Austin | Sabine Tower (708 E 12th) | 430 Ft | 39 Flrs | Cancelled
 

It might be a little early to start a separate thread for this project. But it will be a tall residential tower similar to its neighbors - The Alexan Waterloo and The Waller at Symphony Square.

It'll have 350 residential units and 35K Sq. Ft. of retail. The site is about an acre. PC Staff recommends the zoning change to CBD. Here's the Backup File for the 05/10 Planning Commission Meeting:
https://www.austintexas.gov/edims/do....cfm?id=382537

The location on Streetview:
https://i.imgur.com/jJfpj4e.png

Is there a CVC over this site at all?

No CVC.

According to WWMIV's map a proposed CVC cuts through the center of the lot. It's the Lott Park CVC.

https://i.imgur.com/QOe9oEn.jpg

Uncheck the proposed Ora Houston CVCs that never happened. Maybe wwmiv can remove those from his map? :)

https://i.imgur.com/yXPdtJ8.png

Why is anybody proposing more CVC's? The only proposals should be for less and less CVC's.

When Ora Houston was on the CC several years ago she proposed them to slow down/stop gentrification on the East side. They would also have prevented significant downtown development like this project, Alexan Waterloo, Symphony Square, etc.

The failed proposed CVCs:
https://i.imgur.com/jK5GJqL.png

Ora Houston is a piece of work. Glad to see her gone

Lott Park is already blocked but the tower in front of it. So that CVC might be not relevant.

None of Ora Houston's proposed CVCs from a few years ago are relevant.

The PC should rubber stamp the zoning change at tonight's meeting; then it heads to CC on 06/09. There's no controversy about this site, so the CC will probably pass this on consent.

Downtown Austin Residential Tower Planned for Defunct State Pension Site

https://austin.towers.net/downtown-a...-pension-site/

A one-acre downtown property currently occupied by the former headquarters of a state pension fund is up for rezoning at tonight’s meeting of the Planning Commission, with city staff recommending the zoning change for the site, located at East 12th Street and the I-35 Frontage Road, to a central business district (CBD) designation — paving the way for a plan by an unknown developer, described in the review sheet document for the case as a tower project containing 350 residences and 35,000 square feet of retail space in the heart of Austin’s newly-formed “Innovation District.”

Right on schedule: SSP > TOWERS > ABJ is next. :)

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"While we’re not sure if demolishing a building that’s less than 20 years old in favor of a taller development actually constitutes a new Austin record, it’s certainly an interesting factoid to tell your friends about the rate of downtown’s growth."

The rebuilt Austin Music Hall `2008 - 2014, completely new except for the slab, wins by a long shot.

Just wait for Kathie Tovo to try to exact affordable housing in exchange for the upzoning (which is illegal by the way).

Will update tomorrow.

Site plan filed today. We should have more details on this one soon.

https://abc.austintexas.gov/public-s...rtyrsn=1114392

Height of 444’ and Spring start date submitted to the FAA.

https://oeaaa.faa.gov/oeaaa/external...1252901&row=18

Nice. That was an early FAA filing.

Hope it blocks the wildly bright new Trammel Crow Alexan ;)

This one may be known as Sabine Tower. 660’ for the crane:

https://oeaaa.faa.gov/oeaaa/external...52241072&row=0

It is the Sabine Tower now with 38 floors. I'm looking forward to the renderings.

https://i.imgur.com/fJeI6Ia.png
https://i.imgur.com/wxEk8tg.png

This is a hotel with 536 rooms.

...and if I'm reading the elevations correctly, it's 438'6" tall.

Correct. 431'6" + 7' = 438'6"

The site is sloped. Level one's entry is 7 feet below average grade.

Wow, that's a lot of not-glass. To join the other not-glass towers in the immediate area. Will be interesting to see what the facade materials and color end up being. Hopefully not just stucco.

Holy shit!

EDIT: and that's no Homewood Suites! At 536 rooms that's almost certainly another group house. Room count is just a little smaller than the Marriott Downtown.

