Austin Projects & Construction

[KevinFromTexas]

Oh, is it? Sorry about that. Oh duh, I remember a while back they sued Barnes & Noble I believe and they mentioned then where they were from. What through me off is they always advertise that they're located in Austin, Round Rock and San Marcos but never mention San Antonio or any other cities. I love the place, there's one located 3 miles from my house and you can't keep me out of there.

[KevinFromTexas]

By the way, Don B. posted a thread in City Compilations. He came up with a really good system of listing cities with everything that has been proposed, approved, under construction and completed since 2000. I did the list for Austin and a few other Texas towns save for Houston and Dallas. I thought it would be a cool idea to use the same system and show how Austin's current building boom compares with the one we went through in the 80s. So it's 2005 now, I'll do the list below as if it were 1985 showing everything in the pipeline since 1980. Then below it I'll show everything completed from 1980 through to 1989 just for reference. Maybe we'll beat the boom in the 80s huh?

Check Don B.'s thread here for details on how it works. The list for Austin is on the 1st page of the thread. Summary Activity Thread
http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?threadid=80480

I thought it would be cool to show how our current boom compares to the one that we went through in the 80s in Austin. So it's 2005 now, and I'll start off the list for the 80s as if it were 1985. Then I'll list the number of all the projects

Here's how we stack up so far since 2000.

Since 2000 - Austin - For Austin City Limits. - Updated 8/22/05
Proposed 0/1/1/6
Approved 0/1/3/7
Under construction 0/0/0/2
Completed 0/1/2/12
Total: 36

So say it's 1985, do you have your can of Big Red ready? Here's how it would have looked. Since 1980. This is for the Austin City Limits only, although it does include buildings outside of downtown.

1000+ feet/500-1000 feet/250-500 feet/100-250 feet

Austin
Proposed 0/0/0/0
Approved 0/0/1/5
Under construction 0/0/4/17
Completed 0/0/1/13
Total: 41

Check out that under construction list. Between 1984 and 1987 we had over 21 buildings under construction in the city. Most were in downtown, but this was also the time that Austin saw it's first major suburban skyscrapers, still within the city limits, but outside of downtown.

Now these are the ones that were proposed, approved, under construction and completed after 1987. A few of these are buildings that I don't have dates for, but that we all know where completed during the 80s. So some of these should have been listed in the list above but since I don't know the dates I'll just list them here. A lot of these are lowrises also, below 120 feet, or 12 floors. 10.

So 51 in all during the 80s. So far from 1980 to 1985 they had 5 more buildings going up than from 2000 to 2005. But with this huge residential boom we're going through I think we'll easily beat that. Especially considering we're only halfway through the decade. And I think we're going to see a fairly nice hotel boom also. Austin is growing in the convention business and all the cities not just in Texas are competing for convention events.

[Mopacs]

Originally Posted by texboy

wow those are awesome pics! Just wondering, would you happen to have any construction pics of San Antonio's downtown? Maybe with Weston Center going up or the Mariott? I've been looking for a while for anything, and the only thing I can find are pics of the Tower of Americas going up.

Hey Texboy... I created a thread with some old construction shots of the Rivercenter, in the late 80s. I took this with an old "110" format camera. A crappy camera, but some interesting shots nontheless... I'll be adding more soon.

http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?postid=1535604#post1535604

[texboy]

Thanks Mopacs! I appreciate you doin that! Im really into old construction photos!

[KevinFromTexas]

Some good news for Cesar Chavez Street in downtown.

From the Austin Business Journal

Council gives preliminary OK for Caesar Chavez redesign
City planners on Thursday showcased their designs to the Austin City Council for converting a five-block stretch of Caesar Chavez Street from a one-way to a two-way route.

Of three options city Public Works Director Sondra Creighton presented to the council, they agreed on the second option -- a dramatic redesign of Caesar Chavez, including two left-turn lanes, and extensive urban landscaping that would incorporate a 22-foot sidewalk and a cascading pedestrian plaza around Buford Tower, linking it with the Town Lake trail below.

"I think this really will be a significant benefit, long term," says Austin Mayor Will Wynn, a self-described "failed architect."

Council Member Brewster McCracken waxed sentimental about the street conversion.

He called the task a part of "honoring Lady Bird's [Johnson] vision" of a grand lakeside boulevard in downtown Austin.

With Thursday's preliminary council approval, Creighton says city planners now can embark on a more advanced sketch of the project.

