I didn't see anyone post this, so I thought I would. A new tenant has signed a lease in the Chase Bank Tower on West 6th Street. This is the year's 2nd largest downtown lease signing. The other was also in the Chase Bank Tower which is now nearly full. Now bad for a 34 year old building. Earlier in the year Bury+Partners signed a deal for 77,000 square feet in the building. The new tenant is taking 33,000 square feet. According to the article, the building has 390,000 square feet of space. http://www.statesman.com/business/content/business/stories/realestate/12/19/1219chase.html
With more people moving downtown this sort of thing will become more frequent. Having companies move into downtown, or else expand there. It makes you wonder what type of new office projects are down the road if this thing catches on.
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I really believe we should see some office proposals in the comming year. You can definatly feel the energy down there and with more companies comming in to downtown the better for the whole Work, Live, and Play philosophy.
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Don't worry about the Spring and Austonian projects or for any project that is already under construction now. It would be suicide for companies to start building then all of a sudden stop. Austin's economy is very strong one of the strongest in the nation and with recent news of some top economists saying Austin will fair well in the housing slump and should add about 77,000 new jobs within the next 5 years. Spring and Austonian will rise for sure and we should see others rise over the next year as well.
Great site for enthusiasts of downtown buildings. And we welcome the skeptics which for whatever reason their "fears" that buildings won't get built. Over the past year we saw posts that said for example that 360 or Spring would not get financing..and that neither would get built.. then they both secured financing, and launched construction. Now we hear this about some of the others when in fact like the Austonian but it is also underway as will be soon the Four Seasons, W and 21c as all have strong demand and strong backing. If you have inside information by all means post it but idle speculation is just that.
My two cents about the digging and not digging for garages:
Buildings with parking garages underground near Town Lake are:
City Hall
100 Congress
Maybe a couple others i dont know the names of.
Buildings with above ground parking are:
Legacy (huge 50'+ pilings) 6 stories of parking
Austonian (Pilings) 8 stories of parking
Milago
Shore + Hotel
CSC buildings
and more
So I would think that being so close to the shore its maybe more costly to waterproof a structure and pay for insurance for possible Auto damage due to flooding. So though drilling pilings may be expensive maybe the waterproofing and insurance could make a diff in the way its built. Just my thoughts.
I did not like the way Aquaterra was going to be built at an angle and that ugly garage it was going to have. The top portion of the structure was ok and the pool was innovative at least. I agree it was not sold as much as many of the others, maybe if they had pushed harder they could have survived.
No well designed underground garage should have ground water in it. Properly designed any ground water would be drained to sump pumps. Failure to properly drain ground water can result in hydrostatic pressure that would break the floor or walls of the garage. But underground garages can be built right next to rivers lakes and oceans. Our own Four Seasons for example.
It isn't fear of water that keeps developers from building underground its fear of costs. It costs twice as much for underground as above grade.
I know what the published height of W is, but just for grins I crunched some numbers. Their site says that the floor height in 18-34 is 10'-6; it's 14' on floors 35 and 36, and 20' on floor 37.
Assuming one foot floor thickness...9' floor heights on hotel floors (plus the one foot)...12 foot total floor heights on floors 1-4...and a three foot parapet, I come up with 427'. I think I've read 416', so it's pretty close.
One thing...does any besides me find this building's top to be rather ugly? It's PLAIN. In Austin, most buildings have a crown, spire, or something similar. Maybe an offset at the top, or SOMETHING different.
Here are some new shots of downtown Austin (taken 12/23/07), highlighting 360's dramatic impact on the skyline from several key vantage poins.
...from I-35 and Riverside
This is from the soccer fields at Zilker Park (now partially occupied by the Christmas Trail of Lights)
The following were taking along the Mopac freeway, heading southwest
From Barton Creek Mall
These are taken from the Gaines Ranch overpass above Mopac. Downtown rises to the northeast, above the Barton Creek valley.
From Lamar at Cesar Chavez (future site of Gables project in the foreground)
Here are some individual building updates...
Legacy...Floor 5 of 30+
This guy is going to go up extremely fast
The Shore... Interesting reddish-facade, on the east-side of the tower. I actually like it.
360 Closeups
The crane-less Monarch
And now for some Miscellaneous shots...
This is the Palisades office tower along Loop 360 west at Bee Cave Rd. This guy REALLY stands out, visible from much of SW Austin. It hasnt yet reached its top floor.
The Revamped Austin Music Hall, next door to 360
View south along Guadalupe, between 38th and 29th streets... West Campus projects are making themselves known
Looking south along Colorado St
Frosty
Ladybird (Town) Lake
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Thanks guys! Been meaning to head out toward Barton Creek Mall for some time. I'll head back in a few weeks, preferably in the late afternoon when the lighting is a little better.
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Wow. Love those shots. I can't believe how much the skyline has changed from Barton Creek Mall. Just imagine everything filled in there. Damn, we're getting a skyline! And that Palisades project is something else.
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Wow the Legacy has put the turbo charger to work with high performance jet fuel and nitrus. IT is really cool to watch the different types of construction. Though the Altavida is rising faster and will continue so the Legacy will pass it up and top out first. Now back to buisiness. There is one view that is quite facinating. Heading south on Cap Of Tex as you get close to the bridge you can see only one building that is Frost. The level to see over the trees looks to be around 480 feet. Can you now see 360 from that vantige point. If I would guess you would see the spire. What the future holds for that view is seeing Frosts crown and 360s spire as well as the top 100 feet of 21c and the top 200 or so of Austonian. And if Stacy builds his you will see that well too.
One thing I have noticed about the buildings going up around town is most of them start building the parking garages first and they are either next to the building or under the building. That said most garages are started. The Legacy is one unique in that it is using a different building process and they started the tower first. They have not touched the garage part. Just interesting how the buildings are constructed.
I also noticed that Spring is very clean around the site.
Whereas Altivida seems very messy, also like 360. To say the lease Altivida has reebarb pieces in all sorts of bended positions like they have not kept up with the neatness.
Just some thoughts on how these building very so much.
What are the speculations about the green water site regarding possible building heights? Is the Southern portion of the Green Water site in a waterfront overlay that restricts heights?
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