Quote:
Originally Posted by KevinFromTexas
Most of the student housing happening in Austin is being built in two places. West Campus, which of course is west of the UT Campus northwest of downtown, and the Riverside Drive area southeast of downtown. Most of what is happening in the Riverside area is lowrise, say 5 to 6 floors. Some of those aren't exactly geared toward students, or at least they're more luxury apartments than student housing. Most of what exists there are huge 3 and 4-story apartment complexes.
Where the taller developments are happening is in West Campus. Most of the buildings are averaging 8 floors. They're not all that tall, though, they might be 6 to 8 floors tall, but might only be 90 feet tall maximum. Development rules in West Campus were changed to allow for more density with the height restrictions allowing for buildings of 80 feet to 200 feet. Those restrictions don't include mechanical penthouses. The height restriction only requires that a building's main roof be at that level. So say the restriction for that area is 100 feet. The main roof could be at that height, and it would likely have a 10 or 12 foot mechanical penthouse above that. The taller height restrictions in West Campus are in the center part of the neighborhood. That's where 21Rio (236 feet with 21 floors). There's also two other big projects - Callaway House 205 feet with 17 floors and 2400 Nueces 181 feet with 16 floors. What's being built in West Campus, while luxurious, is being more geared toward students than what's been built in the Riverside Drive area as of late.
As a result, West Campus is the most dense area of Austin with around 8,000 people per square mile and about 15,000 total.
Anyway, the reason I visited this thread was just to say I was in San Antonio Thursday night to run an errand in town up along 410. I gotta say, while I wish all those highrises along 410 were in downtown instead, they sure are nice looking at night and the area was impressive. I gotta say, I think San Antonio probably has the best looking suburban highrises in the state. Most of those ones along Loop 410 look nice enough to be in downtown.
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Interesting that you say the suburban high rises should be in downtown. According to the following chart from the Texas A&M Real Estate Center, the N Central submarket (the area around the airport and North Star Mall) and the northwest submarket (the area around the Medical Center), each have 30% more office space than the CBD:
NAI REOC: San Antonio 3Q 2012 office
(11/15/2012)
SAN ANTONIO - Healthy leasing activity generated 166,079 sf of positive net absorption, according to the third quarter survey of nearly 28.5 million sf of office space conducted by the research department of NAI REOC San Antonio. In 3Q 2012 there was a gain of 68,197 sf year-to-date.
San Antonio 3Q 2012 Office Report 3Q 2012
Submarket Total Inventory Total Vacant SF Vacant Avg. Quoted
Rent Rate
CBD 5,619,867 1,918,367 34.1% $18.95
Core NC 8,180,825 1,324,047 16.2% $21.15
Far NC 2,598,174 238,009 9.2% $27.64
NW 8,621,677 1,740,832 20.2% $20.41
Far West 373,655 31,632 8.5% $24.16
NE 2,199,958 376,691 17.1% $20.24
South 885,167 335,150 37.9% $17.34
Totals 28,479,323 5,964,728 20.9% $20.94
Link: http://recenter.tamu.edu/newstalk/main.asp?A=19
Source: NAI REOC San Antonio
With downtown largely given over to hotels and demand for office space actually diminishing in recent years (vacancy rates are the second highest of any market in the metro), the 410 corridor between Texas 16 and I-35 North is SA's de facto downtown.
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