I read an article yesterday that said there are no hotel rooms available in Austin for November 16-18 during the race. Austin has 30K hotel rooms, San Antonio has 40K and Waco about 4K I believe. They said those other two cities will likely have bookings those days from F1 race visitors. They said the hotel room inquiries in Austin have outnumbered those that they had in Dallas when the Super Bowl was there by 33 times. Homeaway Inc. also said their inquiries to their website have been 25 times higher than normal. I'm not exactly a "sports guy" - but I think we've grabbed onto a rocket here.

Here's the link.
http://www.statesman.com/business/ho...d-2407797.html

Kevin, your information is just as I suspected it to be. I've been saying this for years on other forums and as long as I've been a member on this one that Formula One (F1) is the most upscale and most prestigious you can go to hosting any event in the world except the Olympics or FIFA soccer.

Austin being the premier F1 destination in the U.S. is just phenomenal. Tourism is going to skyrocket and so will Austin's global portfolio whether it catches on or not (domestically), Austin will get its name around the world. F1 has a dedicated global fanbase, multi-millionaire/multi-billionaires use a sport as upscale as this to meet with new clients or do transactions.

The superbowl in DFW was one of the most highest attended superbowls (and viewed) of all time in America and the fact that this ALREADY has it beat by bookings by over 33 times is on a godly level. I love my city (well all 3 of them)! :)

Kudos Austin on this win. As far as name recognition for metros under 2 million goes, Austin is becoming the new Las Vegas (in terms of name recognition globally).

I'm holding out a bit to give in to all this hype. I know its a benefit and I am excited for this city. I also think that this is one of those "good" problems for Austin to have in some sense. And I do believe that Austin's recognition will continue to gain momentum as it already has but I think it's still too soon to name it the new Las Vegas, let alone in global recognition.

I can understand your point but realistically it all adds up. As far as tourism goes, San Antonio has always been tops over Austin on that and while SXSW, ACL, and Austin's nightlife are tourist draws they aren't to the point of where all the hotel construction is coming from.

Anyone else find it particularly odd that a slew of hotel proposals all over Austin came about directly after the announcement of F1? Kevin's article also however states that those hotel rooms are not "expected" to be booked that week but ARE booked (wow this early) for then. Whatever attention Austin gets out of this, its going to be huge. What do you guys think will be the main story on the news that week? Tropical storms in the Atlantic? LOL. No way. Its going to be about America's first F1 games in well over a decade now. One of the top most prestigious sports in the world and also one of the most prestigious and honorable events to host.

Win & win. But I concede the Vegas part was a little too dramatic (for now) but everything else. I'm sticking with it. :D

30,000 hotel rooms absorbed in the Austin metro. WOW! Even more bookings to be had in Waco & San Antonio because of this. WOW!!

Yeah, we do have F1 to think in part for the new hotels. SXSW and to a lesser extent, ACL are good for Austin of course, but they're just not the juggernaut that is F1. We haven't really had any major hotel construction directly linked to SXSW, at least it hasn't been advertised that way. Plus, the music festivals are just different creatures from the F1 race. Whereas the F1 race will boost hotel room stays, SXSW and ACL mostly contributed to people crashing on a friend's couch.

Now, just a thought, I don't think a pro-sports team has been supported much by many on skyscraperpage but if F1 turns out to be very successful there in Austin, do you guys think that it could contribute in attracting a major sports team eventually in the coming years?

Nahh not likely anytime soon. They're two types of sports made of two different cloths.

National sports like NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL, & MLS depend largely on the home crowd to be there and support them. F1 is for everyone (truly international), literally people from Austin straight to people living in flats in London. The issue with NFL coming to Austin is the college football scene. MLB or NBA may be possible one day. NHL, ehh its to the back of the line back looks like Houston & San Antonio are closer to that reality than Austin. MLS, definitely possible and the one with the largest possibility.

