AUSTIN | Colorado Tower | 397 FT | 29 FLOORS | T.O.

[KevinFromTexas]

This would be the tallest office building built in Austin since the Frost Bank Tower was completed in 2004. It's also being developed and designed by the same companies as the Frost Bank Tower was.


Name: 3rd & Colorado
Developer: Counsins Properties Inc.
Architect: Duda/Paine
Use: Office/retail/parking
Size: 390,000 square feet of office space, 6,000 square feet retail
Floors: 27 floors (according to rendering).
Project start date: Late 2012


Proposed 30-story office tower could alter downtown skyline
Austin American Statesman
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.


...

http://www.statesman.com/blogs/conte...e=rss_business

[KevinFromTexas]

What is the real constraint here?
Austin Contrarian
Chris Bradford

Austin badly needs more downtown office space. Austin's downtown Class A rents are higher than either Dallas or Houston's, which is absurd. But it is difficult for developers to line up money to build an office building on spec, particularly without a large anchor tenant to soak up a few floors. Austin doesn't have many firms looking for large blocks of downtown space.

Cousins Properties will try, though. It has announced plans for a 30-story office tower at Third and Colorado streets. The tower would have about 390,000 square feet of office space and 6,000 square feet of street-level retail. Twelve of the 30 stories would be for a parking garage with 900 spaces. It would be downtown Austin's first new high-rise office building since Frost Bank Tower opened eight years ago.

Given the intense demand for new office space downtown, why limit the project to "just" 30 stories? On net, this building will yield just 17 or so floors of office space. Why not more?

Downtown zoning regulations limit the building to a floor-to-area ratio ("FAR") of 8:1. The owner got approval in 2009 for a FAR of 12:1, but the zoning ordinance restricted the increase to a hotel use, and the developer needs 15:1 FAR anyway. Althought it's ridiculuous that central business district zoning limits this downtown site to around eight floors of office space (parking doesn't count against FAR), that's not the real constraint on this building's size. The developer is asking for 15:1 and I expect it will get it.

I suspect the real constraint here is parking. Drivers will only drive up so many ramps in order to park their cars. The taller the garage, the bigger the pain it is to park on the top floors. This puts a practical cap on the number of floors a parking garage can contain. The developer is proposing a 12-story garage, which is an aggressive estimate of that cap. It's safe to say that this plan would maximize the amount of parking on site.

...

Read more: http://www.austincontrarian.com/aust...+Contrarian%29

[KevinFromTexas]

It looks like they did a name switch-a-roo on me. They had been calling it "Colorado & 3rd".

Originally Posted by AusTxDevelopment

The below emailer showed up in my inbox yesterday (Wednesday). It was sent out to all of Austin's commercial real estate brokers.

[StoOgE]

Any word on street level retail/entertainment in this building?

Other than the Austonian the street-level is kind of a dead-zone in this part of Congress. The hotel going up across the street probably won't be a huge help in that regard either.

[KevinFromTexas]

A new night rendering.

Also a 360 degree panorama from the development's website showing what the views will be like from the building.
http://3rdandcolorado.com/content/panorama

PDF of the renderings. If you save it, the images are much bigger than what I posted.
http://3rdandcolorado.com/sites/defa...Renderings.pdf

[KevinFromTexas]

According to the site plans, 3rd & Colorado will be 396.76 feet tall to the mechanical screen. The site plan I found with that height said that was the "final plan".

Here are the heights:

396.76 feet to the mechanical screen
380.80 feet to the mechanical roof parapet
363.26 feet to the main roof parapet
343.76 feet to the top floor

Length:
185 feet 5 inches along Colorado Street

Width:
161 feet 9 inches along West 3rd Street

It should be noted that I also found the site plan for the original design that was identical, but that the tower's height would have been 440 feet with 30 floors. The word is the foundations are being designed to support one more floor of office and one more floor of parking if the developer decides to include them.

So at 397 feet with 29 floors, the tower will be the 12th tallest building in Austin.

