Well more developers would be building in DT Houston if they could buy land at the same price there and still charge rental rates $2.50-$4.00psf with a lease-up time frame of well under 12 months and sustained DT rent growth of 4+% even with new buildings going up next door. DT Austin is more expensive than Midtown Atlanta now, which I believe is more expensive than similar areas of Houston (with Miami at the top of the rental food chain, but unbelievably expensive land).

Novare underwrote 20% higher rents for Skyhouse Austin than Skyhouse Atlanta, and considering they paid $11.4MM for 1.72 acres in a not so desirable part of Midtown in Atlanta ($152/land foot), I doubt they paid that much for the plot they selected near DT Austin, so yea...Austin is hottt! I do hear that an Atlanta developer is looking at Houston, though I'm not at liberty to say who (would be for a very similar apt tower) and I don't know if it's DT or Uptown Houston or Rice Village/TMC area.

Austin is turning into the Miami of TX.

Does anyone have any info on when exactly the seaholm wall is going to start?? SecretAgent??
http://i1342.photobucket.com/albums/...ps9ea6934a.jpg
http://i1342.photobucket.com/albums/...ps6e43389d.jpg
http://i1342.photobucket.com/albums/...psace276c2.jpg

There is a new apartment tower supposedly being built on the west side of downtown Houston along Main Street. It will be the first residential scraper to be built downtown since One Park Place about 3 years ago. Theres also 2 blocks of parking lots that will soon become a 7-8 story apartment building across from Minute Maid Park. Austin is way ahead of downtown Houston when it comes to residential. But I believe in the coming decade downtown Houston will catch up to what Austin is doing now. To be fair, Houston inside the loop and the Galleria area is seeing way more high rise apartments getting built now than Austins but its just that Austin is booming downtown. Our high rise apartment/condo buildings are being built over a huge area.

The WhiteCo and Interfin buildings are the only high rise residential projects that I am aware of in Houston. What are the others?

I dont know the names of all of them because I dont have the time or energy to remember but of what Im aware there are 4 high rise residentials going up or about to, 2 highrise commercial buildings, and one high rise hotel.

Oh oh. We can't let this turn into an Austin vs. Houston thread.

I don't think this is going there in a negative way. It was just a "hey, how many does Houston have". Really, as long as Austin isn't being compared favorably to San Antonio, or Oklahoma City isn't being called non-urban, there really isn't going to be an issue.

:P

No I was going there.:haha:

Houston is one of my favorite cities, but I know it would lose in a Austin vs. Houston thread. So I was trying to spare Houston the embarrassment of losing to a much smaller metro. :)

OK, here is what I was able to find out:
"All of the projects between West Avenue & Shoal Creek, 3rd and Cesar Chavez (library, artwall, bridge, trails, etc.) have been consolidated into a single construction contract. Some early utility work may begin this spring, but most of the rest will start late in 2013. Actual timelines are subject to change due to completion of construction drawings, permitting, and potential conflicts with other nearby construction activities. The contractor will determine the exact sequence of construction of the various components."

I don't know how much Novare/AU paid for the property, but unconstrained downtown land generally costs +$200/foot

That's going to give the market time to absorb the projects that are starting now or that will soon. Green will be a triple threat with office, hotel and residential, so if it happens a little later, that's ok. It'll give them time for 3 eleven Bowie, Gables, 7Rio, Aquaterra, 3rd & Colorado, etc to get some contracts signed before the next wave of construction.

A few photo updates from the past week or so. First I don't see how anyone could justify painting over the graffiti on the railroad bridge as an improvement, it looks so old and ugly now.

http://i.imgur.com/E2jXz.jpg

Gables Park Plaza is really coming along. Once it's topped out and 311 Bowie is underway we are going to have a nice cluster on the Western edge of downtown. It always bothered me how Spring looked so all alone on that end.

http://i.imgur.com/3RkY9.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/JGKWw.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/8Hxma.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/PZGfT.jpg

This one is a few weeks old.

http://i.imgur.com/ayYd4.jpg

This one was taken today from the city parking garage at 2nd and Brazos.

http://i.imgur.com/g6VmP.jpg

The Skyhouse is moving along too.

http://i.imgur.com/ut9e7.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/tInt9.jpg

The cranes are up for the JW Marriott.

http://i.imgur.com/NZDYm.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/fUI8w.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/Wj0bt.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/XPfaC.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/pr77g.jpg

Someone had asked for some street level pics of the stonework on the Whitley.

http://i.imgur.com/iIp4R.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/ZSPq0.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/oop67.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/u514L.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/D9qLw.jpg

Dang. I hope the wall rolls out quickly. As y'all know, I've been really impatient with all of it. I want to see seaholm break ground...or at least some better renderings/clear timeline for green.