The project is expected to take 18 to 20 months from now to complete, Wynn says, with actual construction time taking less than a year, Creighton says.

The conversion isn't without its drawbacks, however.

Creighton notes her office's traffic estimates concluded wait times at some redesigned Caesar Chavez intersections would be worse than they are now, and that lane widths would be narrow.

"We've even had some feedback from Capital Metro that the lane widths are a little bit problematic," says Creighton, referring to the lack of room left from the conversion to add bike trails.

"Overall, travel time along the corridor will remain about the same."

[KevinFromTexas]

Bank One Tower in Austin to be renamed. This is fairly significant considering it's carried the name Bank One Tower for about ~15 years or so. I for one am going to have a hard time with the name change. I've grown fond of the name Bank One Tower. It's so neat and clean not all dragged out. 3 simple words, nothing runs together.

From the Austin Business Journal

JPMorganChase renaming downtown tower

Mary Alice Kaspar
Austin Business Journal Staff
A downtown office tower is about to be renamed, thanks to a new lease with financial services giant JPMorganChase & Co.

JPMorganChase, which absorbed Bank One Corp. last year to fortify its U.S. and Central Texas presence, spent nearly 18 months deciding where to put its downtown operations.

A lease for the first two floors, or roughly 60,000 square feet, in what's now the Bank One Tower have been leased. The deal calls for the tower to be renamed the JPMorganChase Tower, says Joe Holt, chairman of the Austin region for JPMorganChase (NYSE: JPM).

Both floors are expected to be gutted and undergo a multimillion-dollar makeover.

"We think this is a great location ... and we're very excited about being in that facility," Holt says. "It is going to be a very important downtown building."

The decision means a wide variety of banking operations will move from the current Chase Bank building at 700 Lavaca St. to the Bank One Tower at 221 W. Sixth St.

Real estate observers have anticipated JPMorganChase's decision would boost one downtown tower and drain another.

Before the merger, Chase leased nearly 119,000 square feet at the Chase Bank building while Bank One leased roughly 60,000 square feet at its namesake tower.

Only retail operations, including a bank branch, will remain at Chase's Lavaca location, although the final scenario hasn't been determined, Holt says.

About 125 JPMorganChase employees work at the Sixth Street property. In all, JPMorganChase has 600 to 625 employees in the Austin market.

The Chase Bank building is roughly 92 percent occupied, says Doris Zagst, leasing agent and property manager at Sentinel Real Estate Corp., which manages the building. She says Sentinel hasn't been informed about what JPMorganChase's decision will mean for 700 Lavaca.

If a large vacancy occurs, Zagst says she hopes the landlord and tenant can work together to find a new occupant. She says JPMorganChase remains "on the hook" for a few more years with a lease for the 119,000 square feet, although a specific time period wasn't disclosed.

Crescent Real Estate Equities Ltd. is the landlord for the Bank One Tower.

"We were delighted to keep them," says Bill Gump, leasing manager for Crescent.

[JRCool]

so does that mean theres gonna be a big sign on the top sayin "JP morgan Chase bank" or somethin along those lines? Maybe they will just take the Bank 1 sign off and put nothin in it place. Who knows.

[KevinFromTexas]

I'm not sure. I've sent Crescent Realty an email asking about this.

The sign atop the Bank One Tower is the 2nd highest in the city after the Frost Bank Tower's sign. Until Frost was built it was the highest for about 10 years atleast.

[crewer]

I know some of us have been wondering what the Novare Group 40-storey condo project announced in the Statesman on August 10 would look like. I've heard from a reliable source that the renderings will be coming in a month or so, but that the building would resemble The Spire building in Atlanta.



The project rendering will be posted HERE once it's available.

Kind of interesting how much The Spire resembles the Novare Group's Skypoint project in Tampa:

[Mopacs]

Haven't had much time to go explore much downtown in the past month or two. However, I caught some updated shots of the Milago condos going up along the banks of Town Lake. Looks like the top floor is now approaching.

These were taken from the Congress Avenue bridge last Sunday during our 1st annual "Batfest" . The entire bridge was shut down to vehicular traffic and turned into one big street festival (ON the bridge):









Construction popping above the Statesman building, near the south end of the Congress bridge:



And here are some assorted shots from the festival and the immediate area:











Night shot of the bridge and festival, from the Hyatt hotel above:

[Mopacs]

And for those who haven't seen the rendering for the Milagio, here tis:

[JACKinBeantown]

Interesting... too bad they went for wide instead of tall. Not bad though.