Well lets see, F1 will be playing a big role here in Central Texas not just Austin but will be definitely impacting hotels in cities like San Antonio, Temple, & Waco. Also we have to remember F1 is just the beginning we also have V8 supercars, Le Mans, and maybe WSBK... as far as major league teams I don't see it happening aleast not anytime soon.

I do think the SXSW has a lot more to do with the hotels than many think. SXSW has become a monster. It is the biggest event of its kind in the world, and I really can't tell you how many people I meet all over the world would would kill to experience SXSW. It is everyone! lol.

If you look at where in downtown the hotels are being built, near the convention center rather than 6th or Red River area, and the type of hotels all with large conference space, I think that speaks a lot to why they are drawn to Austin.

And it isn't just SXSW directly, but many of the other things that SXSW has helped foster and grow during the rest of the year.

I'm not suggesting F1 and the other races aren't huge for Austin. Or that F1 hasn't helped get these hotels across the financing finish line (sorry. :P). But we've all seen what has been happening to the city the past 5 years every March. These hotels were coming regardless of F1. I still believe SXSW has a lot more to do with it than F1.

^^ You bring up good points Bevo.

Honestly though, at this point I don't think any of us even care anymore. It's may be just F1 or it may be things much beyond just that. I mean lets look at Austin's accomplishments just in the post-recession era. Many new "talls" proposed for the city. The city crowns itself as one of America's top film destinations and has one of the greatest film industries in the country (ESPECIALLY for its size). Its music scene is known for being the "live music capital of the world", whether that holds true on the world stage, doesn't matter because it does exist in Austin and it takes credit for it. Then the music scene expands from that and becomes a huge rock and roll, indierock, pop scene with many talented bands and acts. Let's face it, it has one of the best and most stunning topographies in the country and the lakes and rivers in the area so helps.

Let's move beyond that (the obvious) now. It's not only F1 but MotoGP (world championships), V8 Supercars, American Le Mans Series (US & Canada event), and one more type of racing will all be held in the circuit along with F1. That's just phenomenal! Just over night (the night the circuit opens) it will change and add to Austin's reputation both nationally and internationally. V8 Supercars is hugely followed around the world particularly Australia. MotoGP is like the F1 for the bike world (on an international scale), and American Le Mans should get our Cannuck brothers up north viewing.

Lets move EVEN beyond that. Austin gets no attention for this at all but it just made its GLOBAL debut as a global fashion center (along with San Francisco, both making their first debuts). They're joined in North America by only New York, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Miami, Chicago, Toronto, Mexico City, Dallas, San Francisco, & Atlanta. http://www.languagemonitor.com/fashi...shion-capital/

Stuff like this happening for the city often now: http://www.languagemonitor.com/fashi...shion-capital/

I lived in Asia before and am willing to say that UT is one of the most recognizable schools from the US. Lots of people wear the orange longhorn clothes even though they have no idea what it means, its a cultural thing that's gone way passed just Texas & the US. Not to mention UT is one of the best schools in the country and especially for a public university, awesome.

Tech is a given. Diverse economy is a given. Austin is becoming Texas's creative capital, music capital, & film capital. It's name is growing abroad, Las Vegas had the same exposure happen because of gambling and the strip, its suffered for it during the recession but it goes to show you that all you need is one high profile event to catapult you up there. Just ask Atlanta about the Olympics. The difference is, Austin's getting way more than "just one" event/sport and its growing in many other things very fast (fashion, music, film, culture, even politics).

I suppose I should retract my statement about SXSW. It is big for sure. On average there are bands in town for SXSW from 40 to 50 countries. And it does get a lot of tv exposure. I was just noting that the ratio of domestic visitors for SXSW vs F1 is probably higher. I'd be interested in seeing some official data on that.

