AUSTIN: Green Water Treatment Plant & Seaholm Power Plant Redevelopment Update Thread

[ATXboom]

^^^ Anyone who could do that and post... it would be greatly appreciated!

[priller]

Yeah, I would love to be there and see the presentations. But I'm leaving on vacation the next day, can't take off work that day.

[pato79]

Are these exhibits only going to be up for one day?

[Complex01]

Really good desgins. When one of them gets built, it will be awesome...

[Raining Inside]

We'll get a lot more info about the proposals Thursday. Info will be posted on the Seaholm project website.

http://www.bizjournals.com/austin/st...ml?jst=b_ln_hl

Austinites to get a chance to review Green plant proposals
Austin Business Journal

The public will have the chance to review proposals for the largest redevelopment opportunity ever for downtown Austin.

Redevelopment proposals for the five city block Thomas C. Green Water Treatment Plant and the adjoining Austin Energy Control Center will be presented to the Austin City Council on May 22. The two properties total about 6.1 acres.

Public presentations by the five firms that have submitted redevelopment proposals will begin at 1 p.m. at City Hall during the City Council's regular Thursday meeting.

The five firms that have submitted proposals to purchase and redevelop the soon-to-be decommissioned plant include: Cleveland, Ohio-based Forest City; Austin-based Stratus Properties; Denver-based Catellus Development; Dallas-based Trammell Crow Co.; and Austin-based Simmons Vedder Partners.

The proposals vary significantly in vision and scope, but all call for about 1,000 apartments and condos, and hundreds of thousands of square feet of retail and office space. Proposed components include a two-story HEB grocery store, with H.E. Butt Grocery Co. acting as a limited partner in the project; a movie theater; a bookstore; a 250-unit senior assisted living facility and a waterfront art park.

The firms will provide informational displays in the lobby of City Hall for public viewing through May 30. Visitors may submit comments during that time.

Information about the proposals will also be on the city of Austin's Seaholm District Web site with opportunity to provide comments at www.cityofaustin.org/seaholm

The Seaholm redevelopment is a $117.2 million mixed-use redevelopment led by Southwest Strategies Inc. that was approved by City Council in April.

City leaders have said the Seaholm redevelopment and the Green Water Treatment Plant redevelopment will reinvigorate southwest portions of downtown, provide links from Cesar Chavez to the city's traffic grid and extend the New Urbanist vision of the city-financed Second Street Retail District.

The Seaholm redevelopment calls for a 22-story hotel, 60 condo units, 130,000 square feet of office space and 50,000 square feet of retail and commercial space. The 150,000-square-foot decommissioned power plant will be the centerpiece of the 7.8-acre property across Cesar Chavez Street from Lady Bird Lake.

The City Council intends to select the winning proposal for the Green Water Treatment Plant in June and negotiate the sales price shortly after. The appraised value of the land is $55.5 million.

The decommissioning and deconstruction of the plant is expected to be finished by February 2010, with construction beginning shortly after.

[KevinFromTexas]

Originally Posted by The article

The firms will provide informational displays in the lobby of City Hall for public viewing through May 30. Visitors may submit comments during that time.

Be there or be square.

Does anyone know what the city hall lobby hours are? I won't be able to go until at least 6 pm every day during the week, so I'm hoping I can get down there for some photos of the models. I might be able to go on Tuesday. I'll be downtown anyway, but I'm hoping the lobby stays open past 6 pm. Other wise I'll have to brave the rain (there's a chance for rain) on the weekend. Anyone know the lobby hours for city hall?

[H2O]

Originally Posted by KevinFromTexas

Does anyone know what the city hall lobby hours are?

Generally 8 am to 8 pm on weekdays, but the building often stays open later when there are night meetings - most Tuesdays and Thursdays, but also other days of the week, depending on the week of the month. Check the city website for board and commission meeting schedules. It is generally closed on weekends.

[SecretAgentMan]

Morrison, Galindo spar on Green redevelopment decision

In Fact News



Campaign season has re-opened, but now there is just one City Council seat up for election. Laura Morrison and Cid Galindo will face off for the Place 4 seat on June 14, with early voting scheduled to start on June 2.



Morrison fired the first volley in the runoff Tuesday, criticizing the city for moving too quickly on awarding a contract for redevelopment of the Green Water Treatment Plant site. According to a press release from the campaign, “Even though the redevelopment won't start for years, the final decision is being rushed through the Council in the next few weeks with no significant public process.”



Galindo disagreed with that assessment, saying, “This project is one of our best opportunities to create an affordable neighborhood in downtown and we've been looking forward to that opportunity for that for a long, long time. Laura has put herself in the way of it and delay is not the way we’re going to get things fixed in this city.”



On Thursday, the Council will hear presentations from five development groups vying for the right to develop – in Morrison’s words -- “the last six acres of prime, public land around Lady Bird Lake.” Rich Bailey, chief of staff for Mayor Will Wynn, said the Mayor is hoping the Council can make a decision on June 18, the final meeting for Council Members Betty Dunkerley and Jennifer Kim. He said that would avoid repeating the dilemma faced by Council Members Sheryl Cole and Mike Martinez at their first Council meeting after being elected in 2006. The Council voted to move forward with the Bull Creek site for Water Treatment Plant 4 at that meeting—an action they later rescinded.