[JRCool]

Hey does anyone know where we can see updated pictures of the freeway construction all over the city? That would be awesome. Oh and just for those who are in Austin and want to see an amazing view of downtown, get on 290 in south Austin and go towards 35 (drive east) and then take the newly opened flyover onto I-35 north, the view from up there is absolutely breathtaking. But anyway, if someone knows where we can find info. on the new roads, that would be awesome.

[KevinFromTexas]

Thanks for the update crewer, I appreciate that. I can't wait to see the rendering(s).

Nice pics Mopacs. 805 West 5th Street will also be breaking ground this month. That one's going to be 24 floors. Once construction has been started for a while and their construction/manager's trailer is in place I'll go and try and get the height for it.

I also want some more solid heights for the Novare Group Tower. 520 feet I know, but it could end up having a spire also so there will be several heights to get.

[EDIT] Here's the statesman diagram showing estimated heights for the new buildings. I never thought I'd see a 700 foot line shown in a diagram for downtown Austin.

[JACKinBeantown]

Here's a project for someone in Austin with a few extra minutes to spare. Make a map showing the locations of all these proposed buildings. I'd like to see it.

[KevinFromTexas]

^ I'll try and do one with GoogleEarth maybe. Our Linux system is down right now, so we're running our computer on Windows and I don't have many programs on Windows since I don't care to use it much. After we get back on Linux I'll try and do one with GoogleEarth or something. Until then, the city does have this map of the projects. It's pretty good, although there are some mistakes from time to time.
http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/downtown/downloads/ep_map_0705.pdf


For anyone interested in Austin skyscrapers and development, please come check out http://austinforum.net/ Austin has a new skyscraper forum. For anyone interested come check it out and post about Austin.

Everybody come help the forum get off the ground, stir up some discussion.

Here's the link again.
http://austinforum.net/

CTroyMathis
Mopacs
arbeiter
Llyod Banks
texboy
mambo_chico
Adrian
StoOgE
420MM
JACKinNYC
BG918
crewer
jaga185
davinSA
WestAustinBaller
Owlhorn
GoldenBoot
JRCool

[crewer]

Originally Posted by KevinFromTexas

Here's the statesman diagram showing estimated heights for the new buildings. I never thought I'd see a 700 foot line shown in a diagram for downtown Austin.

By the way, Kevin. I was looking over this chart you pulled from the Statesman, and I'm thinking that one is incorrect, unless I'm mistaken. The very first one mentions Phase II of the Amli project at 2nd and Lavaca. I thought Amli's project for that block was turned down and that another developer was doing it. Amli was still doing the third block over, but the middle one was being done by someone else. (I tried to look back at earlier postings, but I couldn't find the reference).

[KevinFromTexas]

Ah, I never even noticed that. Thanks for pointing that out. What that is is just a typo. Someone got the street boundries mixed up for the blocks. AMLI did lose the bid for Block 21. They're proposal was a 28-story tower. Stratus Properties won the bid with a 15-story building which was my least favorite of the 3 proposals. The building will likely change in design though because the Mayor Will Wynn had said that he wanted a public plaza to face south, fronting 2nd Street facing the city hall. The original proposal by Stratus called for a 15-story building. The base featured a 4 to 5-story podium with an "L" shaped tower rising above topping out at 15 floors. Atop the podium they had planned for a rooftop garden/pool area. This project will likely change in design and especially in height. With the mayor wanting a plaza at street level all that space that would have been at ground level will have to be moved up the tower which will likely mean it will have to be taller. The renderings showed dthe building completely covering the block from sidewalk to sidewalk, so I would expect to see it officially proposed/built being a floor or two taller atleast. And with all the hoopla from the city wanting more density, I can't see how they can get away with just a 15 story tower when other developers are throwing up new tallest plans left and right.

AMLI is still doing another tower though one block to the west at Block 22, between Guadalupe and San Antonio at the corner of 2nd. That proposal as shown in the diagram from the paper above will be 17 to 18 floors. That tower is actually suppose to breakground in November fo this year. They said what was hingeing on it being either 17 or 18 floors was wether or not they planned for 220 units, or 240 units.

[Mopacs]

The Domain development in North-Central austin could get a lot bigger and denser over the next decade. This is the site of the former IBM manufacturing plant along N Mopac expressway at Braker and Burnet Roads. Already under construction is a large outdoor mall, to be anchored by Niemans and Macy's.

