AUSTIN | Projects & Construction II

[Cloud92]

Originally Posted by priller

Here are a few pics I've taken of the "hulking, shuttered mass of pipes, beams, and boilers". I always thought it was kind of photogenic.

Would be nice if they renovated the structure into something like offices or museum of that sort
the structure itself its beautiful to me the skeleton could be anything it really reminds me of the Pompidou Center in Paris

[photoLith]

Yeah, thatll never happen, sorry. It would be cool though, but that just wouldnt be very feasible with structures like that.

[Myomi]

Originally Posted by ROCrot

It's been mentioned before - and just like most other projects these days, the last mention of it was over a year or so ago. Things seem to be heating up around here, and it's not just the weather!

I am about 95% sure this project hasn't been mentioned on this forum before. Maybe you are confusing this with the project on the empty lot across from Whole Foods (thats the northeast corner of 5th and Bowie). This developer is looking at building on the southeast corner. I heard about this project a little while back when it was moving through the planning commission, and I looked through the forum to see if there was any info. I didn't see it mentioned anywhere, so I think this is another brand new building that might be in the planning stages (thought I could be wrong). This project is supposed to go up on the other side of Shoal Creek from the Monarch. If the project does go through, at around 400 feet, it will definitely impact the units on the west side of the building.

And yes...this is the land which Tiniest Bar in Texas occupies.

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=fifth+and+...result&ct=image&resnum=1&ved=0CBoQ8gEwAA

[ahealy]

Originally Posted by Myomi

I am about 95% sure this project hasn't been mentioned on this forum before. Maybe you are confusing this with the project on the empty lot across from Whole Foods (thats the northeast corner of 5th and Bowie). This developer is looking at building on the southeast corner. I heard about this project a little while back when it was moving through the planning commission, and I looked through the forum to see if there was any info. I didn't see it mentioned anywhere, so I think this is another brand new building that might be in the planning stages (thought I could be wrong). This project is supposed to go up on the other side of Shoal Creek from the Monarch. If the project does go through, at around 400 feet, it will definitely impact the units on the west side of the building.

And yes...this is the land which Tiniest Bar in Texas occupies.

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=fifth+and+...result&ct=image&resnum=1&ved=0CBoQ8gEwAA

Yeah, it was never mentioned before. At first, I confused it with the Schlosser project across the street at 6th & Bowie. That is going to be a very dense pocket of Downtown within the next couple of years. I have a feeling we'll be seeing renderings soon. I just hope they build around that beautiful old house and tiniest bar.

[KevinFromTexas]

I don't remember hearing about that project. It makes sense, though. I do remember the developers of Spring saying they would consider more towers in the future near Spring. This would be two blocks north of it. Maybe we'll get this tower and two more to have all four seasons. Although, we already have two buildings with 'Four Seasons' in the name.

By the way, the project you guys are thinking of on the block just east of Whole Foods is called Shoal Creek Walk. It was planned as a 350 foot office tower topped with residential.

[KevinFromTexas]

Updated article. This one mentions the other project, Shoal Creek Walk, by Schlosser Development.

http://www.statesman.com/business/develo...or-potential-downtown-mixed-1556414.html

Developers seeking zoning change for potential downtown mixed-use tower

By Shonda Novak
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Updated: 11:35 p.m. Wednesday, June 22, 2011
Published: 9:34 p.m. Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Developers are seeking a zoning change for a potential office project or an apartment tower that could rise up to 400 feet near the southeast corner of West Fifth and Bowie streets in downtown Austin.

It also is near the 42-story Spring condominiums and 29-story Monarch apartment highrise.

The Austin City Council is scheduled to vote today on the zoning request by developer Perry Lorenz, with Bowie Street Partners Ltd., which owns the property. Lorenz also is one of the developers of the Spring project at Third and Bowie.

The project would include an easement across the site that would allow the city Parks and Recreation Department to close a gap in the hike-and-bike trail along Shoal Creek south of Fifth Street.

