AUSTIN | Modern Austin Residences | 658' | 56 FLOORS | T/O

[urbancore]

Demo permit approved.

[Tyrone Shoes]

Originally Posted by urbancore

Demo permit approved.

One Step Closer

[The ATX]

New elevations dated 07/27 were added to the re-submitted site plan. The hotel portion was dropped, and there looks to have been some significant external changes to the building. It also lost two floors. It is now 50-stories and 602'.


https://abc.austintexas.gov/public-s...rtyrsn=5794379

[Echostatic]

Aww, this one has parking now. That would've been a treat.

[KevinFromTexas]

I wonder how the container bar will fit into it now.

[MichaelB]

bait and switch.
any design quality that was there....gone.
Just a box.

[KevinFromTexas]

I don't know. The thought of being in a bar right now isn't appealing. We only went out to eat recently for the first time in 7 months.

[The ATX]

The project still has two cocktail lounges on two levels on the Rainey St. side. The building entrance for tenants is on Davis St. There is a large cocktail lounge on level B1 and a smaller one on level Level 1.

EDIT: I looked through the site plan a little more, and the container bar is still part of it, and there is an entrance on Rainey to "The Bungalow". There are also two outdoor patios for the bar at street level. This could be more interesting than ever. We need some new renderings.

[GoldenBoot]

Originally Posted by The ATX

New elevations dated 07/27 were added to the re-submitted site plan. The hotel portion was dropped, and there looks to have been some significant external changes to the building. It also lost two floors. It is now 50-stories and 602'.


https://abc.austintexas.gov/public-s...rtyrsn=5794379

Man. That's a shame. But, to be honest - I expected this to get value designed at some point (if it even gets off the ground). I think highly of Kevin Burns. However, this is his first major development project and he has definitely jumped into the deep end of the pool. I wonder if he had trouble securing financing for the original design.

Oh, I read the tower to be 51 stories where level 1 is street level and the first level 51 is the residential penthouse (the other level "51," above, is roof/mech).

[We vs us]

I can see why they'd drop the hotel portion, as sad as that is. But that's a looooot of residential.

Along with River Market, The Travis, and the Hanover-looking project that will overlook I35 -- that's a lot of residential to deliver roughly around the same time.

(Actually, the Hanover-looking project may be a stretch, but I can see the others finishing up in the same time frame).

[GoldenBoot]

Originally Posted by We vs us

...But that's a looooot of residential.

I believe it's now 446 units. Yes, a lot. Not sure is these will be rental or owned - or a combo, however.

[MichaelB]

Originally Posted by GoldenBoot

Man. That's a shame. But, to be honest - I expected this to get value designed at some point (if it even gets off the ground). I think highly of Kevin Burns. However, this is his first major development project and he has definitely jumped into the deep end of the pool. I wonder if he had trouble securing financing for the original design.

Oh, I read the tower to be 51 stories where level 1 is street level and the first level 51 is the residential penthouse (the other level "51," above, is roof/mech).

I HATE the term "value designed"!!!! LOL! ( that's not a reference to you by any means). I've suffered thru the process many times. I'm in "live design" and oh lordy, when the vision meets the budget.... alcohol flows.
BUT this project only had minor aesthetic choices as it was, but they were distinctive. ( The eastern facade of off-set windows that became the roof of the terrace on top). I would have at least known what building it was from the elevations.
Now.... VOID>!

[zrx299]

RIP Rainey. It was fun while it lasted.

Full speed ahead to another soul-less high rise canyon with sterile street level corporate chain retail. Queue up the Orange Theory Fitnesses, Chipotles, Jimmy Johns, and Starbucks 'anchoring' these $2200+/month shoebox towers.

And no, hoisting Container and Bungalow onto the second floor or whatever shortsighted kooky design they came up with will never work, and will most likely get revamped within a year or two after opening. It's just a temporary appeasement.

[Syndic]

I kind of agree. High rise developers need to be more amenable to having full-blown raucous bars as their anchor retail if they want to preserve any semblance of neighborhood culture.

[the Genral]

fwiw, I really like this tower as presented. Secondly, I frequented Rainey when it was ONLY a neighborhood of pretty much old houses and not the wealthiest part of town at that. But to beat a dead horse, it was charming and inhabited by honest, hard working and retired people with kids and animals playing in the street. No bars, no highrises, just houses. After they were bought out, the bars came in, fairly recently. They took over vacated houses and renovated them into businesses that took off and became quite popular. They pretty much were time stamped knowing further development was eventually going to make most of them close down. But by then Rainey was a very popular destination, and people were upset with their demise. Phase 1, buy out the neighborhood, people sad to see it go, phase 2, develop further into high rise residents and hotels, and people were (are) sad to see the make shift bars and restaurants go. Phase 3, turning Rainey into a mostly tall and dense residential area, completely devoid of any resemblance of its former self. So if you are a bit older like myself, you might miss the old neighborhoods. If you came in during phase 2, you might be mourning the loss of a temporary entertainment district. And then again, if you are older like me, you might be celebrating the new Rainey because we're over the loss of the neighborhood because that was a long time ago. For the record, old Rainey is dead. It died when the people who lived there in those little old houses moved away. Long live the new Rainey.