Dunkerley said scale models of all five plans would be stationed in the atrium of City Hall so the public can see on comment on them after Thursday’s presentations. The Council, not city staff, will choose amongst the development teams, a departure from the norm, although the staff has worked on analyzing each proposal. No public hearing has been set but the public is allowed to comment on agenda items.



Galindo told In Fact Daily, “I know there's going to be a three to four-week time when the public will be allowed to provide input on the different submittals. Then the City Council is going to take that input and make a choice of one of them. Then there’ll be a long period of further refining and negotiating to arrive at the final product—and I think maybe what isn’t clearly understood is that the real process of incorporating community values into the project doesn’t really happen until the partner is selected. That’s when we get into the real nitty-gritty of what we’re going to have there.”



Dunkerley said, “This is exactly like we did with Stratus,” which won the bid to redevelop Block 21, across the street from City Hall. “This is the way procurements happen.” Stratus, which has partnered with AMLI Residential LP and Canyon-Johnson Urban Fund III, LP (Magic Johnson and his partners) to bid on the Green redevelopment, won the Block 21 bid three years ago but only recently broke ground on the site.



Although her initial TV spot appeared to focus on the Council “giving away millions in deals to certain developers,” and on opposition to high-rise towers on the lake, Morrison said in her press release, “The issue isn't about high rises downtown. It's about what kind of city we want to build. It's about what the taxpayers are giving up and getting for selling the last six prime acres of city land. With budget deficits expected, we have to be completely transparent about the costs and benefits of these kinds of public investments. Development of public land should require a higher level of public involvement. This is a basic principle of planning, and was an important part of the Mueller Redevelopment's success."



When the Mueller airport land became available for redevelopment, the city appointed a task force, hired a master planner and went through a two-year public input process. Catellus Development Group won that bid.



Green presentations begin at 1pm Thursday, with SIVE Urban II, Inc. (Simmons Vedder Partners) making the first presentation. Following that group are TC Austin Development, Inc. (USAA Real Estate, Trammell Crow Co., Constructive Ventures, Inc.), Catellus Development Group, Forest City Residential Group, and Stratus. Each group has 30 minutes, with 30 minutes to answer Council Members questions.

[Raining Inside]

The City Council just finished hearing the developer's proposals. Here's the web site with the developer's presentations.

http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/seaholm/green.htm

[deerhoof]

Originally Posted by Raining Inside

The City Council just finished hearing the developer's proposals. Here's the web site with the developer's presentations.

http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/seaholm/green.htm

there is a picture of ovation in the forest proposal. It looks pretty awesome and big!

[shanny]

just in case you dont feel like sifting through the powerpoints....

trammel crow proposal...



catellus proposal... WWW.MEETAUSTINGREEN.COM



Forest City proposal...





Stratus proposal...









The other proposal is a video, which can be viewed on the city's website

[Saddle Man]

Originally Posted by deerhoof

there is a picture of ovation in the forest proposal. It looks pretty awesome and big!

I don't see it.

[austintilIdie]

Good to read that Ovation and the Post Office block are due to rise.

From lookin at these pics, I can't help but still be chapped about the CSC/Silicon Labs buildings along Cesar Chavez and AMLI I....squatty and so forth.

I'm digging the renderings and how dense that part of DT will be. In 4-5 years the 2nd St. district will truly have arrived.

[KevinFromTexas]

Shanny, do you know where this came from? Can you post the source?

[Raining Inside]

Originally Posted by KevinFromTexas

Shanny, do you know where this came from? Can you post the source?

That's page 116 of the Stratus presentation.

It seems to have been borrowed from SSP...

http://skyscraperpage.com/diagrams/?c93

[KevinFromTexas]

Thanks. They didn't credit SSP for that.

[Raining Inside]

I like both the Stratus and Trammel Crow proposals but would also be happy with the Forest City one. I was hoping to get at least one 700' tower at that location, but it looks like the tallest tower in each of these three proposals will be under 700'. Stratus is the only one that listed a height - 650'/54 floors for their tallest.

Also, what is up with Simmons Vedder? They only have a lame flash video that you can only see in small window and it doesn't have audio. There is also no detail in their modeling. Pathetic. I think we have four proposals to debate instead of five.

[KevinFromTexas]

Yeah, I don't know what the deal is with Simmons Vedder. It's like they don't want to be picked. Their proposal seems out of touch with Austin (strange since they're based here), and their presentation is really lacking. They didn't even have any models presented at city hall yesterday. Stratus had the most impressive of the group, followed by Trammel Crow and Catellus. Between Trammel Crow and Catellus, I lean towards Trammel Crow for height and green building, but I must admit, I like the designs of Catellus' project better between those two.

I'm hoping Stratus gets picked though. I'd like to see a little bit more design tweaking on the smaller buildings. I think their tops could be a little more interesting. I like the facades a lot though. But I absolutely love their idea for the tallest one. Great looking building. Plus, holy smokes, an HEB in downtown. They also have a good plan to push 2nd and 3rd Street through to West Avenue. Besides the design and content of their proposal, the amount of space and uses is really the best choice. There aren't many remaining blocks downtown that can be developed with this much density thanks to the capitol view corridors. So their proposal makes the most sense.

[Saddle Man]

Looks like we need a combination of three or four of the proposals.

[M1EK]

More importantly, if you want to see any of these or more accurately, any future projects like these, you'd better get your friends and neighbors out to vote for Galindo in the run-off.