The bungalows on Rainey St. have been in the endangered species category for a long time. Probably half of them have been torn down or moved elsewhere in the past few years. The rest have been converted to bars and restaurants. This conversion to bars and restaurants was never really anticipated (except by me and a few others) when the area got rezoned several years ago. At that time, everybody's wet dream was for the area to be filled with highrises or mid rise structures possibly to be built by one developer. This never happened for a variety of reasons, and the bars and restaurants started popping up just a few years ago taking advantage of the anything goes zoning that was suddenly available for the area. I kind of doubt that the area will survive in anything resembling it's present appearance for long. It will be a hard sell to have the bungalows deemed to be of architectural merit or historic structures. One by one they are likely to disappear and be replaced by higher density development. I'd like to see a few survive, but I think the street could still be quite interesting redeveloped into something denser and more residential.

I don't care about the Pearl or the bungalows. But it's still pretty underwhelming to have 2.2 acres of good real estate go to an 8-story building with a parking garage.

Hum, let me think: Once again a cool area with great trees and casual destinations that draws people gets mowed under to generic highrises to bring people to an area where there are said cool bars and eating desitnations..... but opps... oh yeah, you mowed under all the reasons people wanted to go there in the first place. Hum, what doesn't make sense about that? And no, concrete street level retail will not replace the character in the area.

Character makes great neighborhoods and destinations. TO me a really smart developer ...that we know will make plenty of money anyway, would buy up a few places on Rainey and keep them for thier residents! ,,,, which also means you might maitain a shady lane that is also appealing to residents, etc. That would be "developing" an area and not just ignoring why it has an alternative appeal to folks who want to live downtown AND have a great feel to an area. Has all the potential of being a great combo. Iff some of the character can survive!

I don't get why they need all those lots for an eight story building. Why not preserve the character of Rainey street and all the local businesses that have become big attractions and build a 16 story building on the lots behind facing the frontage road? You save on land costs and have a great location next to the bars and restaurants that people enjoy on Rainey street.

yup....agreed,

I'm thinking they're still holding out hope of building their twin towers. The two taller buildings would have been apartments, while this shorter building was said to be office space. I would estimate an 8-story office building would be around 120 to 130 feet tall - so slightly shorter than the Milago Condos on Rainey Street. There's no way they need 2.21 acres for an 8-story office building. 2.21 acres is an area of 96,267.6 square feet. Assuming each floor of the building was equal, that would come to 770,140.8 square feet. It would be an 8-story building with 235,000 more square feet than the Frost Bank Tower. I'm betting they'll sit on the rest of the land until they can cough up the dough for the two bigger buildings. Either that or they'll seek a buyer who can.

Agreed.

Update from the neighborhood - "The White House" Charity Bar - Immediately south of Luster Pearl, shuttered in the past week or so.

I believe the gal who was renting it and managing the trailer rental operations setup a new arrangement in the grassy lot owned by a different developer, immediately East of the MACC. Crews have been installing fencing, electrical, and all the misc. junk from the White House is down there.

Combined with the closing of the SoCo food court for a hotel(?), a well-built food court on Rainey St. Could be a smart move right now. Seems that lots of trailers have been shifting locations due to development lately.

Spoke with said Lady. She informed me this will be half trailer food with 12 trailers total, and half dog park. Hope it works out!

A trailer food park surrounded by dog feces and urine? I'm there.

They could seperate the two with a wall of porta potties.

Yeah...interesting, I guess. I say ditch the dog park.

Well, FWIW, Sutton sold that property in December according to the Austin American Statesman.

I honestly think Rainey area has done so well for development is that the rainey st bars/houses are a destination for many people. When you blow those houses/bars up, the area kind of loses its character. It would be so much better if they could just develop on East Ave and retain the character of Rainey St.

Hopefully that character finds a new way to re-assert itself maybe through rooftop outdoor seating areas/bars or something. As is, there is no way to stop the houses from eventually being redeveloped. That was the original plan after all when it was just residential. Most likely, many will continue the migration to the east side and if i35 really is sunk, that wont be such a bad thing as it would be easy to get to for residents of Rainey street.

According to Eater it looks like the new place on Rainey Street (formally owned Sutton property) will be called Millennium Rainey.

http://austin.eater.com/archives/201...for-condos.php

The Dinerstein Companies have on their website pictures of another project they will be doing in the Woodlands. It also goes by the name Millennium.

http://www.themillennium.com/Texas/T...nium-SixPines/

I hope the one on Rainey won’t be a replica of that. :/ It just doesn’t mesh with the Rainey vibe.

Sutton had some extravagant plans with their original proposed project. I was truly blown away by the original designs, but the moving of the houses from their original locations was a tragic idea. It is truly what makes that place unique.

In the end, what saddens me, all their plans turned out to be a nice little sales pitch for the property itself.

Let’s hope this isn’t the case for this one.

Preach on! Again... agree on all points. Trying to get most developers to not "Develop the character out of an area" seems to be hard concept to understand!

Didn't realize lustre pearl was closing for this... damn.

I guess we could calculate the height based on foot print and the stated 250,000 sq foot number... but Im not smart enough to...

I hate that Austin growth kills the places that generate the demand in the first place... Other than that I'm all for densification.

http://www.bizjournals.com/austin/ne...reetdevel.html

96,000 square feet of land! You could theoretically fit 250k sq ft in just three stories of construction. Add parking and setbacks and you could push it to the eight stories reported earlier. I don't know why they felt the need to add the Lustre Pearl lot to this project at the last second. Seems like a complete waste and overreach.

The article says that the Lustre Pearl building will be moved to a new location. It's not closing down.