[zrx299]

They (developers, zoning, etc) had a chance to pivot and create the best of both worlds once the popularity took off for the "temporary" Rainey, but chose to continue selling out the entire area.

Could've had high rise density ringing the area (i.e. East ave, Driskell st, Red River) with human-scaled entertainment options fronting actual Rainey St.

Now we'll have just another high rise canyon that could be AnyCity, USA; instead of a unique and interesting neighborhood for young locals and tourists alike. Like it or not, those things are important factors in tourism and attracting new residents to an area.

But alas... that's a dead horse.

[urbancore]

Originally Posted by the Genral

fwiw, I really like this tower as presented. Secondly, I frequented Rainey when it was ONLY a neighborhood of pretty much old houses and not the wealthiest part of town at that. But to beat a dead horse, it was charming and inhabited by honest, hard working and retired people with kids and animals playing in the street. No bars, no highrises, just houses. After they were bought out, the bars came in, fairly recently. They took over vacated houses and renovated them into businesses that took off and became quite popular. They pretty much were time stamped knowing further development was eventually going to make most of them close down. But by then Rainey was a very popular destination, and people were upset with their demise. Phase 1, buy out the neighborhood, people sad to see it go, phase 2, develop further into high rise residents and hotels, and people were (are) sad to see the make shift bars and restaurants go. Phase 3, turning Rainey into a mostly tall and dense residential area, completely devoid of any resemblance of its former self. So if you are a bit older like myself, you might miss the old neighborhoods. If you came in during phase 2, you might be mourning the loss of a temporary entertainment district. And then again, if you are older like me, you might be celebrating the new Rainey because we're over the loss of the neighborhood because that was a long time ago. For the record, old Rainey is dead. It died when the people who lived there in those little old houses moved away. Long live the new Rainey.

exactly. one of the things I never hear mentioned is; most of Rainey was owned by a few Hispanic families (one family owned 6-8 houses if memory served). Some of these families spent YEARS working (along side developers of course) to rezone Rainey to CBD to INCREASE the value of their land, in some cases 10X. Source:me. I've spoken to some of these former home owners many times going all the way back to the 90's. There were "for sale by owner" signs all down Rainey for at least a decade. The prices were high, because the sale was "contingent upon the zoning changes". They were VERY upset that wealthy tone deaf West Austin NIMBY's fought against their zoning changes. Some of them sold to the bar owners for MUCH less than they could have if the Great Recession hadn't happened. They really needed the money. Rainey was expected to blow up in 2006 if it hadn't been for the banking fiasco.

Clearly not everyone was happy, a lot of the tenants of the rentals didn't want to move and made a bunch of noise to the help the NIMBY's case...and a few of the owners held out till relatively recently. But it is really hard for me to feel bad for property owners getting top dollar for their assets. They deserve it, and I'm sure it made a HUGE difference for some of those families future. Middle class generational wealth in America typically stems from real estate. Good for these families to finally be able to cash out. Something some of them have fought for decades.

[the Genral]

The catalyst leading up to all of this is the inevitable increase of property values stemming from all the developments coming in to play. Even if they left some venues alone, small bars or restaurants, they would have succumbed to this and found it to be too expensive to do business there, like other parts of the city where the rents continue to rise and force businesses to move out of the downtown core. It always comes down to the survival of the richest. They call the shots. Their obvious vision is to cram as many people into Rainey as possible, even if it means squashing out every last endearing reason to visit Rainey. We'll just have to figure out somewhere else to go for fun.

[Sigaven]

The old design was unique and cool. The new design is not. Ew.

[paul78701]

Originally Posted by zrx299

They (developers, zoning, etc) had a chance to pivot and create the best of both worlds once the popularity took off for the "temporary" Rainey, but chose to continue selling out the entire area.

Could've had high rise density ringing the area (i.e. East ave, Driskell st, Red River) with human-scaled entertainment options fronting actual Rainey St.

Now we'll have just another high rise canyon that could be AnyCity, USA; instead of a unique and interesting neighborhood for young locals and tourists alike. Like it or not, those things are important factors in tourism and attracting new residents to an area.

But alas... that's a dead horse.

Rainey is definitely not AnyCity, USA. I'm not saying that things couldn't be done better here. But. Whether you like the changes or not, Rainey is still more interesting and has more to offer than the nightlife districts that exist in most US cities. Most would kill to be able to have a Rainey like district.