Austin | Town Lake YMCA PUD - Three Towers | Up to 425 Ft | 39/36/33 Flrs | Proposed
 

Greater Austin YMCA taps developer to reimage Townlake property

The project will include market-rate housing, and initial designs also include 90 affordable rental units and a new 110,000 square foot YMCA center.

https://www.bizjournals.com/austin/n...illennium.html

90 units isn't particularly many but I suppose if you're keeping the Y on that site it's a lot better than nothing. Hope they improve the connection to the Amtrak station.

EDIT: Reading more closely the article says 90 units alongside market-rate housing, so this could actually be a pretty sizeable development.

The city should allow taller buildings here and the large vacant areas south of W 5th. Can create a whole new district there.

Austin | Town Lake YMCA PUD - Three Towers | 425 Ft x 3 | Floors? | Proposed
 

Plans for a nearly 5 acre project called the Town Lake YMCA PUD were discussed at yesterday's Environmental Commission meeting. Plans call for:

Three towers
425' Building heights
750 RUs with 90 affordable units
110K Sq Ft New YMCA facility
13K Sq Ft Preschool/daycare
10K Sq Ft Ground floor restaurant

https://i.imgur.com/7sRO0hV.png

https://i.imgur.com/yvdISyb.png
Link to presentation: https://services.austintexas.gov/edi....cfm?id=460414

A concept rendering from the meeting...

That would be Tower C per the site layout.

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

I can never say no to a brise soleil! Especially on somthing generic like your standard Ymca.
Hope they can pull it off

Oh that would be a wonderful addition to austin!

If those heights hold for that area, that would be pretty substantial for west of Lamar.

I'm still holding out hope that someday...just someday...the rail line there will turn into some sort of regional rail (like the unfortunate Lonestar Rail), which would be cool to have some density right by a downtown station. Amtrak can hang out also, I guess. UP can go east of town in a perfect world.

Build it nowwww. Expand the skyline and urban living much further west. Austin needs this yesterday

and drummer, I am totally with you on regional rail. Someday.... :shrug:

Real density going up west of Lamar, more housing, more affordable units, new childcare facilities, beautiful new design for the Y... that's the good stuff.

Here is some more detailed info from the Town Lake YMCA PUD filing. The PUD filing with project details was filed in early July. I missed that filing for some reason. :( I'm somewhat surprised no other local source picked up on it - especially since the YMCA announced in May that a redevelopment plan was in the works.

Five buildings
1. Three towers with 425' height limits and up to a combined total of 750 RUs
2. One affordable apartment building with 90 RUs
3. The current 47.8K SF YMCA will be replaced with a new 110K SF YMCA building
4. One 10K SF retail space - most likely a restaurant - to be located in one of the five buildings

Included within the new 110K SF YMCA building:
>83K SF YMCA Facility
>13K SF Preschool
>7.5K SF Child play area
>4.5K SF Youth development center including mental health services
>2K SF Community retail (whatever that is)

A free YMCA membership for residents of the project

I like the fact that the Townlake YMCA never changed their name to Ladybirdlake YMCA.

I think it’d be cool if all 3 towers were identical.

https://communityimpact.com/austin/s...dable-housing/

https://cdn2.communityimpact.com/?ur...600&q=72&f=jpg

https://communityimpact.com/uploads/.../17/390872.jpg

Based on the two massings, this is what I get for floor counts assuming each tower has a rooftop amenities level:

Tower A: 33-stories, 199 RUs
Tower B: 36-stories, 222 RUs
Tower C: 39-stories, 294 RUs

So, if they are asking for a height limit of 425', then:

39 floors = 425'
36 floors = ~392'
33 floors = ~360'

I really hope they don’t value engineer the garage podiums facing the water like this.

Hard no.

Need much more "affordable housing".

25-30 years ago civic leaders and such making trips to Vancouver, BC would come back home and say we need a downtown residential construction boom here and they pretty much promised it would bring affordable housing to downtown- which hasn't panned out. It should be affordable enough for folks in service/hospitality/custodial/retail/conference event staffing industries- who are the backbone of the downtown labor force by day and night.

So, announcments like these fail to excite me these days.

Nobody "promised" anything other than to reiterate the fact that more, dense housing will eventually bring costs down. Supply and demand. And, developers are not going to over supply housing just to lower sales costs on themselves. It takes a lot of time to build the density to see real change. Even with the current amount of residential in central Austin, it's still not enough to noticeably bring costs down. Think about the urban densities of some older, more established large cities across the country and the world. Austin is nowhere as dense - thus, it's challenging to bring costs down. Those on City Council are still quite timid when permitting density. And, I mean real density - not an apartment building.

Additionally, developers are not going to be able to construct "affordable" housing, in central Austin, without subsidies. The cost of land and construction are prohibitive without them. So, what exactly is the City doing with the hundreds of millions of "affordable housing" dollars they have received through bond elections and density bonuses? I don't know.

Another thing...We need various forms of dense housing. A mixture of high-rises, lowrises, apartment/condo complexes, brownstones, etc. Unlike other, older, more established large cities, Austin's central business district is immediately surrounded by neighborhoods of single-family residences. There is no buffer area where there are a lot of brownstones (or the like)/medium density areas. And, good luck to those who try to uproot individuals living or working in those single-family residences to build more dense housing.

What's the ingress/egress plan for this property? That traffic analysis ought to be a laugher.

From this image that ATX shared, they show two connections to Cesar Chavez (one existing, one new), and the one to Lamar.

It wouldn't really be feasible to have an at-grade crossing over the railroad to get to 5th Street. One could make an argument for an additional road if the Austin Pets Alive location is ever redeveloped/renovated for an additional connection to Cesar Chavez farther west, and potentially a crossing over the railroad tracks to 5th Street via Pressler St.

Wasn't Pets Alive supposed to move to a location in east Austin? Or am I misremembering?

I don't know anything about a move, but a super quick Google search said they're opening up other locations and replacing or retrofitting their current downtown location....maybe a smaller footprint?

https://thedailytexan.com/2024/04/19...xpansion-plan/

APA is on land owned by the city. It sounds like the reconstruction of the current facility would be the final phase. I'm not sure of the details of the agreement or how much of the land and it's surrounding area is owned by the city but it's a prime site for a developer to either help renovate/expand or move their current facility.

While it would make sense for a developer to pay to relocate APA and develop the site, it is zoned as parkland so you'd have to also get it rezoned and fight that battle with the city council.

Yeah, that site is not going to get rezoned. The YMCA is going to have a very difficult time getting its PUD zoning - even with community benefits like a new YMCA, youth counseling center and an affordable housing apartment building.

you are spot on. And if you are correct, it will prove Austin is not a serious place (probably never has been) when we can't get community benefits, including AFFORDABLE housing on an underutilized property, at no cost to the taxpayer........RIGHT NEXT DOOR TO A RAIL STATION.

Can't wait to hear the arguments against. Why do we give these half-wits power?

Townlake YMCA redevelopment would need 16 code changes; City council hears development assessment

https://www.kxan.com/wp-content/uplo...-concept-2.png

https://media.zenfs.com/en/kxan_arti...01c4984732fb53

Wow that’s a crazy long podium they should just move the cc into there! Haha