AUSTIN | Project Updates Thread Part II

[Urbannizer]

4811 Burnett: Construction begins this fall.



http://midcitydevelopment.com/portfo...oad-austin-tx/

4811 Burnet Road is an Austin urban infill redevelopment project. The scope of work involves new construction of a single 60,000 square foot mixed use multifamily complex with 53 apartment units, amenities including a roof top swimming pool, and 4,000 feet of retail space. The project includes design coordination, site construction, and building construction.

[corvairkeith]

I'm going to miss the Omlettry. I know they are moving into that strip mall on Airport next to the In and Out Burger, but much like the Austin Diner the new location just won't have the same feel.

[wwmiv]

OMFG that's going in where the Omlettry is!? I might actually go NIMBY over something.

[Jdawgboy]

Originally Posted by KevinFromTexas

This summer could be very wet - think 1997 when Lake Travis flooded.

http://kxan.com/2015/05/19/a-summer-...-on-for-years/

It won't just be summer, wait until autumn and winter.

My hobby is weather and climate and I'll just say this since this is not development related but we should see a return to a wetter climate for awhile if the Pacific Decadal Oscillation stays positive. The PDO cycles in intervals of 15 to 30 years. We've been in a -PDO since the end of the Super El Niño of 97-98. Now it has gone +PDO. Still too early to know for sure if this is indeed a full shift but if it is then we will see at least a 15 year period with more consistent rainfall and more frequent El Niños as opposed to what we have seen for the past 16 years or so.

Now back to development. Has anyone heard any updates about the Waterloo Tower project? Now that the Waller Tunnel is just about complete I'm wondering if they will start construction anytime soon.

[urbancore]

Originally Posted by corvairkeith

I'm going to miss the Omlettry. I know they are moving into that strip mall on Airport next to the In and Out Burger, but much like the Austin Diner the new location just won't have the same feel.

In the 10 years I lived in Rosedale, I went to the Omelettry many time, each time I was disappointed. Coffee was sub-par, food was sub-sub-par, cleanliness and the service were the worst.

[SkyPie]

Originally Posted by Dcbrickley

In the 10 years I lived in Rosedale, I went to the Omelettry many time, each time I was disappointed. Coffee was sub-par, food was sub-sub-par, cleanliness and the service were the worst.

I sadly have to agree with your comments regarding the food, service and cleanliness. However, it did have a cool sense of place that many restaurants of similar caliber lack. I'll miss its quirky little presence.

[ATXboom]

I live a block from the omlettry. Terrible food. Austin diner blows it away. I'm all for the density. It did have that Austin quirk but I have no issues letting this go.

[willy_chaz]

Anyone know if 4811 Burnett project is going to have some parking? That area is already lacks parking.

[danny1010]

Originally Posted by LoneStarMike

Most of it has been downstream. My neighborhood (Barton Creek at Loop 360) has gotten a little over 10 inches in the last two weeks. But there has been enough over the lakes and upstream to make some difference.

The lakes are 41% full now and I can't even remember the last time it was in the 40's. Lake Travis is 633.74.

Last time it was this high was late 2012 (Oct/Nov). The rain last night definitely hit in the right places. It briefly got above flood stage on the Llano River early this morning. Lake Travis has gone up about a half foot since yesterday, but those inflows have to go through Lake LBJ and Lake Marble Falls before showing up in Travis.

With a predicted additional 2-5" this weekend, I wouldn't be surprised to see another multiple foot jump. At that point, Sometime Peninsula can go back to being Sometime Island, before hopefully disappearing altogether.

[KevinFromTexas]

Just a few suburban office developments here (but inside Austin) - and a mystery.

Southwest Parkway Office Building:

The applicant is proposing to construct an office building with associated improvements.

https://www.austintexas.gov/devrevie...erRSN=11347178

-

And this caught my eye. The reason was the name - Regency Park. Mopacs, I think it may have been you who told me about a 10-story office building called "Regency Parke" that had to be demolished years ago in South Austin when they expanded the freeway at Highway 71 and US 290. I no longer have it, or maybe I do on a CD somewhere, but there was a rendering for a 10-story office building that had been built in the 80s and then was demolished not too long after. This caught my eye because the filing is for a building called Regency Park, and the crazy thing is it's planned in the same area.

Regency Park

The applicant is proposing to construct an office building with associated improvements.

The address is 5251 West US Highway 290.


https://www.austintexas.gov/devrevie...erRSN=11350377

[AusTxDevelopment]

Originally Posted by KevinFromTexas

And this caught my eye. The reason was the name - Regency Park. Mopacs, I think it may have been you who told me about a 10-story office building called "Regency Parke" that had to be demolished years ago in South Austin when they expanded the freeway at Highway 71 and US 290. I no longer have it, or maybe I do on a CD somewhere, but there was a rendering for a 10-story office building that had been built in the 80s and then was demolished not too long after. This caught my eye because the filing is for a building called Regency Park, and the crazy thing is it's planned in the same area.