[NYC2ATX]

The zoom-in of the bottom is great. It demonstrates why the appearance of the base (which is pretty damn nice) is just as important as the the appearance of the tower and the height in Austin. In this city especially, low-rise streetscapes coexist right next to substantial towers. To build up Austin gracefully, one must flow smoothly into the other. I wouldn't place an 800' building right next to the 1- and 2-story buildings of the Warehouse District, but I just might put it next to the 400' building that sits right next to those 1- and 2-story buildings.

[Shasta]

I like this one. Austin needs more glass office towers to counter balance all of the concrete condos going up.

[KevinFromTexas]

Some screen caps of the renderings from this link:

Video Link

[shakman]

I love glass towers.
Will this be adjacent to the Marriott Marquis?

[StoOgE]

Originally Posted by shakman

I love glass towers.
Will this be adjacent to the Marriott Marquis?

Nearby..

the J.W. Marriott (it changed names), is on 2nd and Congress. on the East side of Congress Avenue.

This is at 3rd and Colorado.. so it's North 1 block and on the West side of Congress Avenue (Across the street).

However, it is on the Western half of the block and doesn't face Congress Avenue. So there will be a surface parking lot between this building and Congress.. which while disapointing is probably a temporary situation. I would assume that something, if even a lowrise, would go up in short order along Congress.

[JACKinBeantown]

6 out of 10. The Houstonization of Austin continues. A glass building straight out of 1993 with no street level retail. While it will add a little blip to the skyline, it will do nothing for the actual people of downtown Austin.

[KevinFromTexas]

It will have retail. At least they're advertising it on their website:

http://3rdandcolorado.com/

[The ATX]

Originally Posted by shakman

I love glass towers.
Will this be adjacent to the Marriott Marquis?

You can see where it is going to be built on the JW Marriott webcam:

http://oxblue.com/open/tournee/jwmarriottaustin

It's the left half of the parking lot in the left-center of the picture.

[KevinFromTexas]

Ground breaking next week!

This will be the first major office tower to break ground in downtown since the Frost Bank Tower.

http://www.statesman.com/news/busine...owntown/nXzY4/

Posted: 5:27 p.m. Wednesday, May 22, 2013
29-story office tower set to break ground downtown

By Shonda Novak
American-Statesman Staff

The developer who brought Frost Bank Tower to Austin’s skyline is ready for the sequel.

Cousins Properties Inc. says it will break ground next week on its planned 29-story downtown Austin office tower.

[ahealy]

It's already fenced off...took this earlier today.

[migol24]

"The Houstonization of Austin continues?"

I personally wouldn't mind if Austin had a few towers that you see in Houston. Its a compliment in a way to suggest this building is similar to anything in Houston. Houston's skyline is beautiful. The only downside of course is its lack of retail, but Austin has done a nice job (to say the least) of adding retail to most of its developments. So I'm not entirely sure what this "houstonization" really means.

Originally Posted by KevinFromTexas

It will have retail. At least they're advertising it on their website:

http://3rdandcolorado.com/

I'm sure the retail will be very much the same you see in the Frost Tower... nothing particularly interesting, (except for that bbq joint on 5th st across from Mexic-arte museum). I hope if they do have something it will somewhat culminate with the rest of the street... I doubt it will happen though. Either way I'm stoked about this building.

[KevinFromTexas]

The parking lot is being torn up. You can see it on the JW Marriott construction cam.

Zoom in on the parking lot just over the podium of that building on the left. That's The Austonian's base by the way.

http://oxblue.com/open/tournee/jwmarriottaustin

[KevinFromTexas]

Colorado Tower had its ground breaking ceremony yesterday. They had been tearing up the parking lot last week in preparation.

The construction cam for the JW Marriott captured the ceremony:



A closer look from Greg Anderson, one of the Austin forumers.


Greg Anderson

Construction begins on 29-story downtown Austin office building

This article also describes what the lighting design will look like. The mechanical penthouse screen will be light from inside and will sort of glow. It describes it as saying it'll sort of look like a crescent moon.

[The ATX]

The tower crane base was installed today.