SXSW is the largest conference/festival of its kind in the world that is not being debated, but on an economic level it will not compare to F1. The money flowing into our region will be like nothing we have ever seen. That is the point that's being made. Nobody is questioning the sucess and the influence of SXSW and fact is in several ways that has put Austin on the world map. F1 however will be like a giant flood light shining down on the city. SXSW has TV exposure but F1's TV audience is much, much larger.(the largest annual sport in TV coverage in the world) Hotels have been in the works for awhile but F1 really was the lighter fluid that hit the spark to get it jump started.



Speaking of Fashion. There will be huge fashion events including runway shows during the week of F1. Not surprised at all about Austin's influence in fashion. Even SXSW has seen huge potential with Style X which had its second year and already saw major growth from 2011 to 2012.

Well gentlemen, to recap on Austin's direction:

Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos, TX MSA: +3.92% growth from 2010 to 2011.

That rate is only surpassed by one other metro in the United States and that metro is (see below).

Kennewick-Pasco-Richland, WA MSA: +4.26% growth.

This is explosive growth.

Just an fyi regarding population. The of Austin may be the 13th largest incorporated city in the US now, but it is not really even close to being in the top 25 when you look at metropolitan areas which are a better indication of city size. Example: Minneapolis and Miami are less than half the size of Austin in population. And San Francisco smaller than Austin? True when you look at raw numbers but not when you look at the true measure of the size of a city. In fact, Austin ranks #34. The reason Austin is #13 is because the city itself is quite large in area and has few incorporated suburbs aside from RR, Leander and Cedar Park. Most cities have a dozen or more incorporated cities attached to them. See this list: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Table_o...tistical_Areas

Still, the growth is remarkable how fast Austin is growing and it looks likely that within 5 years Austin will surpass Cleveland, Las Vegas, Columbus and Cincinnati.

The fact that Austin's growth rate is so high in relation to the relatively small population of the other cities with a similar growth rate is amazing.

It's what it is, a fun fact and agreed Metro pop gives a better idea about the overall area. Austin is close to breaking 2 million mark so that will be an exciting moment when it does.

Another New Suburban Office Building Announced
 

I posted this on the Skyscraper City page as well. Endeavor just announced their new project - Domain 7 - which is an office building adjacent to the Domain Gateway office building in the Domain. Endeavor sent the below announcement email out to all the commercial real estate brokerage firms today. The flyer and site plan for the project is posted on Endeavor's website, if you are interested: http://www.endeavor-re.com/property/office/domain-7/

http://i1072.photobucket.com/albums/...t/2adc7301.jpg

yawn, only six stories!!! Wasn't this supposed to be our second downtown???Here we are years later and have only managed to get an 8 story building which probably isnt even tall enough to be a highrise....how lame.

I can't believe the city council nixed the temporary international arrivals hall for the airport. What a huge mistake. That set international traffic at the airport back 5 years. As for TV exposure in the states for F1 I predict it to be minimal to none. They have to compete with NFL and NCAA football.....

Btw, dirt is moving for a new project called Eleven.

http://www.forestargroup.com/Assets/...ering-huge.jpg
http://www.forestargroup.com

This is literally in my backyard. Our side of the street backs up to this property. All I'll have to do for photo updates is look over the back fence. :haha:

http://www.statesman.com/news/local/...e-2409422.html

Watch out for any stray crazies that might wander into your yard.

Before the old hospital closed they put up an 8 chain link fence. Actually, that did happen once. When I was a kid playing in the yard, two guys hopped the fence and ran through our yard followed by one of the guards.

I totally agree, but the real reason you don't see suburban skyscrapers in Austin is the cost. Low-rise (2-3 stories) and mid-rise (4-12 stories) are cheaper to build, not just total cost but cost per square foot. A building like Frost Bank Tower can cost between $300 and $400 per square foot to build and the owner/developer has to get higher rents to make a return on their invesment. Downtown office rents for high-rise buildings are as much as $10 to $15 per square foot higher than what an office tenant will pay in the suburbs. Low to mid-rise buildings cost between $200 and $250 per square foot to build for a nice building. Also, Austin suburbs have just as many if not more building height restrictions as downtown, but they are geared toward protecting neighborhoods rather than protecting the view of the Capitol. You have to get out in the boonies or ETJ to build something really tall without restrictions.