The city in recent years has approved similar zoning changes for other projects in the area, including Spring, the Monarch and a mixed-use tower of up to 350 feet high proposed by Schlosser Development Group east of Whole Foods Market.

[KevinFromTexas]

http://www.bizjournals.com/austin/news/2011/06/22/somerset-wins-management-deals-for-two.html

Somerset wins management deals for two downtown residential towers

Austin Business Journal
Date: Wednesday, June 22, 2011, 11:47am CDT

Somerset Association Managementsigned contracts to manage two downtown Austin properties.

The company, owned by Associa Inc. , won community association management and developer service deals with the Towers of Town Lake and the Plaza Lofts .

[KevinFromTexas]

This is showing the 416 Congress hotel as being only 9 floors. I hope they didn't chop it.

http://www.dcarch.com/#on-the-boards_3

[KevinFromTexas]

http://www.statesman.com/opinion/marriott-deal-is-worth-the-wait-1556003.html

Marriott deal is worth the wait
Editorial Board

Published: 6:48 p.m. Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Austin needs the rooms, jobs and income the planned Marriott Marquis hotel project would generate. And the proposed deal does not require the city to put up tax dollars as incentives. It's a good deal with minimal risk to taxpayers. Nonetheless, Mayor Lee Leffingwell is right to ask that today's scheduled City Council vote be delayed by a week.

White Lodging Services Corp. had postponed plans for the hotel, on Congress Avenue between Second and Third streets, since 2008 as the economy plummeted. Some might remember that the site was home to the beloved Las Manitas restaurant, which closed its doors and has not reopened. White Lodging wants to start construction in nine months, and a delay will not upset that timetable. An extra week would help Austin residents get a better idea of what the project is and what it is not.

The hotel project is not another deal in which the city is giving away financial incentives in the way of public dollars or tax abatements to private companies that move to Austin. What the city is doing in this case is waiving $4.3 million in development-related fees to White Lodging. So the city won't be putting up public dollars, but rather waiving fees it otherwise would have collected.

[OU812]

Originally Posted by Cloud92

Would be nice if they renovated the structure into something like offices or museum of that sort
the structure itself its beautiful to me the skeleton could be anything it really reminds me of the Pompidou Center in Paris

Those stairs look like the Beverly Center shopping mall in LA!
http://www.mitchglaser.com/malls/images/beverly2.jpg

[ROCrot]

Originally Posted by Myomi

I am about 95% sure this project hasn't been mentioned on this forum before. Maybe you are confusing this with the project on the empty lot across from Whole Foods (thats the northeast corner of 5th and Bowie).

You're right. I did confuse the two. Sweet - another project!

[BevoLJ]

Holly crap! Another one! Man all this huge news is almost getting out of hand this week. It is getting hard to keep up. lol

http://www.statesman.com/business/second...owntown-1558983.html?cxtype=rss_business

Second developer said to be working on downtown convention hotel plan
By Shonda Novak
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Updated: 10:16 p.m. Thursday, June 23, 2011
Published: 9:39 p.m. Thursday, June 23, 2011



Austin developers Perry Lorenz and Robert Knight say they have a prospective developer who wants to build a second convention hotel on land they own at the northeast corner of Red River and Cesar Chavez streets east of the Austin Convention Center.

The hotel would have more than 1,000 rooms and require no city subsidies, Lorenz said Thursday.

Lorenz said he had met recently with most Austin City Council members about the new project — a potential rival to a proposed 1,003-room high-rise Marriott Marquis hotel on Congress Avenue.

City Council Member Bill Spelman said the emergence of a second potential project led the council on Thursday to postpone until next week a vote on $4.3 million in fee waivers for White Lodging Services Inc., which would develop the Marriott.

Lorenz and Knight would not identify the prospective developer for their site. Spelman said it is a company that has built and operated "a lot of hotels elsewhere but not a lot of hotels in Austin."

Spelman said Lorenz told him "they've been working furiously on this for the last couple of weeks" and that the company was about to propose a development similar to the Marriott.

