AUSTIN | Project Updates Thread Part II

[urbancore]

Can't decide if this a big deal or not.....certainly another win for Austin.

https://www.bizjournals.com/austin/news/2018/10/29/honeywell-spinoff-picks-austin-for-its-hq.html

Yeah, 100 people to run an $5B/yr HQ for 14k people seems like a typo to me.

[gabetx]

Originally Posted by Dcbrickley

Can't decide if this a big deal or not.....certainly another win for Austin.

https://www.bizjournals.com/austin/news/2018/10/29/honeywell-spinoff-picks-austin-for-its-hq.html

It sounds like it would be a small HQ:

"Executives at Minnesota-based Resideo, which employs about 14,500 around the globe, are scheduled to ring the opening bell on Tuesday at the New York Stock Exchange. A company spokeswoman said Resideo would employ about 100 people at its Austin headquarters."

But this is a cool fact:

"With revenue approaching $5 billion, Resideo would be, by far, Austin's largest public company."

[eskimo33]

I was in a meeting yesterday, where it was mentioned the lead tenant for Marketplace Phase II (the development between Hut's Hamburgers and Whole Foods) was going to be Amazon. It was not specified if it was Amazon's Whole Foods or Amazon itself (although the former makes the most sense), either way, it looks like Amazon is expanding it presence outside of the Domain.

[The ATX]

Originally Posted by eskimo33

I was in a meeting yesterday, where it was mentioned the lead tenant for Marketplace Phase II (the development between Hut's Hamburgers and Whole Foods) was going to be Amazon. It was not specified if it was Amazon's Whole Foods or Amazon itself (although the former makes the most sense), either way, it looks like Amazon is expanding it presence outside of the Domain.

If Marketplace Phase II is the second building in the Shoal Creek Walk project, it was announced a couple years ago that Whole Foods was going to occupy it. It's only five stories due to the CVC. But I don't know what the hold up is in starting the project. It's only five stories, and they had a tenant.

[eskimo33]

Originally Posted by The ATX

If Marketplace Phase II is the second building in the Shoal Creek Walk project, it was announced a couple years ago that Whole Foods was going to occupy it. It's only five stories due to the CVC. But I don't know what the hold up is in starting the project. It's only five stories, and they had a tenant.

You are correct it is the second building in the Shoal Creek Walk project, Marketplace was the name of the original development. The current hold up on this project has something to do with the water quality pond.

[AusTxDevelopment]

Originally Posted by The ATX

1155 Barton Springs - the long time stalled condo project on the former Treehouse site - filed for a site plan extension yesterday. Maybe there's hope for this one yet.

Site Plan:
https://abc.austintexas.gov/web/permit/p...=11666310&t_selected_propertyrsn=3076078

Rendering:

http://codesignaustin.com/project/1155-barton-springs-road/

They are busy clearing the site.

[Spaceman]

Originally Posted by AusTxDevelopment

They are busy clearing the site.

I remember when this place was the place to go..Then boom it went away...Rumor had it that the profits went up the noses of certain people..It was the seventies so that was no surprise!!!

[427MM]

Make sure you vote tomorrow!! Yay Prop A--Hell no Prop J. Also be sure to consider Natasha Madison in D1, Pop Renteria in D3, Rich DePalma in D8 and Danielle Skidmore in D9. Imagine a council with fewer NIMBYs that supports transit and walkability and housing! Ah...

[StoOgE]

So, prop J and K died.

That's a thing.

[Azul]

Originally Posted by StoOgE

So, prop J and K died.

That's a thing.

Honestly shocked, I thought for sure Prop J would pass. There's a small inkling that Austin may be moving past NIMBYism and looking more toward smart development.

[StoOgE]

Originally Posted by Azul

Honestly shocked, I thought for sure Prop J would pass. There's a small inkling that Austin may be moving past NIMBYism and looking more toward smart development.

People being hurt by NIMBYism outnumbers those who benefit from it. Hopefully we keep on it and this emboldens Adler to make some real density progress.

[Spaceman]

Originally Posted by StoOgE

People being hurt by NIMBYism outnumbers those who benefit from it. Hopefully we keep on it and this emboldens Adler to make some real density progress.

Hopefully Morrison's defeat will be a turning point in the battle with the no-growth crowd...

[urbancore]

Originally Posted by Spaceman

Hopefully Morrison's defeat will be a turning point in the battle with the no-growth crowd...