Also, you can build million-square-foot supertall suburban high-rises in Houston and Dallas because you have office tenants like the energy companies and big banks taking 500,000 square feet of office space in a single building. The biggest high-rise in Austin is Frost Bank Tower at approx. 550,000 square feet of office space, and Austin just doesn't have any office tenants big enough to take the big chunks of space at really high rental rates to justify building a skyscraper with more square footage than that. That's why ambitious skyscrapers like Tom Stacy's proposed building on Congress are always mixed-use with retail and residential, not just office. On the rare occasion an Austin company wants more than 300,000+ sf of office space, they don't lease space - they go build themselves a campus like AMD, Dell and Apple, or they buy an existing property, like Intel and Silicon Labs.

The Domain is Private Property.
 

I also believe that ALL of the Domain...including the roads, is private property owned by only one or two entities. It is not possible to buy any land and build. One must lease the land from Simon Property Group and the Endeavor Real Estate Group according to their rules and site master plan. The Domain is a Master Planned Community…wholly owned.

In order to have "a second downtown" it is essential to have a network of PUBLIC roads, with walkable sized blocks, and a variety of land owners who are not controlled by a singular corporation. The Domain has neither and will never be anything but a suburban, automobile based, master planned community. This may sound harsh, however, a downtown is a center for the community to come and congregate in the realm of public/private partnership. The Domain is private, private, private!

If I am wrong about The Domain being completely private property…Please enlighten me.

Actually Fox will be broadcasting the race nationwide. As far as how much exposure overall in the U.S. we will see but its going to be much better than before. Besides its the international coverage that im interested in.

Exactly.

Population
 

Something to think about. If you squeezed every man, woman and child in the entire 5 county Austin MSA into an area from Lady Bird lake on the south, to MOPAC on the west, north to Wells Branch Parkway, to I35 and then south back to the lake, you would have the approximate land size and population of Manhattan.

Maybe Austin is not so big and crowded after all!

But I35 and MOPAC still suck.

Went to see the fireworks. Heard a lot of people complain it sucked and to be honest, it really did. Austin is a major city its time to step up our fireworks display. Its pretty embarrassing to hear people say openly how disappointed they were in the display. Austin can do way better than that. Remember Aquafest??? Even the fireworks 5 years ago were better than this years and that's even skipping out on last year because of the drought. Maybe it's time to get a company to sponsor it because for a city our size, it should be better!

This is just an "aside" to the main content of this thread...that being "AUSTIN | Projects & Construction III ". Get that...III! We have gone through 2 other threads! This discussion allows us to gain a perspective on where Austin is. These new projects are happening for many reasons, including F1 and Fashion. Viva Austin!

Well I think everybody here did a great job in responses so no point for me to jump in:P

So walked by the JW site and they have a net rendering of the building at the corner of Congress and 2. More fencing and construction blockades are up. Looks like this thing is gonna get rolling any day now.

Can someone post a picture of this rendering? I will really appreciate it.

Also a few months ago I was reading a financial article that stated that a lot of family money was flowing to the Texas cities of Dallas, Houston and San Antonio from countries south of the US. Wealthy families were looking to relocate to a safer place to raise their kids and willing to invest in order to get fast-tracked toward citizenship. The article stated that Austin was not on most people’s radar. I believe with our continued strong economy and growth, coupled with events like F1 this fall, Austin will experience increased foreign investment very soon.

Does anyone know how much foreign capital is being invested in the new developments downtown? Especially the two hotels ready to start. I just assume nearly all the capital is originating in the USA. Someone out there must have some info to share.