Really appreciate the update, corvairkeith.

Few thoughts:

SkyHouse is zooming along! They've made a lot of progress since I was last there.

Once 311 Bowie is up, that whole Western edge area will look great. 311 Bowie will be almost as tall as Spring and it will fill in that gap between Spring and the Monarch nicely. For perspective:

http://i.imgur.com/jd4OV.jpg

I just hope they do something to foster more walkability between Gables and these other buildings so that Gables is not a monoculture.

The stonework on the Whitley looks pretty good. Seems like they're pretty close to finishing that building. Another month or so, maybe. I've always been a big fan of curved corners like that in urban places. They create a nice street environment. With the JW Marriott and whatever occupies the U-Ship lot in the future, that could turn into a nice little block.

^3 eleven Bowie will be just 4 feet shorter than Spring, so the two will pretty much appear the same.

Looking good. I noticed Gables will block part of the view of Frost from Zilker Park.

I really like the view on the right. ;)

I really liked the graffiti :(

Yeah, the graffiti was a nice distraction from the ugliness of the bridge. Now without it you realize just how ugly and plain it is.

I don't mind the bridge, even without the graffiti. It has an old rustic look and that kinda appeases me in a way.

http://i1342.photobucket.com/albums/...psfcf5283f.jpg

Fear not, there is new art!

PS. It seems they broke ground on "streetlights" off Barton Springs :)

There's equipment on site at the Aquaterra. Also they have demolished the old building at 7 Rio.

Nice, funny thing about the robots and other bridge graffiti buffed this summer is that the city buff team was overzealous and buffed what was a legal commission. The "hi how are you" thing has also been "threatened" more than once.

Here are a few distant shots of West Campus that I took last week.

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-v...0/DSC06737.JPG

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-w...0/DSC06733.JPG

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-h...0/DSC06744.JPG

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-0...0/DSC06734.JPG

^Nice. That last one shows how huge Callaway House is. Notice how it wraps around The Castillian in that shot! That building is a beast. I'm surprised they only needed one crane for it.

Aquaterra progress

Construction trailer on site
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8354/8...21fd9b68_b.jpg

Construction equipment
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8355/8...f913ce25_b.jpg


311 Bowie progress

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8491/8...2608fc10_b.jpg

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8354/8...7e59774d_b.jpg

i'm excited about 311 bowie. i'm actually a bit more excited about it than i am about the marriott... i don't know why. weird.

I went by the supposed Aqua Terra site. The project is called Streetlights at Barton Springs now, not Aqua Terra. And I'm not sure that's the site. There's also a 7-story parking garage that is planned for the Hyatt. The address is 208 Barton Springs, so it's probably very near the Hyatt. There's also construction fence wrapping around the parking lot on the other side of the Hyatt driveway. I went in there on Saturday. I snapped a few photos through the fence of the construction site. I didn't get any of the fence around the parking lot, though, because it doesn't look like they've started on that yet. I talked to a guy that was outside the building at 209 Barton Springs, that white 5-story office building, he didn't know if the building had started construction yet or not. He did tell me that Streetlights, the company doing the building, has offices in that white office building. That company is also doing a project at University Park/East Avenue and at the Domain. Those buildings are 5 to 6 floors.

I was hoping to find the site plan showing the arrangement of the building in that block.

As best I can tell, the Streetlights at Barton Springs tower will be 209 feet tall. The height that they had always published in the Statesman was 199 feet, but that was to the main roof. There was one building elevation with the site plan that showed 200 feet at the midway point of what looked like wings on the building's roof, similar to The Monarch. I also found another building elevation that showed a faded outline of a mechanical penthouse above the main roof and I measured it at 209 feet.

If that is the height, 209 feet would easily be the tallest building south of the river. It would also be the first 200 footer south of the river. The tallest now is the Hyatt at 185 feet.

I'm glad you got some photos of the 311 Bowie site. I ran out of time since it got dark before I could get over there. It looks like they're drilling for foundations.

