Austin | The Travis | 594 Feet | 52 Floors | T/O

[The ATX]

...also from AULCC. The estimated start of construction is listed as between 01/01/2019 and 12/31/2019.

[Jdawgboy]

So what's the discrepancy for the all residential tower only rising to 595 feet when the Austonian has 56 residential floors and rises about 100 feet higher? No garage podium or no mechanical roof crown??

[The ATX]

Originally Posted by Jdawgboy

So what's the discrepancy for the all residential tower only rising to 595 feet when the Austonian has 56 residential floors and rises about 100 feet higher? No garage podium or no mechanical roof crown??

All we have are the ground floor drawings, parking and crown info is not yet available. But there is a lot of small print on those drawings. Additional info might be there somewhere.

[The ATX]

The height is listed in two places on each site plan. Phase I has 595' listed in both places. Phase II has it as 695' in one place and 595' in another. Considering that the floor count and uses are basically the same, it's reasonable to assume the 695' height for Phase II is a typo.

[KevinFromTexas]

That's fantastic. I'll say one thing, our skyline is consistent in its incremental-ness.

[The ATX]

The 595' height is probably the roof line since that is what is measured for the F.A.R. So these should definitely break the 600' barrier with the mechanical screen or a crown. The actual height could easily be 650'. Damn that 700' plateau.

[JACKinBeantown]

The Austin I knew and loved from the late 80's / early 90s is gone. It's starting to resemble Miami of the late 90s (minus the Atlantic Ocean of course).

[Jdawgboy]

I'd rather not have twin towers. Hopefully the hotel/residential will look a little different but if both towers end up being the same height, that would suck.

[KevinFromTexas]

Originally Posted by The ATX

This project just got better. It's called The Travis and will consist two 55-story towers. An all residential tower (Phase I) will be 595' and a residential and hotel tower (Phase II) will be 695'. Here's the info from AULCC:

ftp://ftp.ci.austin.tx.us/ATD_AULCC/...avis_PLANS.pdf

Yeah, I'm not sure what to make of that.

Phase I is listed in the box to the left as being 595 feet with 422 residential units. Those numbers are listed as the same in the building's footprint on the site plan to the right.

Phase II is listed in the box to the left as being 595 feet with 422 residential units. The odd part is that in the building's footprint on the site plan to the right it lists the building as a 695 foot building with 147 units, but it also lists 280 hotel rooms. I'm guessing the 147 units are residential.

The mixed use of hotel and residential could account for the extra height. Hotels have a tendency to have higher floor-to-floor heights than residential sometimes. One example is Fifth & West, which is 459 feet with 39 floors and is all residential. The W Hotel & Residences, on the other hand, is hotel and condos. It's 473 feet with 37 floors. It's not a huge difference between those two, but it's something. I'm wondering if the hotel/condo "Travis Towers" has a spire or something.

It makes sense that developers would want to go tall in that area to take advantage of the views of the river and to get over the rest of the pack.

[The ATX]

I'm starting to think the 695' height for the residential/hotel tower may be correct. It has a smaller foot print, and much of that info on the left side of the drawing that says 595' seems to have just carried over from the Phase I drawing.
The bottom line is we need more info. A second site plan for the towers should be filed soon since this is already scheduled for AULCC. (The first site plan that was already filed is for Demo and site Prep.)

[KevinFromTexas]

If these do end up being this tall it'll likely force the Waller Park Place project to go big, too, not just because of precedent of height in the area, but because they'll likely want the extra height to have the views. Waller Park Place had been presented as being on a scale that was way above what Austin had seen so far. Remember, one of the proposals for it showed one of the buildings with around 65 floors and about 750 feet tall. Anything around the height of the Travis towers or less would make their project not have much of a view to the south. I know the real money view is the one to the west looking down the river, but I would assume they'd want to take advantage of the views in both directions. The tallest tower in the Waller Park Place project was on the lot south of Willow Street where it would pretty much have unobstructed views to the west. It just makes sense that they'd go for as much height for that lot as possible because those lots in that area are really unparalleled in Austin for river views.

[The ATX]

A site plan was filed today for both towers. According to the drawings in the AULCC link previously posted, there is a reference to the second tower as being condo. So I suspect the 695' height is correct for the second tower.

https://abc.austintexas.gov/web/perm...ertyrsn=524421

[The ATX]

Here's the site plan for the second tower. Just to the right of the text box that indicates a 695' height is the "condo lobby". A 55-story condo/hotel project would be around the same height as the Austonion and Independent.

The site plan status is "CC Pending." Based on what usually happens, it will change to "CC Approved" in a few days; then about a week later it will go "In Review." Within a week or so of going "In Review" an attachment will be added that includes some basic info about the building(s). So in two to three weeks we should have some good info about this.


ftp://ftp.ci.austin.tx.us/ATD_AULCC/...avis_PLANS.pdf

[Jdawgboy]

And hopefully some updated renderings.

[We vs us]

Some new ABJ coverage -- Pres of the development company says the first apartment tower will be 45-50 stories. The second phase is still a ways away -- they're looking for "market validation" before building the other tower.

Financing isn't complete, but things are progressing and they're still aiming to break ground in early 2019.

https://www.bizjournals.com/austin/n...5-stories.html

[KevinFromTexas]

They're kind of all over the place with the numbers on the 2nd tower. 30 to 35 floors, but they aren't ruling out 50 to 60.

[We vs us]

Originally Posted by KevinFromTexas

They're kind of all over the place with the numbers on the 2nd tower. 30 to 35 floors, but they aren't ruling out 50 to 60.

Yeah. They're going to need a LOT of market validation for the 50-60 version.

[Jdawgboy]

Austin doesn't have a good record with double tower proposals especially if the second tower is a "wait and see" type of deal. Odds are high that only one tower will be built with the other eventually being scrapped.

[ILUVSAT]

It would be interesting to know when this new reporter for the ABJ spoke with Genesis. What the president of the company said sounds pretty much exactly like what Genesis said in July of last year (to the Statesman) - when they bought the property:

~Roughly 40-story, 400 unit apartment tower.
~Second tower to follow if market demanded it.


This may be some hot air being spewed out by Genesis. As some might say...throwing one off the scent trail.

Wasn't a site plan submitted indicating two 55-story towers very recently?

Hummmm...

[The ATX]

The site plan has to have accurate info about the height and uses. So I don't know why the developer would be all over the place about the project - unless the comments to the ABJ were before the filing.