The address is 5251 West US Highway 290.


https://www.austintexas.gov/devrevie...erRSN=11350377

This site has had a 'coming soon' sign up on it since last year. It was called 290 West Office Building, but they recently changed it to Regency Park.

http://www.aquilacommercial.com/prop...w/Regency-Park

[austlar1]

Originally Posted by AusTxDevelopment

This site has had a 'coming soon' sign up on it since last year. It was called 290 West Office Building, but they recently changed it to Regency Park.

http://www.aquilacommercial.com/prop...w/Regency-Park

Well, isn't that a thing of beauty! One can hardly wait.

[Cd1076]

Here is some info on the Rick Joy designed hotel that will hopefully be going in on Red Bluff in East Austin.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/lka8wvevzf...F%20B.pdf?dl=0

This is another proposed hotel at the intersection of East Cesar Chavez @ Waller:

http://baldridge-architects.com/work/eastside-hotel/

[Tech House]

Originally Posted by austlar1

Well, isn't that a thing of beauty! One can hardly wait.

Truly iconic. A signature building that will define the SW Austin skyline. Never seen anything like it in any Texas suburb.

Actually, what's chafing me is all these low-rise off-white modern minimalist rectangles, a horrible example of which is this proposed motel (cuz it doesn't deserve to be called a hotel) on Cesar Chavez:

I'm sure there are people on this forum who like this type of thing, along with the atrocity that is going up in the heart of SoCo. You're invited to explain. You're also forewarned that nothing you say can possibly make me stop hating that type of development. It looks sterile, like it should be a low-budget for-profit dental school circa 1980.

[austlar1]

Gee, Tech House, here we are agreeing again. I think the South Congress Hotel looks like a seedy 1950s motel that you might find on one of the long arterial boulevards crossing the west side of Los Angeles. I suspect the design is meant to be a bit ironic since the interiors and amenities of this new hotel are supposedly going to be top drawer. Still, the building is not likely to age well and will end up looking rather tacky before too long. I feel the same way about the designs of these proposed low rise apartment blocks on the near East Side. They are bland and derivative.

[LoneStarMike]

Originally Posted by austlar1

I think the South Congress Hotel looks like a seedy 1950s motel that you might find on one of the long arterial boulevards crossing the west side of Los Angeles.

When I moved here in 1982, Congress Avenue was a seedy area with lots of motels, a XXX theater, and all the hookers hung out there, so it's it's probably a nod back to the way things used to be on S. Congress in the good old days.

Honestly, it's not so much the design I detest, it's the total lack of color. Austin is supposed to be this diverse, vibrant city, and most of these new projects are white/off-white/beige with accent colors of grey or brown. If they just throw in a little color here and there, they'd look so much better.

[austlar1]

Originally Posted by LoneStarMike

When I moved here in 1982, Congress Avenue was a seedy area with lots of motels, a XXX theater, and all the hookers hung out there, so it's it's probably a nod back to the way things used to be on S. Congress in the good old days.

Honestly, it's not so much the design I detest, it's the total lack of color. Austin is supposed to be this diverse, vibrant city, and most of these new projects are white/off-white/beige with accent colors of grey or brown. If they just throw in a little color here and there, they'd look so much better.

I referenced LA motels because back in the 1950s, in some of the nicer and denser parts of the west side, they built several two and three story motels that fronted on the street and had underground parking. There are still some survivors on Beverly and Olympic boulevards. These buildings have a certain threadbare that is very similar to the new South Congress Hotel in some ways. I suppose they might be considered iconic to some folks, but I find them to be basically uninspiring mid century architecture.

[The ATX]

I remember a scandal back in the '80s where some out of town State Rep. was busted in a prostitution sting in SoCo during the legislature session. When I moved here SoCo (that term didn't exist back then, of course) was just somewhere you didn't go. Now it's the first place I take out of town visitors. This is one example why I laugh at the whiny old timers who think Austin is always losing iconic things because the growth is only changing things for the worst. We have so much more cool iconic stuff now compared to the '80s because of the growth and changes with things like SoCo, Rainey St., Food Trailer courts, festivals, etc. Even 6th St was only a foreshadowing of its current self back then.

[Mopacs]

Originally Posted by KevinFromTexas

Just a few suburban office developments here (but inside Austin) - and a mystery.

Southwest Parkway Office Building:



https://www.austintexas.gov/devrevie...erRSN=11347178

-

And this caught my eye. The reason was the name - Regency Park. Mopacs, I think it may have been you who told me about a 10-story office building called "Regency Parke" that had to be demolished years ago in South Austin when they expanded the freeway at Highway 71 and US 290. I no longer have it, or maybe I do on a CD somewhere, but there was a rendering for a 10-story office building that had been built in the 80s and then was demolished not too long after. This caught my eye because the filing is for a building called Regency Park, and the crazy thing is it's planned in the same area.



The address is 5251 West US Highway 290.


https://www.austintexas.gov/devrevie...erRSN=11350377

Yep, just found it...Here's the magazine ad from 30 years ago for the original Regency Parke. Looks like it was around 6 or 7 stories.

[KevinFromTexas]

Yep. That's the one.