He said it was his impression that the second developer was "pretty far ahead in the planning" and that financing has been lined up as well.

Asked whether the land is under contract, Lorenz said it is "tied up."

Lorenz and Knight have owned the 1.7-acre tract — currently used as a parking lot — for years. Last year, the city considered buying it for about $16 million for future convention center expansion, but no deal was made.

....

[ahealy]

Originally Posted by bevolj

holly crap! Another one! Man all this huge news is almost getting out of hand this week. It is getting hard to keep up. Lol

http://www.statesman.com/business/second...owntown-1558983.html?cxtype=rss_business

holy shit.

[photoLith]

When are we going to start a completely new Austin Projects Thread? Wait until this gets to 10k posts? It would be nice to have a new one to see all of these new projects and such on the front page because as of now, Im quite confused what is just proposed, whats going to start getting built soon, etc. Plus, this seems like a new boom cycle, maybe not quite as large as the last one, but things seem to be picking up everywhere.

[BevoLJ]

I agree photo. I believe Kevin said about a month ago (or some time not to long ago) that he had started working on something that would be redoing original post.

But I think you are right in that this looks to be a great time to start a new thread. We have something like 8 projects that news has come out about this week alone. And most all of them seem to have financing set up already.

[KevinFromTexas]

Dylan said we can let threads go to 10,000 posts, yes. I'm wanting to change the building list on the first page. To create that list it takes a lot of tedious BBcode typing, and time is something I'm short on.

I'd like to do something with a spreadsheet, but I haven't been able to figure out, yet, how to do a screenshot of it so that you can see the entire list as one image. I'd rather not have to take multiple screenshots of the spreadsheet and have multiple images to host and worry with broken links or the photo host not working or exceeded bandwidth.

If anyone has any ideas to throw out, I'd like to hear them.

[KevinFromTexas]

Council approved it yesterday. Of course Morrison voted no.

http://www.statesman.com/blogs/content/s...6/24/council_approves_zoning_change.html

Council approves zoning change for proposed downtown highrise

By American-Statesman staff | Friday, June 24, 2011, 07:26 AM

The Austin City Council, meeting late Thursday night, approved a zoning change that will allow Endeavor Real Estate Group to build a highrise tower on West Bowie between Third and Fifth Streets, on downtown’s eastern edge.

The council voted 6-1, with Laura Morrison voting no, to approve the zoning. The new zoning allows Endeavor to build as high as 400 feet in an area where standard zoning caps heights at 120 feet.

The only speaker in opposition was Heather Way, an affordable housing advocate, who said the city should have considered the project under a density-bonus ordinance that would have required Endeavor to contribute to an affordable housing fund in exchange for the new zoning.

[KevinFromTexas]

An updated article on that 2nd convention center hotel. This says it would have 1,035 rooms.

http://www.statesman.com/blogs/content/s...6/24/san_diego_firm_plans_conventio.html

San Diego firm plans convention hotel in Austin

By Shonda Novak | Friday, June 24, 2011, 11:53 AM

A San Diego firm that develops and manages high-profile hotel and convention center properties plans to build a 1,035-room hotel in the Waller Creek area just east of the Austin Convention Center.

The hotel would be built on land that is now a parking lot at the northeast corner of Red River and Cesar Chavez streets. It is owned by local developers Perry Lorenz and Robert Knight.

Manchester Texas Financial Group would develop the hotel. Its parent, San Diego-based Manchester Financial Group, contributed the land for the San Diego Convention Center and built the Manchester Grand Hyatt and the Marriott Hotel and Marina in San Diego, which have a combined 3,000 rooms.

Gensler, an international architecture firm that has worked with brands including Ritz-Carlton, Starwood and Hilton, will design the project. Gensler has an Austin office in the new W hotel project downtown.

[The ATX]

It's been an amazing few weeks for big project announcements. Hopefully we'll see the tower cranes return in 2012!

[KevinFromTexas]

I'm wondering how this will effect the 21C hotel project which will be caddy corner to this project.