This weekend I am going to make some time to ride around downtown to update my "current progress" pictures for all the under construction projects (except COTA). It has been a busy couple months and they need to be updated. I'll try to get a picture of the new rendering poster then. =)

Endeavor doesn't "own" any part of the Domain. They are the development partner of RREEF, who owns a large portion of the Domain and who will be financing Domain 7. Simon owns another large portion of the Domain (most of the North retail and a couple of the smaller office buildings), and another company, Cencor, owns/developed the apartments. The hotels were developed individually & separately by the hotel chains. The Domain Gateway office building is owned by a completely unrelated investment company. Some of the roadways are private and some are City of Austin. Yes, you can buy land in the Domain, for the right price, but it's unlikely that any developer would buy land from RREEF, Simon or Cencor adjacent to a site that could be developed by RREEF, Simon or Cencor to compete with your property. Would you take a gamble and build a building in the Domain, if all your tenants/clients/residents could be lured away by one of the established developers? The Domain was always planned as an "urban lifestyle center" with the "live-work-play" attitude for it's residents/tenants who are supposed to be able to walk to work, to play, to eat, to live, etc. and rarely leave their immediate surroundings (a bit Orwellian), so it was always going to be a just a handful of companies involved in the development. I'm not saying that's a good thing at all, but if the City of Austin had been involved there would never have been a Domain, at least not in the timeframe that it has happened. The City had a shot at turning the Domain into something really great when IBM put all that raw land up for sale in the early 2000's (next to JJPickle Research Center, of all things), but the City punted and it just didn't happen.

Hey guys, I moved the fashion discussion posts. You can find them in the Austin section, here:

http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=200302

I took a picture of it last saturday..

http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-...90389460_n.jpg

I got some photos of it from the Zilker Clubhouse. It was pretty good, but yeah, it seemed smaller than in year's past. The moon however, put on an awesome show rising behind downtown. I'll edit and post some photos as soon as I can.

Anyway, it could have been worse. San Diego's fireworks had a technical problem, and ALL of the fireworks that were meant for the 18 minute show went off in just 30 seconds.



• Video Link

• Video Link

Yeah, that was so random! I was on the roof of some friends' home near downtown SD to watch the fireworks and we were all wondering WTH. Fortunately, the Sea World, Pacific Beach and Ocean Beach fireworks shows were also all in view. ;)

Thanks AusTxDevelopment for the clarification.

This also helps answer a question I posted about the foreign capital and investment in Austin. A www search showed that RREEF was purchased by Deutsche Bank AG in 2002. I am assuming that their portion of the Domain is financed mainly through Germany. However that is just a guess. Again...if anyone knows anything about foreign investment/capital flowing into Austin please post what you know. I am sure foreign interests are seeking a location in the USA to provide a return on their investment and Austin is certainly a US hotspot.

Thought I'd jump in for something here - usually just read, but a couple of comments.

1) There is almost no chance Austin gets a major league team in the big sports. The NFL and MLB have two teams within 200 miles, and the NBA has 3. These franchises aggressively defend their territory, and they will not take the competition lying down. Throw in that UT football takes the place of the NFL in Austin, and the Spurs are a little over an hour away...well, it's just not going to happen.

2) F1 may seem like a big deal in Austin, but nationally nobody cares. Internationally maybe, but not the US. F1 has been tried here before, and it failed miserably. It's a nice thing, but to expect it to be some major tourist draw for Austin is really pushing things.

So basically, nothing will work for Austin. Gotcha.

migol24...Please elaborate on this. Do you mean drawing a pro sports team to Austin or drawing tourists and international attention to Austin?

Austin/Travis County has had quite a history in rejecting public funding for pro/semipro stadiums/arenas. It seems that without the public funding a team will not locate nor stay in a city. Thankfully up in Williamson County those folk will pay. I am glad Travis County has rejected these handouts.

As far as drawing international attention to Austin, Formula 1 will do that for at least a few years. Long enough that foreign interests will have Austin on their radar. Not that this is a good nor a bad thing...but it will happen.