Now, however, the rest of the large urban tract has been purchased by Endeavor Real Estate, with long-term plans of a houston galleria-like district with hotels, condos/apartments, offices and retail. It also sits along the future commuter rail corridor, which comes online in 2 1/2 years. The city of Austin is pushing for maximum density on this site. Current zoning allows for buildings as tall as 120 feet

See statesman article below from 9/7/05:

http://www.statesman.com/business/content/business/stories/09/7domain.html
---------------------------

Endeavor to buy rest of Domain site

Austin developer will take control of project near shopping center in North Austin.

By Shonda Novak
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Wednesday, September 07, 2005

Austin-based Endeavor Real Estate Group is buying 170 acres in North Austin that the company says has the potential to become Austin's version of Houston's Galleria, with millions of square feet of shops, hotels, offices and housing.

Endeavor is buying the Domain, near the corner of North MoPac Boulevard (Loop 1) and Braker Lane, with RREEF America LLC, part of Deutsche Bank's real estate investment arm. The price is $45 million.

The land is adjacent to a large shopping center by the same name being built at the site's northwestern edge. That $150 million project, to be anchored by a Neiman Marcus and a Macy's, is being developed by Endeavor and Simon Property Group. and will also include restaurants, a movie theater and about 400 apartments. Simon plans two other centers nearby.

The land Endeavor is buying includes 10 buildings with 1.8 million square feet of surrounding office and industrial space leased mainly to IBM Corp., which has about 2,000 employees there, roughly a third of its Austin work force.

Just two months ago, Endeavor and two other partners put the land up for sale. But Endeavor never really wanted to sell, said Kirk Rudy, a principal with Endeavor. So it's buying out the other partners, J.E. Roberts Cos. and New York-based Blackstone Real Estate.

"I really do think this 170-acre site has the potential to be one of the most exciting redevelopment opportunities in the region, if not the state," Rudy said.

The land is near three major roads: MoPac Boulevard, U.S. 183 and Capital of Texas Highway (Loop 360), and has direct access from MoPac.

The land also is near a future proposed commuter rail hub and is in an area where city leaders are encouraging development.

The sale is expected to close in about a month.

"We view it as an exciting long-term development opportunity," said Brad Gries, a vice president of acquisitions in Chicago for RREEF America.

Rudy said Endeavor will invest equity in the project but declined to discuss each companies' financial share.

Rudy said demolition of empty office buildings and warehouses could begin within the next six to eight months to make way for development.

Endeavor has started working on "a number of alternative master plans" for the site, although plans are preliminary, he said.

Endeavor is working with an architect on conceptual drawings.

Rudy said the Domain name will be retained for the new project, saying it "has lots of brand identity."

In 1999, Endeavor and its partners bought 235 acres for $60 million, intending to turn the site into an office park for dot-com companies, which is where the name arose. Some of the land has since been sold for shopping centers.

The 170 acres is east of the Arboretum shopping area, where many national retailers have stores that are among the top-grossing in their chains, and where local retail brokers say many more would congregate if land were available. Several major high-tech employers also are in the area, including IBM and National Instruments Corp.

There's no shortage of apartment and hotel developers expressing interest in the site, Rudy said.

When developed over the next 10 to 12 years, Rudy said, the land potentially could have millions of square feet of offices, hotels and up to 2,000 apartments and condomin- iums.

Rudy said it's too soon to say what role Endeavor will play in the development.

"We're still open to whether we'd develop all the components ourselves or maybe sell off land to developers to do other components," Rudy said.

[email protected]; 445-3856

[KevinFromTexas]

Cool. I actually wish they'd push the height restriction to 200 feet for areas outside of downtown. It's not like there will be any real views lost there. And of course they could then judge what height a project should be depending on the location. Obiviously 200 feet for a limit would fit with every location outside of downtown.

The next big thing to happen height wise outside of downtown will likely be around the Steiner's Ranch area. I've heard in the paper that they'd actually like to allow for the SAME density levels for that location as in downtown. So 300+ foot towers could end up happening there. This is all years away though. I think I read something about there being a rail line that would be near there also. Austin then would have a real defined "2nd" skyline.

By the way, I sent Shonda Novak an email alerting her to the Novare Group Tower renderings coming out soon incase she hasn't heard about it. The sooner they appear in the paper the better.