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In Texas, high-end renters spur urban luxury boom

It’s not just about new jobs, it’s about lifestyle options
By Patrick Sisson Mar 12, 2019


The Independent in Austin last May, right as it was topping out. Set to be the tallest residential building west of the Mississippi, it symbolizes a new era of luxury urban housing in Texas. Mary Alice Kaspar

Austin’s ongoing tech boom has been good to Kevin Burns. An Urban Land Institute member and CEO of Urbanspace, a boutique real estate firm with exclusive sales rights for many of the city’s high-end high-rises, Burns has sold units in many of the city’s most expensive apartments and condos. With Google, Apple, and Facebook, among a lineup of tech and oil companies, all opening or expanding their offices in the Texas capital, the broker foresees no shortage of wealthy clients.

“We’re the closest thing you can get to California without state income tax,” he says.

But even though Austin benefits from a concentration of tech firms and talent, Burns’s wealthy clients are not all tech employees. Take the Independent, the new downtown luxury residential project nicknamed the Jenga Tower, set to open with record-setting condo prices ranging from the high $600,000s to over $3 million. Burns has found that interest in pre-sales for the Independent covers both a wide price range and a wide demographic range, including young families and empty nesters.

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https://www.curbed.com/2019/3/12/182...ZiEI0TU9RcObOo