000 for signage.

http://impactnews.com/articles/pilot...c-fire-station

[jonathaninATX]

Confidential Austin Master Plan





http://www.kirksey.com/project/confi...in_master_plan

Not sure how old or new this project is, but it looks nice.

[jonathaninATX]

Lakeshore apartments Austin



http://www.bigreddog.com/

[jonathaninATX]

Developer planning two high-rises at downtown Austin's southeast edge

More high-rises could be headed to downtown Austin's southeastern edge, with a local developer envisioning two towers in the Rainey Street area that each could reach as tall as 50 stories.

The Sutton Co. wants to build the project on about two acres it has under contract bounded by Rainey and Driskill streets and East Avenue. The development would continue the transformation of a part of downtown where a new nightlife scene has emerged with the addition of numerous bars and restaurants.

Together, the towers could have as many as 800 to 1,000 apartment and condominium units, along with hotel rooms in the first tower to break ground, said Mac Pike, a principal — along with Wally Scott — in the Sutton Co. The first tower, which Pike estimated would cost $75 million to $100 million to build, is at least a year to 18 months from breaking ground and would require a number of city approvals, he said.

Pike said that financing has not yet been arranged for the project but that the Sutton Co. is talking to potential capital partners and hopes to select one "in the next 30 days or so." Pike said a private equity firm, Woodgen, is partnering with Sutton in the land sale, which is due to close this summer.

On Monday, the Sutton Co. will seek approval from the city's Historic Landmark Commission to demolish what are mostly older houses on the nine parcels it is purchasing from several owners. The approval is needed because the Rainey Street neighborhood is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

http://www.statesman.com/business/re...s-2311367.html

[jonathaninATX]

Trader Joe's coming to downtown Austin next year

By Brian Gaar

Published: 5:04 a.m. Wednesday, April 18, 2012

California-based specialty grocer Trader Joe's is coming to Austin next year with a new store at the Seaholm development downtown, company officials said.

The Austin store's planned site is just blocks from some stiff competition — Whole Foods' flagship store and headquarters at Sixth Street and Lamar Boulevard.

"We are thrilled to be coming to Austin and look forward to being part of this wonderful neighborhood," said Trader Joe's spokeswoman Alison Mochizuki. She declined to give a more specific opening date for the store.

The Austin Trader Joe's store will be part of the proposed mixed-use project at the former Seaholm Power Plant on a 7.8-acre site downtown. Plans for the project, which is scheduled to break ground in July, call for 298 apartments, 130,000 square feet of office space, 40,000 square feet of retail space and an acre of outdoor event space.

"Of all the nationally known retailers to land in Austin over the past decade, it's safe to say Trader Joe's is right up there in terms of the degree of enthusiasm in which they're welcomed," said John Rosato, managing partner for Seaholm Power LLC, the company overseeing the redevelopment project.

http://www.statesman.com/business/tr...r-2311879.html

[jonathaninATX]

Proposed 30-story office tower could alter downtown skyline

By Shonda Novak | Wednesday, April 18, 2012, 05:30 PM

Cousins Properties Inc. says it plans to build a 30-story office tower at Third and Colorado streets, a project that could become the first new high-rise office building built in downtown Austin since Cousins opened Frost Bank Tower eight years ago.

Cousins intends to break ground late this year on the new tower, which would have about 390,000 square feet of office space, said Tim Hendricks, senior vice president with Cousins. Twelve of the 30 stories would be for a parking garage with 900 spaces. The building would also have 6,000 square feet of street-level retail.

The project, which Cousins is calling Colorado & Third, would rise on what is now a parking lot across Colorado Street from Sullivan’s Restaurant.

San Antonio-based Hixon Properties Inc. formerly planned to build an upscale hotel on the site. Hendricks said Hixon and Silver Ventures, also based in San Antonio, would partner with Cousins in the project. The land is owned in a partnership between Hixon and Silver Ventures.

Hendricks declined to comment on the estimated cost of the project or potential financing options.

Cousins doesn’t have any tenants lined up yet, but is talking to prospects, Hendricks said. The goal would be to have commitments for about half of the space before breaking ground, Hendricks said.

http://www.statesman.com/blogs/conte...ice_tower.html