That area of 35 is going to feel like a canyon itself soon.

And that's without even including all the eventual Brackenridge and HealthSouth site towers.

That's what I mean. Lot of growth already and it doesn't hold a candle to what's coming.

Hey circling back, where did this get mentioned as a hotel? The site plan (which is expired) mentions it as multifamily.

That info was in the plans when the City's Development Services Dept. had their big leak on 9/8. The verbiage was "536 keys" which would refer to hotel rooms. But all the info was removed from public access that night.

Edit: When the leak happened I was trying to take screen sheets of the elevations for as many of the big projects that I could get. But the City shut down access before I could go back and download any of the drawing sets and other info.

Ah right, forgot it was a leak.

I asked my contacts at Visit Austin about this one, and no one had heard anything. Which isn't really surprising . . . we usually know about stuff before they do. But I'd forgotten this wasn't public knowledge when we found it. I wanted to send some of the links their way but none of them (including the tower crane request) mention it as a hotel.

EDIT: also, the drawings show balconies for each unit . . . and that's not normal hotel design protocol, TBH. No one's building 'em with balconies anymore.

Agree on the balconies. So I'm thinking the renderings are not the current ones or the project changed from hotel to residential. I didn't get a chance to catch the dates on any of the info to see what is most recent.

Site plan for this one had expired but was resubmitted yesterday.

https://abc.austintexas.gov/public-s...rtyrsn=1114392

Edit: The proposed land use in the application is still MF (like in the original application) not hotel which is interesting.

This one may be gaining two floors. AE Design Intake states "40-story high-rise residential with ground floor retail".

https://abc.austintexas.gov/public-s...rtyrsn=1114392

The proposed use was changed to hotel on the re-submitted site plan.

Verrrrry interesting. As I said before, no one with the city that I have contacts with has any clue about this project. The CVB usually relies on formal reporting from a reputable third party, so that they can report out reliable info, and that third party doesn’t know about this one yet. We’re, as always, way ahead of the authorities :)

Will be really interested to see what they do with the balconies.

My guess is that the project was originally planned as residential hence the balconies and later changed to hotel. That would also explain the mixed info in the listed uses.

Yah, agreed. Will be really interested to see what the new plans look like. They may be able to tell us more about the brand, too.

New elevations from December. It still has balconies.

https://i.imgur.com/5bgwXs2.png
https://i.imgur.com/7NNB2ug.png
https://abc.austintexas.gov/public-s...rtyrsn=1114392

This is another Lincoln Ventures project. That alone gives me a lot of confidence in this project.

Hm. Still a hotel. I’m not fully convinced but they seem to be plowing forward regardless. The next thing I’ll be interested to see resolve (aside from the balcony thing) is what’s contained in that podium. Most hotels of this size would need a couple of ballroom levels, as well as significant back of house space for kitchens, storage, laundry, offices, etc. not to mention enough parking to support 500+ rooms.

Compare to the Austin Marriott Downtown, with 600 rooms, which has seven podium floors, plus several underground parking levels. This looks somewhat comparable above ground, but we need more info on parking.

EDIT: this one is going to be significantly taller than some of the larger (by room count) hotels downtown. The Marriott is ‘386, the JW is ‘406. This one slots in just under the Fairmont, which is ‘456 before the spire.

It looks as if the west end of the rooftop could be a bar/restaurant of some sort?

Maybe it's an STR Condo Hotel type concept like Natiivo. ie. it's really apartments but has to file under hotel occupancy to meet code. Looks really low budget though. That is a lot of EIFS!

I also think it could potentially be two or three select service brands under one roof — like Aloft/Element. So no real need for meeting space, and the podium could be 90% parking, and the rest for back of the house and/or amenities.

What’s EIFS?

Being a layperson, I had to look up EIFS. I found this out at wikipedia:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exteri...nishing_system

a.k.a. poverty siding on this forum I believe...

Wow, TOTALLY not what I thought it would be.

https://austin.towers.net/experienti...ation-district

https://towers.wpenginepowered.com/w...5201289478.jpg