I've grown to be FINE with everything considered here, but still upset we get disposable highrise architecture with Hanover. Truly some of the ugliest filler design out there in America. They can and should do better for Christ's sake.

They really need to leave the second story of the building as an open air second story for patio space for those bars. Those bars will never survive without their outdoor patio spaces.

Don't know how credible this is so take it with a grain of salt. A friend of mine heard from Coconut Club staff/management that they're not only no longer closing (and thus this is no longer happening anytime soon), but they're also now going to be doing renovations to their current space. I know the market right now is not great so this isn't surprising, but haven't seen/heard anything on this one specifically

No permits have been filed about this project which would be unusual if the project was moving forward any time soon.

Yeah, heard on social media Coconut club is doing renovations. Absolutely love this bar. Walked by last week during Afro Tech conference and it was BOOMIN

I guess I thought that residential projects would still be able to get off the ground at this point, but maybe the debt markets just don't want anything to do with building tall stuff at all.

I'm starting to wonder if the down cycle is going to be longer and deeper than first blush.

It's not that the debt markets don't want to "build tall." It more like it being cost prohibitive for developers to enter into a construction capital deal right now - regardless of height.

Demand for housing is still there...it's just too expensive to deliver it.

It's a bit of a conundrum. The Fed hikes rates to slow down the economy and fight inflation by making it more expensive to borrow money. But doing that is counterproductive WRT housing inflation. It makes it more cost prohibitive to build more housing. It makes it more difficult to increase supply and bring down prices.

I'm glad this one isn't moving forward. I hope during this "down time, the city can push foward with a plan to preserve 4th between Colorado and Lavaca on both sides. Say what you will but Downtown wouldn't be what it is today without the likes of the Warehouse District or 6th or Red River. We still need entertainment blocks scattered within DT or it will just be bland with no character, nothing to keep residents or visitors wanting to be out. We don't need every section of DT built up with skyscrapers. I think blocks like this give better viewing of the surrounding towers anyways.

I semi agree in that I'm glad this plan isn't going through, a great club is going to stay and the street won't be dealing with a "chef driven" restaurant on the corner, but I don't think it's impossible to build up downtown while keeping these spaces.

The plan was, imo, heavily in OCH's favor only, when it could be configured to have space for both bars same as anything being built right now on Rainey. I will concede though that even those are watered down in a way I don't think they need to be.

I do agree that if we don't have space for the amenities that make downtown the destination it's been we will be left with a dead zone, but It's entirely within a developers ability to plan a tower that provides those spaces and homes/offices above them.

Same! Good riddance to this project.

I really feel that the city should push developers to do more with ground or 2nd floor public space with their projects. It's one thing to have restaurant or retail space, but what we need throughout Downtown is music venue space. Austin is supposed to be the Live Music Capital of the world, well then we need more specific use space other than retail or restaurant. Something similar to that ground floor ACL space they have that opens up onto 2nd Street. We need other developers to incorporate that sort of space.

we passed a downtown sound ordinance law maybe a decade ago now that killed the live music scene

https://www.austintexas.gov/faq/nois...oise-ordinance

nobody building anything to accommodate open air live music downtown until that is done away with

Exactly!

The spaces should have some flexibility to host more than just restaurants or boutique sized retail if we want to have a truly livable downtown. Music venue space, theater space, supermarkets, urbanized big box brands, etc need space that what's coming online downtown can't really handle. The more we can do downtown and depend less on cars the better.

Is there anything we can do besides be armchair developers?

That, and a number of residential buildings either have woefully insufficient soundproofing, or there are people on low enough floors that will end up hearing the noise regardless. IIRC, the Westin Hotel had a lot of trouble with it's crappy soundproofing when it first opened right next to Dirty Sixth.

It always blows my mind being a Rainey resident and seeing both: (1) new construction that doesn't have adequate soundproofing considering how close bars are; and (2) people living in those units that complain about that noise, when they obviously knew what they were signing up for.

https://www.kut.org/business/2023-12...-to-close-down

I hope Coconut club is already looking for a new spot just incase. I really love the vibes from there