It's a great idea. I really would love to monetize a stretch of the riverfront with patio restaurants and other commercial-esque promenades to take advantage of skyline views in this area. It would be easy to extend the boardwalk to go around so that we could keep the runners and cyclists unobstructed. It's this kind of grand thinking that would take this city to a truly world class level.

It's a stretch, but they could always do a sort of stage on a small barge or something and just bring it out when it's needed so there's not a bandstand/stage there all the time.

You could do it like San Antonio's riverwalk stage.

I'd be a fan of integrating shade into the area without blocking the skyline view. Perhaps they could take cues from the shade building used in the domain.

http://impactnews.com/downloads/2621...ering%2009.jpg

If the density is even close to that, I'll be happy. :slob:

I've never understood the desire for setbacks around Town Lake. What's the rub with height right along the water's edge? Maybe I've just never experienced negative effects. Looks awesome in Chicago.

Pretty sure someone spent a lot of time in trying to prevent that from ever happening :)

Here is a flyer regarding an upcoming presentation about waterfront development and the South Shore district, by a world-renowned expert on the subject: http://www.austintexas.gov/sites/def...out4_flyer.pdf

Hopefully one or more of us will be able to attend and report back to the group.

Looks like the Statesman is now moving out of their site, or at least the printing

http://www.statesman.com/news/busine...ress-ro/nk6Qk/

Good news (except for those laid off)... this is the first step to redeveloping that sweet spot. My guess is they will want to sell to get cash on hand considering that business model isn't working (digital newspaper subscrips). Hope they don't sell to an apartment builder. We need a public/private offer... time for that soccer stadium :)

Cox has some pretty deep pockets and a large broadband/cable operation to provide cash flow. I suspect they will not do a quick sale just to raise money, but I am sure that the parcel is now in play and attracting a lot of interest.

I can't see over the paywall, but the American-Statesman has a new article on this.

http://www.statesman.com/news/busine...bird-la/nmKGw/

Try this link:

http://www.mystatesman.com/news/busi...3948020.735742

Thanks. I love this paragraph:

"Currently, the city paints a fairly dismal picture of the area. It is marred by poor public access, limited public green space, vast parking lots and aging, auto-oriented development. The wide, busy streets aren’t conducive to walking, biking or mass transit, and the surface stormwater runoff creates water-quality issues for Lady Bird Lake, the city says."

Every word of it is true, and it makes one realize that it would be nearly impossible to do anything with the South Shore that would fail to improve it, short of maybe a large fracking operation, oil refinery, or open-pit mine. It's exciting to imagine what may transpire in that zone, and how it will interact with the lake and downtown.

KXAN has a story with video about the South Shore vision. This is a looooooooooooooooooooooooooong term plan.

http://kxan.com/2015/09/03/new-beaut...ront-unveiled/

What I got from the video is that we're farther away from anything happening in the South Shore district than any of us ever imagined. One by one, the property owners will redevelop their properties, and the city will provide incentives for beautification, greenery, and walkability. That's about it. Did I miss anything?

You got it Tech House.

I never thought that this would be a quick transformation to begin with since it does deal with individual property owners however, I do think that most of not all of them will want or are already planning on redeveloping their properties so 10 to 15 years seems reasonable.

My question is what about the mixed use project currently under construction? Has the city been working with them to tie in with the overall master plan or are they going to be the lone wolf that doesn't quite fit in but is too late to do anything about?

Paul78701 already linked to the Statesman article about this in the Update thread. But since this project already had a thread I thought I'd bump it with the link to the ABJ article. This is now a real project with the owners putting out an RFIQ.

This will expand Downtown across the river just as Greenwater/Seaholm expanded it to the SW and the Brackenridge Tract will expand it to the NE.


http://www.bizjournals.com/austin/ne...town-site.html

Was the RFQ released to the public? I'd like to see what they are looking for.

http://www.statesman.com/news/busine...for-sta/nqLtQ/

Looks like the owners of the site are soliciting plans for redevelopment as well. I've been following this for a bit, so I'm excited to finally see some movement here.