AUSTIN | Projects & Construction II

[Mopacs]

This mid-rise condo building should have some great views of downtown and the Barton Creek Greenbelt/canyon. It sits on the closest part of Lamar Blvd to greenbelt, near a bend in the creek that sweeps to the east just a few blocks W of Lamar, featuring a steep drop-off. Here are recent articles from the Austin Business Journal and the Statesman...

From Statesman....

http://www.statesman.com/business/content/business/stories/realestate/02/10/10lamar.html

Green condo project to have greenbelt view

South Lamar Boulevard project part of housing boom around downtown Austin.

By Shonda Novak
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Saturday, February 10, 2007

A four-story condominium project on South Lamar Boulevard is set to break ground in June as the downtown building boom sweeps south.

Called the View, the 69-unit development is the first in Austin for Madison Partners, an Austin group formed to build the project. The site, at 3600 South Lamar just north of Ben White Boulevard, is being cleared to make way for the development.
With as many as 17 residential projects planned or under construction downtown and scores more in the pipeline or being built just south and east of downtown, some have asked whether the downtown condo market is at risk of being overbuilt.

But some developers and a local real estate consultant have numbers showing that demand continues to exceed supply. Like virtually all of the housing cropping up in and around downtown, the View's 69 units won't be inexpensive. Prices will range from $260,000 for a 760-square-foot, one-bedroom unit to $850,000 for a 2,280-square-foot, two-bedroom unit.

The condos will have Barton Creek Greenbelt views and balconies, and there will be a pool, meditation garden and cabanas. Developers say the project is one of the first multifamily developments in Austin to seek one of the highestlevelsof local and national certification for energy-efficient and environmentally sensitive design and construction.

The View will join several other condo projects south of downtown as developers seek to meet what they say is substantial demand for close-in housing. Avera Development will start construction soon on two condo projects along South Lamar and one on South Congress Avenue across from Penn Field. Michael Wray, a managing partner with Avera,said the company redesigned its Magnolia condo project on South Lamar to increase the number of units almost 50 percent, to 139 from the original 95.

"We underestimated demand," Wray said. "We contracted for over $2 million of condos this week."

Prices at the Magnolia start at $249,900 for an 818-square-foot, 1-bedroom unit and $299,900 for a 1,197-square-foot, 2-bedroom unit. Prospective buyers, Wray said, include singles and couples ages 28 to 40, second-home buyers and reverse commuters, people who work at Dell Inc. and other companies in the suburbs but want to live downtown. Wray said the Magnolia's lender, Los Angeles-based Fremont Investment & Loan, is so bullish on Austin as a condo market that late last year, when completing the loan for the project, it cut the number of units it required Avera to sell before breaking ground.

Avera needs 25 percent of the units sold instead of 50 percent. Currently, Avera has contracts out on 28 units, 20 percent. Large condo projects usually take three to four years to develop, from land acquisition to approvals, financing and ultimately construction, Wray said. "The reality is we're not meeting the demand because of the delivery times."

He said the numbers back him up.

Four downtown or near-downtown condo projects will open this year with more than 200 units. Gauging demand by the 800 new and existing condos sold last year in the downtown area, "we are dramatically undersupplied for 2007, and we'll only begin to catch up in 2008," Wray said. Next year, four more projects are expected to open, adding 834 units, about a year's worth of demand, Wray said. "Downtown, there is effectively no supply coming on in 2007, meaning we will have two years of pent-up demand in 2008, and that's assuming demand is flat, which we know it's not," Wray said.

"It seems to me that demand is going to continue to be pent-up through 2009, when you'll probably see two other projects come on line, AquaTerra and the Austonian, so we may not reach equilibrium until the end of the decade." Wray also noted that not all the projects will get built. When developers announced the latest proposed downtown project, the 55-story Austonian, whose units are expected to start at $500,000, local real estate consultant Charles Heimsath, said that if all the planned units were started at the same time, "then I think we might be facing an overbuilt high-end market."
"However, every project has its own unique attributes, pricing and market appeal, and that differentiation, along with the fact that the time between project completions is staggered, should keep the market strong," Heimsath said.

Because of the gap in supply and demand, Wray said, he expects downtown-area condo prices to climb anywhere from 10 percent to 15 percent by the end of the year.

[email protected]; 445-3856


The condo outlook


Local real estate developers say they don't foresee the recent spate of condo developments saturating the Austin market anytime soon.

Annual demand for condo units: 800*
New condo units for sale in '07: 218**
New condo units for sale in '08: 834***

*Based on sales in 2006.
** The 54-unit Sycamore, the 32-unit Sage, 104-unit Bridges on the Park and the '04, with 28 units.
***Only 10 units left in the 192-unit Shore. Plus, 240 units at the Spring, 445 units at 360 and 139 at the Magnolia.

Source: Avery Development


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From Business Journal...

http://austin.bizjournals.com/austin/stories/2007/02/12/daily3.html?jst=b_ln_hl

South Lamar site of condos with a view

Austin Business Journal - 12:00 PM CST Monday, February 12, 2007

Developers will break ground in July on a new 69-unit condo project on South Lamar. Austin-based Madison Partners is planning The View at 3600 S. Lamar. The four-story project on the edge of the Barton Creek canyon lands will feature one and two-bedroom units priced from $260,000 to $850,000.

Cristen James with Avenue One, the company marketing the property, says the project is one of the first in the multifamily category in Austin to seek LEED certification. LEED, or Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, is the U.S. Building Council's green building certification program. The project will feature such environmentally sensitive components as solar energy panels, separate recycling chutes and a water collection system for landscaping.

Unit sizes will range from 760 square feet to 2,280 square feet with 18 different floor plans. The project should be ready for occupancy in fall 2008.

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