AUSTIN | Waterline | 1,034 Feet | 73 Floors | T/O

[resansom]

Originally Posted by We vs us

So does this mean the development now has 4 towers? The original 3 + the one for the Villas?

The Villas are located to the south of the WPP site. It appears as if they're planning for two towers at that location, based on that rendering. It also appears as if they've made some needed design changes to the WPP towers, as well.

[lzppjb]

I lean toward austlar1's view of this, but I can't help but imagine 5 additional towers in that area.

[lzppjb]

1, 2, 3 = Waller Park Place
4, 5 = New towers at the Villas




Waller Park Place includes:

Tower A: Office (#2 in the pic)
Tower B: Apartments (#1)
Tower C: Condos + Hotel (#3)

Villas includes:

Tower 1: Multi-family + Office
Tower 2: Condos + Hotel

[the Genral]

Originally Posted by lzppjb

I lean toward austlar1's view of this, but I can't help but imagunrecognizabledditional towers in that area.

Throw in the Fairmont and 70 Rainey and we'll have an amazing southeast highrise cluster.
It will add a ton of depth to the skyline, west to Spring. Austin past will be almost unrecognizable.

[Tech House]

They look like Donald Trump's sons, all shiny and void of soul. But we can be confident that nothing ugly is going to loom over Waller Creek. There are a lot of people putting in a lot of work to transform the Waller Creek conservation area, and there's a general plan that will be followed, which developers will have to go along with. So I'm not concerned about creekside parking lots, I just don't like these quadruplet sterile Houstonian skyscrapers. I hope they're just placeholders and that they don't represent anything like the final designs. To me, this would detract from the skyline, making it look more like 'any other modern city' instead of the fairly unique and immediately identifiable skyline we've got now. I certainly hope they don't build 4 towers of nearly-identical height, that would really look like suburban Houston.

[Jdawgboy]

Ha! come back a day later and there's a rendering and a blurb on a fluffpiece publication.

I still stand by my previous post. Unless I actually see a crane or cranes rise over the site, I won't be getting my hopes up about it.

The rendering itself is poorly made, it looks like someone just threw together some random generic towers, the scale is wrong and it just doesn't look professional at all. Also if they only just made the deal to buy the Villas it seems a bit quick to already have a large two tower development plan in place unless they planned it earlier if they happened to aquire that land.

[lzppjb]

I think it's just a prettier version of a massing.

[KevinFromTexas]

The American-Statesman has an article on it today. It says the tallest tower will be 60-stories, and will be the tallest in Austin.

So, I'm a bit confused. Will these two new towers be included with the Waller Park Place project, or will they be a separate project? I think you guys getting the drift that this is a move to show what could be built there is probably right. It seems odd to buy more land adjacent to your project when you haven't even started work on it yet.

http://www.statesman.com/news/busine...d-be-au/nrmYr/

Project’s plans call for 60-story tower; would be Austin’s tallest
5:48 p.m. Thursday, June 23, 2016 | Filed in: Business

Developers are proposing a two-tower mixed-use project in Austin’s Rainey Street area that includes a 60-story tower that, if built, would become Austin’s tallest building.

The Sutton Co. of Austin and Dallas-based Koa Partners are partnering on the project, which envisions a 60-story skyscraper that would have 440 luxury apartments plus office space. A second smaller tower would have 200 condominiums and 200 hotel rooms, developers say.

[GoldenBoot]

Originally Posted by KevinFromTexas

The American-Statesman has an article on it today. It says the tallest tower will be 60-stories, and will be the tallest in Austin.

http://www.statesman.com/news/busine...d-be-au/nrmYr/

Tallest by number of floors...not necessarily actual height.

Plus, this is Sutton. Don't have any confidence in this project. Hell, he couldn't even get Waller Park Place off the ground. What makes anyone think he'll get this one done?

I will say one thing, he and his partners own a lot of prime real estate at the north section of Rainey.

[KevinFromTexas]

Yeah, that's pretty much what i thought. The renderings don't seem to show a new tallest. I was thinking 500 feet originally.

[AustinGoesVertical]

I'm feeling optimistic about Sutton's intentions now. A $50 million expenditure on the Villas property handcuffs them to do at least something They won't be able to come out ahead if they simply package the tract, get the entitlements, and flip it. The only way to see a profit here is to build a scalable project with decent unit margins. Who knows if this will break ground this year or 2017. Still doubtful on that but I think we could see this one in the next cycle. This is a very crucial development for Austin. I hope they do it right and stay away from cookie-cutter structures. Go big or go home.

[ivanwolf]

So I think the Sutton Company now owns all this land from what I can tell. That's quite the land grab.

[We vs us]

Originally Posted by ivanwolf

So I think the Sutton Company now owns all this land from what I can tell. That's quite the land grab.

Oh wow, they own that parcel across Cesar Chavez from the Fairmont?

[paul78701]

Originally Posted by We vs us

Oh wow, they own that parcel across Cesar Chavez from the Fairmont?

