Austin | 415 Colorado | 640 Feet | 47 Floors | Complete
 

There was a post(s) about this being a potential tower site a while back - in the update thread probably. But it's official now because a site plan for a "high rise office tower" project named "Tower 5c" was filed this morning. Specific tower info is not yet available.

https://abc.austintexas.gov/web/perm...pertyrsn=91634


Here's the location from Streetview:

https://i.imgur.com/DOYt87X.png

Adios to another lil chunk of the Warehouse District.

Yea, so long what little street activity is left along that side of Colorado. Used to be such a vibrant segment.

Hmm, that is a little sad. I like that little stretch of Colorado. it's cozy. I don't get why they can't focus on developing the big-ass parking lot right next door.

Does this include the original Alamo Drafthouse building?

Seriously.
Do we have to bulldoze every single block downtown and replace it with sterile glass boxes, soul-less lobbies, and $10 inward-facing coffee shops that cater only to the 9-5 crowd?

Not anti-development at all, but a quick glance at an up to date satellite photo shows plenty of surface lots that could/should be developed first.

All those surface lots are being squatted on by Nate Paul.

Not even kidding.

Looks like Rudy Garza's engineering company is working on this building.

That sucks. I love all the new high rises, but you have to maintain a balance in the neighborhood otherwise you're going to lose the original character of it so that it doesn't exist anymore. There are still significant vacant lots where high rises could go in that neighborhood. It's unlikely that any new lowrise buildings would be built on those lots, so it makes sense to focus on them for highrises instead. Give the neighborhood meaningful infill while maintaining the character that has been helping to support the new growth in the first place.

I would guess not. Walmart recently renovated and is occupying that building with their first tech incubator hub.

https://corporate.walmart.com/newsro...n-austin-texas
https://www.bizjournals.com/austin/n...-tech-hub.html

It would be one thing if they actually incorporated music/club venue space into the project but they won't. So piece by piece what was once a vibrant district with a ton of pedestrian activity is now only a shadow of it's former self.

I'm a Yimby but I'm telling y'all, we need to make some demands of these developers. We need to assert some control over what they're building in place of these beloved establishments.

Agreed:cheers:

I understand where you're coming from in general, but in this case, Searsucker has been closed for a while. I like Lonesome Dove and Chinatown, but I don't know of anyone who thinks of them as beloved. Also, they do have other locations.

They do need to replace the loss of the restaurant/retail spots on the ground floor of their new building though. It would be irresponsible not to IMHO.

At least this building will likely make the ugly backside of 405 Colorado less visible.

Yeah, this block has been a graveyard for new bars for decades other than Chinatown. I agree we need to demand restraint and bars in all of these buildings.

I think you’re going to be excited.

Which properties other than 415 Colorado are involved? Can you say who the developer is? Gensler is apparently the architect. :)

Give us a hint, George!

I’m sure someone will find the elevations soon.

^^^ That probably means they will be posted for AULCC as soon as next week.

Also, in two to four weeks we'll have some specific tower info like the floor count, use(s), developer, etc. after the formal site plan goes into review.

The backup files for the October Design Commission meeting will most likely be posted online next Friday 10/25. So the the first elevations and/or renderings for several significant projects including this one could be available at that time. AULCC files are typically posted on Thursdays and Fridays. So we could have some good info about several projects at the end of next week.

Not that this means much, but I'll post it anyway. After I saw the site plan, I did a little research to see if I could find out who the developer was.

So far the only property publicly tied to this project is 415 Colorado. That property and the neighboring 409 Colorado building are both owned by Dorot LP. The Dorot LP has an address in the Austonian tower and appears to be owned by a former Florida lawyer. 409 Colorado is the home of the joint Walmart IT/Microsoft cloud computing project. I thought Walmart owned the building, but I guess not. So that property could be part of this project. The Walmart/Microsoft project was formed to migrate Walmart's IT systems to Microsoft's cloud. So they could be close to finishing up with that project and not need the space any longer. The Lonesome Dove and Chinatown property on the corner at 419 Colorado has different ownership. The only other property that could be part of this project is the former Frank's at 407 Colorado which has a different owner than the other 400 block properties.

I wanna big bad tower that tips its hat to the Frost Bank Tower.

This project started off with one strike against it because it's another project nibbling away at the Warehouse District. But at the very least, this project will largely hide the least attractive side of 405 Colorado. And I know a lot of you are now thinking "Which side would that be?"

Yeah, this is taking away from the warehouse district, but from the looks of it, it's going to be on a pretty small footprint. At least unless its neighbors are included, but that would mean either Lonesome Dove closing (which we've heard nothing about) or the wal-mart space going away, which is unlikely.

So either way, this looks like a small avenue-type building -- meaning no giant parking podium....