I wish it were so. I think as long as voters are easily whipped into a frenzy over something trivial (or non-existent), I think far right and far left will both use that tactic often to get their way. Polarization will be Trump's legacy. It is too easy to freak people out.......which motivates them to run to the polls.

NIMBY's lost this one, but they run this city. And I put nothing past them next time. They have conviction and seemingly all day to work on their agenda....the rest of us have to get shit done.

[freerover]

Ora Houston's hand picked successor lost so District 1 will shift to a pro-density advocate. The runoff is between Natasha Harper-Madison and Marina Salazar.

[urbancore]

Can anyone tell me how the $250M housing bond will be spent? Will the city leverage that money to purchase even more housing? How many units do they expect to build? where?

What have they done with all the money that developers put into the fund "in lieu" of building affordable units onsite? How much is in that fund? Has the city put that money to work, if so where?

Also, I really hope they don't sit on the money. Austin has a long history of not spending bond money we authorized them....which leads me to wonder if inflation hurts the ability to maximize the full potential of the bonds. I would imagine that it hurts mightily.

It is a bummer that prop k went down, not sure why we WOULDN'T want outside auditing......all government officials/departments should account for waste/inefficiencies/fraud/emoluments. I can think of one reason, and it is not good.

[StoOgE]

Originally Posted by Dcbrickley

It is a bummer that prop k went down, not sure why we WOULDN'T want outside auditing......all government officials/departments should account for waste/inefficiencies/fraud/emoluments. I can think of one reason, and it is not good.

Prop K is one of those things that looks good on paper, but was a backdoor for quasi-libertarian groups to potentially find "savings" that would then be used to beat council members over the head for the next decade. I also find it amusing to no end that the group pushing for "accountability" refused to disclose their donors. On paper, I'm not opposed to an independent audit, but when those pushing for anything appear to have ulterior motives, my gut-reaction is to vote against them.

https://www.statesman.com/opinion/201810...p-k-theres-better-path-toward-efficiency

We have a city-auditor and a new city manager, and this is in theory their job. We don't appear to be in a Detroit situation (and there is enough bad blood on council that I *think* we would hear about wasted money pretty fast).

[Azul]

Originally Posted by Dcbrickley

It is a bummer that prop k went down, not sure why we WOULDN'T want outside auditing......all government officials/departments should account for waste/inefficiencies/fraud/emoluments. I can think of one reason, and it is not good.

Austin has it's own City Auditor and Office that is independent of the Council and Government, having a 3rd party spend $1-5 million a year to potentially save money is a bit inefficient in my eyes especially given that we as a city conduct two annual audits already. It would be insane to have a third-party with potentially no experience in municipal politics come in and try to audit an entire city in one go, there's a reason we have these auditing departments in the City. Though I haven't dived into the details there was a lot of chatter about the drive to privatize our City's utilities through these audits, which I politically disagree with, though neutrally I don't believe the groups suggesting the third-party audit should have any sort of agenda or political-leaning before coming into the process. Prop K seemed a bit odd to me from the start, yet it was probably the one proposition I knew the least about, thus I voted to save the money and keep things as-is until there's a good reason for it to begin with.

What we and/or the Council should do as a compromise is suggest specific audits of individual departments as needed for transparency.

[The ATX]

We already knew this. But the CVC determination was completed, and a point tower could replace the 404 Rio Grande mid-rise apartment building. The tower would have to be a lot like the Block 87 proposal.


https://abc.austintexas.gov/web/permit/p...=12041587&t_selected_propertyrsn=3047206

[427MM]

If you care about housing, walkability, transit and all of the positive attributes that go along with these things then I believe the single most important thing you can do in the near term at the local level is make positively sure that Council Member Pio Renteria is re-elected in District 3. I'm already told that ANC is ramping up for Susana Almanza.

You can give up to $350/individual and up to $700 as a couple but no matter what give something (link below). You can also volunteer--they need folks walking door to door talking to D3 voters.

https://secure.actblue.com/donate/piorenteria

Even if you maxed out for the general election you can now do so again for the runoff (I did on Wednesday). Even though he did very well in the general election, only 2% shy of winning outright, recall that nearly the same thing happened in District 10 two years ago. We must raise $$ and Get Out The Vote!!! Reach out to all your folks in District 3 and have them get ready to vote and to bring a neighbor!

Early vote Nov 29-Dec 7 and Election Day Dec 11.

[enragedcamel]

Here's a question, coming from me, someone who knows nothing about skyscrapers.

The skyscrapers we have, and are getting soon, don't seem very tall.

Why isn't anyone building anything over 1,000 ft? Are there height restrictions?