Yes. I believe they purchased that a year ago or so?

The notion that the WPP project is dead and won't go anywhere is impossible to believe. There's just no way that they would commit to this amount of prime land investment and then just let it sit.

[AusTxDevelopment]

Originally Posted by paul78701

The notion that the WPP project is dead and won't go anywhere is impossible to believe. There's just no way that they would commit to this amount of prime land investment and then just let it sit.

That is prime land and the project - in whatever form it takes - will never be dead. Now whether Sutton will actually build their vision is very questionable. But they can entitle then flip that land for an astronomical price, provided Brexit, China's teetering debt and the questionable presidential choices here at home don't conflate to send us into a global recession in the near future.

Even if we enter a recession, the land will only gain value over time. Once financing is easier to get someone will come along and snap it up. I hope whomever builds it, whether its Sutton or someone else, keeps the density and height.

[lzppjb]

Maybe we'll get a Trump tower there.

[LoveinSA]

With that much land and so close to the convention center, I'm thinking Sutton will sell all that land to the City for some sports arena. They almost wanted to do it in Rainey years ago with the ice hockey team.

San Antonio is getting ready to do it next to theirs, and look at downtown Houston with the baseball field.

[Jdawgboy]

Originally Posted by LoveinSA

With that much land and so close to the convention center, I'm thinking Sutton will sell all that land to the City for some sports arena. They almost wanted to do it in Rainey years ago with the ice hockey team.

San Antonio is getting ready to do it next to theirs, and look at downtown Houston with the baseball field.

Hello LoveinSA, Welcome to the forum. It's always nice to see new posters.

While you have an interesting thought about what Sutton could be doing, it's unlikely that something like a stadium would be built at that location and there's a few reasons why. First if you look at the map with the lots that are owned by Sutton, there wouldn't be a way that such a stadium could be placed without altering several streets and the surrounding area. It also wouldn't be good for a transforming Waller Creek. It's also unlikely that the city would want a stadium plus we have no pro team.

Whatever the outcome, I think we will see some sort of mixed use development in the form of towers but it's going to take at least a few years and they will likely look quite different.

[H2O]

Originally Posted by AusTxDevelopment

That is prime land and the project - in whatever form it takes - will never be dead. Now whether Sutton will actually build their vision is very questionable. But they can entitle then flip that land for an astronomical price, provided Brexit, China's teetering debt and the questionable presidential choices here at home don't conflate to send us into a global recession in the near future.

Even if we enter a recession, the land will only gain value over time. Once financing is easier to get someone will come along and snap it up. I hope whomever builds it, whether its Sutton or someone else, keeps the density and height.

At the price they paid for the Villas, it will have to have significant height and density. If I'm not mistaken, the price per sf for land is about twice the previous record for downtown land.

[Tech House]

Originally Posted by AusTxDevelopment

That is prime land and the project - in whatever form it takes - will never be dead.

Truth. There's nothing remotely dead about whatever's happening with that incredible chunk of contiguous real estate, at the mouth of the up-and-coming Waller Creek project. I don't think it's going to end up looking like any of the illustrations we've seen so far. I have big hopes for this to be the single greatest development in Austin's history, and I think we're going to be happy with it. I have no basis for saying any of this, other than a gut feeling combined with the knowledge that this is some CHOICE real estate. We ain't even ready for this. Our minds will be blown.

Austin has a lot going for it that is missing from many of the other top job-generating cities. And there's a funny little quirk about how global warming is playing out in North America: the data and the models are in agreement that the SE US will warm less than everywhere else on the continent. We've already got a superior summer climate to most of the land to the north and northeast of us, and the SW is going to be baked out of habitability. California's water woes haven't been solved, not even with the new discovery that there's about 3 times as much ground water as previously estimated under the San Joaquin Valley.

We don't have earthquakes, rarely deal with hurricanes or tornadoes. We just have flash floods and droughts, and these can be handled intelligently such that central Texas ends up looking like one of the best bets for the future, in terms of environmental and climatic factors.

With the Dell school, the recent massive investments by Apple, Google, Oracle, Facebook, and probably a bunch of other companies I don't know about, along with ample developable land and ample water (if properly managed), Austin is going to kick ass for the entire 21st century. And this Waller Creek property is going to be in the thick of the action. Whatever the motives of Sutton for amassing all those parcels, it's clear that they get how valuable that land is, and unless our city council is asleep at the wheel, we're going to be able to have a say in what happens there. Biggest threat might be the incorrigible "I miss the old Austin" sentiment that's rampant in all the neighborhoods that get the most attention from city leaders. But look how quickly the Independent and other big projects have been approved --- that gives me hope that Austin's going to leave the nostalgia victims struggling to stay afloat in the massive waves generated by what's going to happen here.

I'm cutting loose with my praise for the city's development, and simultaneously plotting a move to Moscow, Idaho, possibly as soon as August. It will be fun to go online and see all the changes happening here, while listening to the stillness of the gorgeous, verdant Palouse. No freeways within 50 miles, what a wonderful thought!