Jan Buchholz checks city permits and Travis County property records too. I think the Tower 5c site will be everything north of The Molar.

https://i2.wp.com/atxrealestatenews....pg?w=504&ssl=1
https://atxrealestatenews.com/2019/1...ned-plus-more/

The site plan application lists the limit of construction as .51 acres or 22215.6 Sq. Ft. Maybe someone can translate that to the probable footprint.

We definitely need to push the city council in requiring music venue space going forward.

That square footage suggests it is all three remaining buildings on the block. I don't believe any of them host live music though.

The block of remaining buildings there is roughly 170' x 170' = 28,900 sqft
using crude Google map's measurement tool

If we're going to be mowing down more existing buildings that have a bit of architectural character to them and are human-scaled, instead of using any of the surface lots to build on, then this better be a goddamn signature tower.
It would be an entirely different conversation if there were no open space left, or no other lots to build on.

Agreed.

Yea none of those buildings are club/music venues but they once were. I feel that if they are going to tear up the rest of the warehouses then at least put in some sort of entertainment space ground level.

The Google Earth measurement tool is actually pretty accurate as I've compared it to the numbers that the building site plans have listed. They list the widths and lengths for buildings, and I've been able to measure their locations in Google Earth and the numbers match. As long as you're zooming in nice and close, you can get the numbers nice and close. Also, the old Edwin Waller map of downtown lists the block sizes and lot sizes, so you can measure against those using Google Earth to double check.

It's interesting that the Wal Mart Innovation Lab or whatever it is seems to be included in this footprint. When it was announced a couple of years back, it was supposed to be a relatively big thing, and I didn't get a sense that it was supposed to be temporary, or have a sunset date.

I wonder if they'll be a tenant in the new building.

I didn't see it mentioned yet, but this tower is a Ryan Companies project as well as the 321 W. 6th St. project. We should have more info including height by Wednesday or as soon as Monday - unless the Thanksgiving Holiday slows the flow of info.

The formal site plan posted online was disappointingly short of tower specifics. But it will be 470K - to 490K Sq. Ft. of office space over 17 levels of parking with a 10K Sq. Ft. restaurant. It didn't say how many office levels there would be or if any of the parking levels were underground. This could be around 40-stories I'm guessing.

https://abc.austintexas.gov/attachme...g1Y9820g%3D%3D

A Development Assessment for Demo was posted online today.

https://abc.austintexas.gov/web/perm...pertyrsn=91634

Moving fast.

It's confirmed that the project will take out the the rest of the 400 block.

https://i.imgur.com/MDkI6T8.png

We should get some renderings Monday if not sooner. This on the HLC agenda for the 12/02 meeting. Notice that it says "partial demolition of warehouse buildings". They must be planning on using the facades in the new building.

https://i.imgur.com/SK2i3gt.png

See towers article now!

https://austin.towers.net/meet-tower...-and-colorado/

This is one of the sketches on George Blume's Instagram.

https://austin.towers.net/wp-content...4809267714.jpg
https://austin.towers.net/wp-content...4805420904.jpg
https://austin.towers.net/wp-content...ion_detail.jpg

It looks like this might have rounded corner(s). If that's the case, this pleases me. I kind of wish it was a 700 footer though. Something in height between the Independant and 6X. I really like the top of the building, not sure if you would call it a crown, at least not in a conventional way, the openings exposing some interior is pretty cool. I wonder if any of that would be visable from below or from a distance. This is very close to what I've been waiting for, except 10 floors shorter. I just showed the renderings to my chihuahua and she just turned away and buried herself under the blanket. What do dogs know anyway:shrug:

I like the design, especially the round part. The top also looks amazing.

We now have 15 towers in development that are over 500'. That doesn't even include some planned projects that should be well over that height like Block 190, Railyard Condos site x 2, and 321 W. 6th.

At least they are making an attempt to incorporate 409 Colorado's facade. It'd be nice if the building itself was incorporated into it, instead of just some lame half-ass attempt at bolt-on wall decor.

That’s a cylinder, or my name isn’t we vs us. Immediately 65% more interesting than most of the other stuff we’ve been seeing.

That is a cool design and definitely rounded rather than squared but I too wish this was taller than it is proposed, especially considering it will be cady corner to 6X Guad. still another 600+ footer is nothing to sneeze at. At least it isn't another 595 or just under 700 sort of situation since those irritate me more. It's like why not just at 10 or 15 feet more to push it to the next level sort of thing..

FYI... 321 W. 6th is the project that will be caddy corner to 6XG.

ooooooooohhhh. This is the one at 5th and Colorado. My bad, I get so confused with these names plus theres so much going on it's hard to keep them in order. Actually I think the height works for that location. I just hope they incorporate entertainment venues at ground level such as music venues.

The old Frank building is not a part of this and is going to keep standing. It will be similar to the Roosevelt Room after Hanover Republic is built.