To make a point back, your wrong about F1 in the United States. There is a large and loyal F1 fan base in this country and they are very excited that F1 is finally returning to the U.S. Unlike major league teams which mostly cater to regional fan bases F1 will draw people from all over the nation. It will be televised nationally and around the world. If you have been following the Circuit of the Americas you would know that they had to add more seating to keep up with the demand. Hosting an F1 event is a very big deal, its not ur typical sporting event.

As far as major league teams ever coming to Austin what you stated is old news, we already knew that and your assessment is accurate on that point, though its not out of the question that major league soccer may one day make a home here.

This link from the Office of the Governor - Economic Development & Tourism may answer some of your questions.

Foreign Investment in Texas
The Industries and Countries Leading Current Growth
2011

Edited to add:

As far as foreign real estate investment goes, I also found this from The Austin Business Journal (re-posted on urbanspacerealtors.com)

Austin remains popular with foreign real estate investors
January 4, 2012

Not sure what exactly you want me to elaborate on. It was simply a response to JGFrisco that not only thinks a pro-sports team will ever work, but also F1 will not work. What do I need to elaborate on?

But as for your comments, the thing about a pro-sports team, I don't understand how people don't think that the economy and population will make Austin's market grow in maybe a decade that it could be quite plausible to bring a pro team. Everybody keeps talking about how the Longhorns are already in Austin or the Spurs are already in San Antonio. I dunno, maybe I'm missing something cause when the population in Austin starts getting to nearly 2.5 million and the economy continues to grow, assuming everything works in its favor, I don't see how the trends will continue to stay the same that a pro-sports team will not be possible for Austin. People talk about it as if its a 0% chance Austin could get a pro-sports team.

And to think that there are other smaller cities, or similar sized cities, that have a pro-sports team even being so close to other big markets. Sacramento comes to mind. It's only about an hour and a half away from the Bay, a measly 30 mile difference from Austin to SA, and it has a basketball team when the Bay has already 2 football teams, 1 hockey team, 1 basketball team and 2 baseball teams. And Sacramento, mind you, is roughly the size of Austin or San Antonio in metro population.

Why can't 2 pro-sports teams work out in a region of nearly 4.5 million if you combined the entire Central Texas region from Austin to San Antonio?

I don't know.. but something is beyond me when people say Austin has no chance of ever getting a sports team. They factor in the Cowboys. I mean... really? A 3.5 hour drive from Austin and the Cowboys make that much of an influence on Austin's market not ever having a chance to even get a major league baseball team in maybe a decade from now when one of the top 3 fastest growing cities and markets will have already grown substantially by that time? How does that work? I would understand if it were another football team, but a baseball team?

What were people saying when San Antonio was trying to bring the Saints to their home? Just wondering...

Now about F1 Tracks... maybe it will work... maybe it won't but from what I gather is that people make assumptions from one extreme to another. They say that it will flat out be a disaster, while others say its gonna put Austin on the map for good and whatnot. I dunno. I'm not an expert on it like others try to be. We'll see how it works out.

I believe Austin will have much sucess with F1. Remember back in 1986 when SXSW first started people had no idea that 26 yrs later it would bring thousands of international musicians and put Austin on the map. I'm keep telling people, friends, family that Austin is about to experience something that other cities wish they had. Austin is a very lucky city, and I'm glad to be apart of it.

I'm guessing he didn't get the sarcasm of your response and took it for face value.

Old Concordia Campus
 

Hey all, out of commision for a while. Any updated pix and news regarding the old Concordia Campus on 38th/ 38 1/2 streets? i know the TX Monthly building went up i think last year, but any other development since that? i was going to visit Austin this summer but got a chance to go to Europe instead, (poor me) and can't make it until around Xmas. Any updates pix or narrative would be appreciative. i cannot seem to find anything current on line and my college chums have moved to Round Rock and Georgetown, so they are little help. Thanks in advance.

There is some earth moving and construction going on there now, but the previous two projects announced for that site went under because they couldn't get financing during the recession. I don't know what the latest plans are though.