AUSTIN | Saltillo | U/C

[corvairkeith]

Some photos from last weekend.

[Jdawgboy]

Originally Posted by corvairkeith

Some photos from last weekend.

You know the city really needs to do something about the pedestrian/bike crossing under I35. Not only does it feel unsafe crossing the access roads but it feels unsafe especially at night under the bridge. Sure there's some lighting however that isn't enough. There needs to be a full stop at the access roads, maybe a specific time interval like every 2 to 3 min where cars on the access roads need to stop if pedestrians and bikes are present. Or at least have a dedicated push button stoplight like they have around the city. Just seems like that whole section was just a slight secondary thought.

[paul78701]

Originally Posted by The ATX

It;s official. Google takes the office building.

https://www.statesman.com/news/20190...n-office-tower

They've also re-branded this as "Saltillo" instead of "Plaza Saltillo".

[KevinFromTexas]

Originally Posted by The ATX

It;s official. Google takes the office building.

https://www.statesman.com/news/20190...n-office-tower

So they're taking 150,000 square feet in Plaza Saltillo and took 300,000 square feet in 500 West Second. I know the number for the Block 185 tower was close to 800,000. Wouldn't that make them the largest commercial tenant in downtown then with around 1.2 million square feet? That should also make them the largest commercial employer in downtown with around 6,500 workers.

[AusTxDevelopment]

Originally Posted by KevinFromTexas

So they're taking 150,000 square feet in Plaza Saltillo and took 300,000 square feet in 500 West Second. I know the number for the Block 185 tower was close to 800,000. Wouldn't that make them the largest commercial tenant in downtown then with around 1.2 million square feet? That should also make them the largest commercial employer in downtown with around 6,500 workers.

I don't know about employee counts, but as for leased/owned space, our top 10 largest tech companies in Austin are as follows:

Samsung 3.06 Million sf
Dell 1.68 Million sf
Apple 1.51 Million sf (will jump to 4.51M when their new campus is complete)
IBM 1.45 Million sf
Amazon 1.46 Million sf (I am including their 855K sf warehouse as well as their under-construction Domain space in the total. I did not include Whole Foods)
Google 1.40 Million sf (I am including Block 185 and Saltillo in the total)
Oracle 1.33 Million sf (I am including their under-construction Phase II in the total)
Indeed 1.12 Million sf (I am including the under-construction Domain building plus a pending lease that is not public yet in the total)
Facebook 874K sf (I am including their under-construction Domain building in the total)
HomeAway 850K sf (I am including their under-construction Domain building in the total)

These totals include all of their leased & owned space, not just their official campuses. For example, Apple has a 4 building campus they own plus 5 leased buildings in northwest Austin, and they have 2 leased buildings in Southwest Austin. Google has their space in Downtown and now on the Eastside, but they also have a large leased space in northwest Austin at 7700 Parmer, etc.

[AusTxDevelopment]

Saltillo is definitely getting an urban Target, according to this: https://atxrealestatenews.com/2019/0...-to-store-mix/

The map is small and difficult to read, but it shows the Target logo next to Whole Foods.

[Syndic]

Nice! That's what we need more of downtown; regular stores.

Looks like they're getting a Chuy's, too.

[Jdawgboy]

Oooooh a Kebab shop too!!! I can't wait! Already hungry for some.

[AusTex]

Originally Posted by Syndic

Nice! That's what we need more of downtown; regular stores.

Looks like they're getting a Chuy's, too.

I wonder how much having local/government ownership of the undeveloped property has something to do with the mix of retail offered vs. what a corporate owned swath of land would have given us? Also, when will the central DT area get a major grocery or retail outlet? HEB was in the mix for one of the city sponsored competitions a few years back, but not in the winning mix. Any opinions out there?

[drummer]

^ My hope is that these will be hugely successful and will prove the concept to those who are for whatever reason opposed to it in the core. An urban Target next to the Whole Foods is great. Will the Target have a grocery component as well? It would be nice for folks to have a cheaper option than Whole Foods.

[GoldenBoot]

Originally Posted by drummer

Will the Target have a grocery component as well? It would be nice for folks to have a cheaper option than Whole Foods.

No. I'd be completely shocked. I'm sure WF had is written into their lease that there would be no competition in the development. It's extremely common and expected move (i.e., if you signed a lease to run a gift shop in a strip center, you would have it written into your contract that any other store - not currently in there - would not be another gift shop selling the same types of products you do).

Another example...Chuy's would have it written into their contract that the landlord would not enter into a lease with another Tex-Mex restaurant in the same development.

One's best bet for a grocery alternative would be a Royal Blue or Fresh Plus going in somewhere close by...

[atx-adam]

Originally Posted by GoldenBoot

One's best bet for a grocery alternative would be a Royal Blue or Fresh Plus going in somewhere close by...

There's already a Royal Blue a few blocks away at 1629 E 6th in The Arnold development. It's got great hours: 7am - midnight, 7 days a week.

[drummer]

Originally Posted by GoldenBoot

No. I'd be completely shocked. I'm sure WF had is written into their lease that there would be no competition in the development. It's extremely common and expected move (i.e., if you signed a lease to run a gift shop in a strip center, you would have it written into your contract that any other store - not currently in there - would not be another gift shop selling the same types of products you do).

Another example...Chuy's would have it written into their contract that the landlord would not enter into a lease with another Tex-Mex restaurant in the same development.

One's best bet for a grocery alternative would be a Royal Blue or Fresh Plus going in somewhere close by...

Makes sense.

[AusTxDevelopment]

Some Saltillo pix. I also took some other Eastside pictures, and they are in the East Austin thread. Bunch more here: https://imgur.com/a/2UBY5GF

Nice view of the junkyard for Google.

[clubtokyo]

Wow, so what is the deal with the junk yard? Will that be developed at some point?

[corvairkeith]

That scrap yard has been owned by the same family since 1914. I'm sure it will eventually get redeveloped at some point once the property taxes exceed what they can make off of scrap metal.

[corvairkeith]

Been a while since the last update. These are from this afternoon.

[Syndic]

Man, it looks really good. RETAAAAIILLL!!

I also really love the pointed roofs look and the brick.

[Sigaven]

Originally Posted by Syndic

RETAAAAIILLL!!

I was just thinking about this. All I'm seeing is restaurants so far. Which is great, but I would like to see one of these areas closer to downtown have a true retail shopping street - clothing stores, an Apple store, etc...like what you see at the Domain, but part of downtown. That would really activate the area with pedestrians and life.

All of our good pedestrian streets downtown - 2nd street, congress, 6th - seem to have more restaurant/bar space than actual shopping.

[clubtokyo]

An apple store would probably do really well in that area, I do love the look and feel of all this development though