I feel that way to Migol24, maybe it has to do with the design of 311 Bowie although both are great designs. Also thanks Kevin I didn't realize Aquaterra has changed it's name, the 7 st. parking garage sounds nice as well, this and the new 5 st. parking garage on Lamar may ease parking but I have my doubts.

Citrus Logic

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8081/8...8ffbb130_b.jpg

New building off Lamar & 5th st.

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8215/8...cbab3fd4_b.jpg

Can someone remind me what that building on Lamar and 5th St. is going to be?

Thanks Hill Country... Lol I mean't to say Cirrus Logic.

From the City's emerging project poster:

(The address for the project is actually 405 N. Lamar.)

Here is the link about the project from Schlosser Development's website.

Thanks for posting. I see they've updated the rendering of the re-designed (and shorter) Shoal Creek Walk.

http://www.sdcaustin.com/ShoalCreekWalk.html


http://www.sdcaustin.com/images/2012...KNORTHFACE.jpg

http://www.sdcaustin.com/images/2012...KNORTHFACE.jpg

And might I say better looking by far, despite being shorter.

I knew it would just be a matter of time.

http://i.imgur.com/eYKhf.jpg

Thats fucking awesome lol

I love it lol, they better not paint over it >.<

Just posted by The Trail Foundation. I didn't know they did this.

• Video Link

While it's not a 28-story 350 foot office tower, that link shows the rendering with 18 floors. 17 floors of office space plus one floor of retail. That would make it somewhere around 225 feet tall. So it would be about the same height as the Gables residential tower currently under construction nearby.


And this just epic. LOL that is awesome! Take that graffiti prudes! haha

Found this schematic for Broadstone at the Lake, aka the Runtex site...

http://i.imgur.com/1vpb9.jpg

http://www.austintexas.gov/edims/document.cfm?id=175784

...which will apparently be right next to/in front of Streetlights at Barton Springs, aka AquaTerra.

http://i.imgur.com/uqREE.jpg

http://austin.siretechnologies.com/s...3035111788.PDF

I drove past there today, they have construction workers on site at Streetlights at Barton Springs
(aka Aquaterra). Also notice while driving by The Triangle off Lamar there is a huge hole in the ground, kind of wonder if it's the 10st. tower that was proposed for that area awhile back?

What is SKO?

I was looking up site plan info for North Lamar, and there's a 6-story residential building with approval at 4527 N. Lamar. That's at the Triangle, tract 5. It has 3 levels of parking under ground, so I bet that's what you saw. The building is 79 feet tall to the main roof.

Site plan here:
https://www.austintexas.gov/devrevie...erRSN=10715409

I'm pretty sure Streetlights at Barton Springs (Aqua Terra) hasn't actually started construction yet. I was looking at the site plan for the project on the city's website, and the construction site is west of the Hyatt driveway, not east. So that construction site where they're digging now is most likely for the Hyatt parking garage. The Streetlights site is only fenced off so far.

Streetlights at Barton Springs will be built almost immediately south of that white 5-story office building at 209 Barton Springs. The address for Streetlights is 210 Barton Springs.

Here is the site plan. I wanted to post the site plan image showing the building's placement on the block, but the image is huge and I couldn't size it down without losing detail. Check the first couple of links.
https://www.austintexas.gov/devrevie...lderRSN=271455

This is the site plan for the Hyatt garage. The address is 208 Barton Springs, the same as the hotel.
https://www.austintexas.gov/devrevie...erRSN=10111092

The construction site shown below is for the Hyatt parking garage. The parking garage will go up south of the Hyatt according to the site plan. It'll be alongside the alley next to that old retail building that faces Congress. The parking garage will be 85 feet tall with 7 levels.

Was looking at the emerging projects poster and noticed that Post is thinking about building a boutique hotel/condominiums at Lamar & Riverside, which is currently the Taco Cabana. That would be awesome! I hate that Taco Cabana. It has no business being there. The poster said it would be "about 150 rooms ... with 12 condominiums on the top floors". 150 rooms sounds pretty big!

On the issue of the Hyatt parking garage, the poster says that they're also building a "ballroom and meeting rooms on the existing south parking lot".

Re: Taco Cabanna. That was certainly built at a point when there was no development on South Lamar in the forseeable future! LOL

Worse... I have friends who live in "Bridges" right behind there. Realize they are bookended by Taco Hell! Taco Cabanna on one end and Taco Bell on the other!

Taco Cabana beats Taco Bell any day.

Absolutely. Except for that particular Taco Cabana. It is filthy.