heard.

Well Rainey St. did become an entertainment district, a popular and distinct one at that. It’s filled with converted bungalows and unique, hip bars. It’s not just some bar you’d see at the base of a high rise, so I disagree that it has no character.

This whole neighborhood, at least Rainey St. specifically, does have a specific program. You can argue the merits of it but not the fact that it exists. And Contsiner Bar is very much in the context of the character of what exists.

There are plenty of vacant lots or underutilized buildings not on Rainey St. in which a 48-story tower like this could go. Even some off East Ave.

If you don’t have a problem with standalone bars being razed for high rises, then I’d say you care very little about this area as an “entertainment district” which is a valid opinion. What’s not valid is to say this specific Bar is not woven into the fabric and function of Rainey. And I’d say West 6th is indeed similar, and I feel the same way. Just like I hope SoCo doesn’t become generic 5-story midrises. These are draws. These are activations, and an open-air entertainment district not built into the bottom of high rises is a unique function. You can remove that but then what are you left with? Another 2nd Street? Not that 2nd Street is bad, it’s great, but I believe cities should maintain the vibes and culture of each neighborhood, not go for density at the cost of diluting downtown into one image and shape.

You’re right, we need more residential density in Austin. Why this specific street though when it’s already utilized and activated. Why is this where that density has to go? What about just a little north, in gap between downtown and West Campus? What about all those surface parking lots by the Omni and Westin, the ones not in a CVC. Let’s increase height overlays, if there are restrictions, in those parts of town, not bulldoze sections of an existing Austin nightlife hub.

IMO this is a natural urbanization process for Austin and one that we can observe being replicated in other areas. The process goes something like:

1. Entertainment businesses find relatively cheap property in central Austin that will sustain their business models and cluster together.
2. The area becomes a well known hot spot and almost a brand in and of itself with demand from the the young hip crowd.
3. Developers take note of demand (e.g. people that have decent money to spend) and start building residential and some retail to take advantage of it.

This happening on Rainy. It is happening on east 6th street. It is happening on west 6th street. It is happening on south congress...

I'm thinking bars will find the next cheap turf to build into a thriving entertainment spot... and that will be the next decade long urbanization hot spot. Perhaps off Riverside?

I would like to the city to protect historical entertainment areas (dirty 6th, warehouse, etc) via rent caps or other mechanism.

ABJ now has an article on it:

https://www.bizjournals.com/austin/n..._news_headline

Initial renderings look promising.

From the ABJ article:

https://i.imgur.com/bc9o81Q.png

Holy crap, that thing's huge.

293 key hotel, eh? Maybe that's where I'd put a Virgin.

From the ABJ article:

I think this one is over 600 feet. 70 Rainey is 419, The Shore is 257, and the Hotel Van Zandt is 197. It sure does look to be about three times the height of those 200 footers.

Also, this caught my eye - from the ABJ article:

Someone mind posting the entire article?

https://i.imgur.com/zfQxMX5.jpg

Worth noting there’s a ghost massing there of something on the Lustre Pearl site as well....

I believe it's just massing for The Quincy.

I was beaten. This happens when browsing on work computers that block img hosting. Ha.

Looks like a nice bldg.

I just opened the link and hit the escape button over and over to view it.

That's the Quincy/91 Red River.

-

Rendering of 90 Rainey from KXAN's story on it:

https://scontent-dfw5-2.xx.fbcdn.net...b7&oe=5D21A012
https://www.kxan.com/news/local/aust...XJ9gV_gzrqT5Ok

The tower does look very nice, it has a little Austin Proper baked into it. And knowing the developer is Kevin Burns and UrbanSpace makes me more excited about this project.

UrbanSpace has been at the forefront of some pretty major developments on the sales and marketing end in Seaholm and The Independent. It's cool to see them leverage that design and branding experience and go across the table. This is obviously an exciting step for that Group.

It would be awesome to see The Container Bar's facade molded into this, but it doesn't look like that's the plan. I'd imagine they'll just move, why lease ground floor retail when it eliminates the whole essence of the original concept. I hope to see it spring up in a new neighborhood.

In the meantime, I'm changing my attitude on this one. WeWork, The Quincy, this, and development of that parking lot off Driskill will make this section of Rainey very dense. And density along East Ave. is welcome as well.

My hope is that the integrity of the rest of Rainey Street can be preserved on both sides, starting at Clive Bar and then on down to that River St. circle.

A core part of 70 Rainey's marketing was the draw of this little open-air entertainment strip, really trying to fit into it. And I'm sure it will be a sales element for the hotel and apartments that Burns is developing.

It is the unique element of this particular neighborhood and I hope at least some essence of it remains.

Overall, pretty amazing that Rainey has outgrown itself in less than a decade. The growth that spurred the initial viability was more accelerated than one would anticipate.

Nothing says "Historic District" quite like a wall of towering modern glass boxes.

Taking a unique entertainment environment and replacing it with first and second floor retail in a giant tower is about as sterile as it gets.

:cheers:

I don't mind the tower itself, I just don't think it should take away from Rainey Street. We already have the Millennium that took out some cool spots and now this. What ever happened to these towers going up around Rainey but not along Rainey itself? There was a conceptual rendering of a future DT Austin and Rainey was left intact with greenery and the towers were around the edges. I know it was conceptual but would be much better than what is happening now. Reality is the Rainey Street Entertainment District is being torn apart piece by piece. What makes Austin special is having these sorts of entertainment districts. We are losing that aspect which is a real shame.

Well, hey, we could always swing the wrecking ball in the direction of The Millennium. I still have no idea why that building was built. It's not even up to snuff with what's being built in West Campus, at least, density wise.

I hate that Millennium building. It's an ugly low rise in the CBD that took out a huge swath of bungalows - see Streetview from 2014. I believe only one of the bungalows was a bar - the original Lustre Pearl - but so much potential was lost. I believe this is the first project since Millennium to take out a bar or restaurant.

The Millennium is an insult to that entire district.
Looking at to Google Street View prior years and the photos of all the houses it wiped out, what a shame.

As out of scale as 70 Rainey is, since it fronts the street, at least that was built on a vacant lot (or at least it was in 2007, can't see street view earlier than that) and didn't tear down an entire block.

Check out the Container Bar and Bungalow in this rendering. This would be cool. Google credits it back to the original ABJ story, but I don't see it there.

https://i.imgur.com/OB0KPjM.png