I enjoy my backdoor route to Buda down Twin Creek and Old San Antonio. This development will ruin it.

Wait, what? I'm no fan of strip malls, but if they put up (another) squat low rise there with zero retail on the ground level like that rendering we'll be going backwards IMHO. Is this rendering for real? That would be horrible.

It's probably for the AMLI Town Center complex on Simonds, next to the Children's Museum. The site plan was recently approved.

Looks like ground floor retail to me.

Maybe, and that was my first thought, but they're moving dirt behind the construction fence and the trailer and porta potties aren't where you'd expect for the AMLI...plus the area fenced off is huge multiple acres, well in excess of what you would need to stage the AMLI

Too bad about the state - I can't say I'm surprised thought. I would hope if they don't have the stomach for P3s that they should sell off some of that land and let the private sector develop it. If only there was a way to take the politicians out of P3s and leave it to the Facilities Commission...

Of course I don't think either is a possibility, so any hope of this area should be stowed for the time being - this is not going to go forward at a pace that resembles anything but glacial.

You might be right. I went by myself to take a look. It is the area where the Town Center parking garage is going, but the site plan hasn't been approved, so they can't really be starting site prep. They might be preparing a larger area for staging in anticipation of the site plan being released soon. I also noticed they recently submitted a Phase II parking lot as well, so there must be some movement.

My mom works on the north side of Buda. She takes that route also (across that small one lane bridge). It's faster since she's able to go down South First which is just a half mile to the east of us. It's better than messing around with William Cannon and I-35 in the mornings. But yeah, I can't say I'm a fan of this. I doubt it'll truly be urban, just another sprawling development with acres of parking. How could it not be, it covers 600 acres. It's not a bad place for development with SH-45 being just south of it, but it's not going to help that area to have car oriented sprawl that contributes to traffic. I hate think of what that one lane bridge will be like with the added traffic...

It looks a lot better than what could have been built there. Considering how far out there it is I think it's not that bad. It will be much better than what is existing close to the north in the Southpark Meadows area and south to Buda.

The area in northern Buda is rural with farms and ranches. The place my mom works at has a farm on the property. It's only the area near I-35 that makes Buda look developed. If you go west a bit (even just few blocks), it's very rural.

Anyone else think that looks a lot like the Austonian chopped off at 12 (or so) floors?

Oh wow, it totally....IS.

They finally opened the Urban Outfitters in the W. It looks so much better now. That whole area feels a lot more complete.

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

Also, the lights are on inside of the Whitley. I just drove by it, but I briefly got a look inside and it looks nice. Close to being finished. Could we possibly see it opening before SXSW, too?

http://i.imgur.com/gR7tZNIh.jpg

I meant to go by SkyHouse, but it got dark. I bet it's huge now!

Urban Outfitters has been open for well over a year now. In fact, it has been so long, I can't even remember if it has been less than two years. (I think it not)

I bought something there in the summer of 2011, so it's been awhile.

Anybody know anything about the North Shore Lofts project posted on the Downtown Austin blog? Ideal location...

Go to the Austin Update thread in the Austin forum.

Whoa, no way. Because I've driven by there many times and didn't see anything. In fact, someone just posted on reddit a few months ago asking why nothing was open there and I cross-posted to here about it and no one said anything back then. Maybe they closed it down for a while and then opened it back up? Oh well..

Nope...it's been over for over 2 years now.

Sorry, but it hasn't been over 2 years. Maybe a little over a year. But their sign is dark. It's not lit up. So it's possible that I drove by in the middle of the night (I used to work the graveyard shift) and it didn't seem like anything was open there yet.

Edit: I figured it out. I was mistaken about which retail space still wasn't open. Apparently it is a different one: ]http://i.imgur.com/r8pqiVD.jpg