AUSTIN | 333 Guadalupe (The Hobby Building) | FT | FLOORS (Potential Supertall)

[Mulan]

„ The 1.75-acre full city block, which the state owns in addition to the building, is outside Capitol view corridors that restrict the heights of some downtown developments, making it potentially a prime location for an office skyscraper, high-rise apartment complex or towering mixed-use project if the building eventually is torn down. The facilities commission pegs the “replacement value” of the 419,000-square-foot Hobby building at $152 million, an estimate that doesn’t include the value of the lot or take into account the possibility of a bidding war.„

https://www.statesman.com/story/news/loc...office-building-hot-property/5587000007/



Marketing materials

https://austin.towers.net/heres-how-downtown-austins-block-sized-hobby-building-could-redevelop/

[Charmy2]

Looks tall, any idea of a height figure?

[The ATX]

That's a vision from a marketing brochure for the site. There is no height figure, but the brochure envisions 94-story and 78-story mixed use towers. The block is owned by the State of Texas and the office buildings on the site were abandoned when the State moved into new office buildings closer to the Capitol building. The taller tower would definitely be a supertall while the second tower could be close. Here is the info from CBRE, and a link to the brochure is at the site:

https://www.loopnet.com/Listing/333-Guadalupe-St-Austin-TX/29278484/

[The ATX]

X-posting from the main thread for this project in the Austin sub-forum...

Originally Posted by loonytoony

In order to accomodate the affordable housing wants: what we'll see will either be tall as you say, or quite possibly, there will be multiple towers. From what I've gathered there were at least three proposals submitted and a decision will be made at some point this year.

[futuresooner]

Any proposal pushing the parking underground would be much better than >10 stories of parking.

[Mulan]

"Mega-brokerage CBRE is offering the Hobby site to investors and developers on behalf of the state, and the firm has cooked up some marketing materials that show the tremendous potential of the property — it’s a full block completely unencumbered by Capitol View Corridors or other constraints, and could support nearly 2 million square feet of mixed-use development according to these concepts, which show off an eye-popping supertall building containing more than 100 floors:"




https://austin.towers.net/heres-how-downtown-austins-block-sized-hobby-building-could-redevelop/

Paywall:
https://www.bizjournals.com/austin/news/2025/07/16/hobby-building-downtown-austin-ground-lease.html

[Busy Bee]

Wowza!

[NYguy]

I’m all for supertalls, but 16 floors of parking is nasty work. That would make it a glorified parking garage. But hopefully some developer will put something better together.

[The ATX]

That is of course, just a marketing vision and not an actual project. But core drilling has started for whatever is planned for the site.

Originally Posted by davidtexan

Very interesting update! I actually noticed some activity yesterday at the corner of 4th & Guadalupe in front of the Hobby building, but I assumed it was related to the crews working on new traffic signals and street lights for The Republic. I asked ChatGPT and eventually convinced it that the truck could possibly be drill rig taking soil samples? Who knows. Full res photo here.

[Zapatan]

I hope this is a 400m building, beat SF to tallest in USA outside NYC and Chicago (and maybe OKC).

Austin would...

[Urbannizer]

Ground lease inked for Hobby Building redevelopment

Texas General Land Office says the transformation of an entire downtown block is moving forward.

Though no visible work has happened over the last two years, the state of Texas confirmed it has picked a developer to redevelop this downtown Austin property near Third and Guadalupe streets.

[C.]

So how tall is the potential building being marketed by CBRE

18 floors office + 104 stories of multifamily + however many parking + 1 floor retail?

Parking that high will be ugly! Pity they can’t put it below grade due to flooding/cost reasons.

[IluvATX]

Is the developer named? (Paywall)

[The ATX]

Originally Posted by IluvATX

Is the developer named? (Paywall)

That info is not being released yet.

[ssh]

Originally Posted by NYguy

I’m all for supertalls, but 16 floors of parking is nasty work. That would make it a glorified parking garage. But hopefully some developer will put something better together.

That was the most shocking thing to me on my recent visit to Austin, the fact that every skyscraper had a podium dedicated to a massive parking garage. I guess that's what is needed when a city has next to 0 public transit.

[bdurk]

Originally Posted by Zapatan

I hope this is a 400m building, beat SF to tallest in USA outside NYC and Chicago (and maybe OKC).

Austin would...

Why does everyone forget that Philly has the tallest building in the country outside of NYC and Chicago

[ChiND]

Originally Posted by ssh

That was the most shocking thing to me on my recent visit to Austin, the fact that every skyscraper had a podium dedicated to a massive parking garage. I guess that's what is needed when a city has next to 0 public transit.

Austin does not remotely feel like a big city. In addition to the point that you mentioned, there are a lot of parking lots downtown.

[UrbanImpact]

Originally Posted by ssh

That was the most shocking thing to me on my recent visit to Austin, the fact that every skyscraper had a podium dedicated to a massive parking garage. I guess that's what is needed when a city has next to 0 public transit.

That's what skyscrapers look like in the Sun Belt, they either have a parking podium (usually with retail at ground level) or adjacent garage.

[BK1985]

16 floors of parking is ridiculous.

[The ATX]

Developers wouldn't be able to lease space in buildings without enough parking for office and residential tenants. Sixteen floors is probably not even enough for a theoretical 100-story building. A large mass transit system reaching the suburbs would have to already be in place before parking podiums disappear, and that is not happening anytime soon.