Texas Capitol Complex & North Austin Complex Projects Update Thread

[ATXboom]

http://www.statesman.com/business/ne...inglePage=true

New vision for Capitol complex: More room for state workers, private development on state land

By Laylan Copelin
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF

Updated: 11:38 a.m. Sunday, May 9, 2010
Published: 10:27 p.m. Saturday, May 8, 2010

A state commission is re-imagining the future of state government's physical presence in the heart of Austin a concept that would triple the amount of space at the Capitol complex, including joint development with private interests where there are parking lots or garages now.

The proposal, being crafted by the Texas Facilities Commission staff under the direction of new Executive Director Terry Keel, goes well beyond moving state employees from 2 million square feet of leased space across Austin to new state-owned buildings near the Capitol.

The concept, carried out over several decades, would remake downtown, potentially adding 7 million square feet of space, or the equivalent of 13 Frost Bank towers.

Of that, 1 million square feet would be in three new state office buildings. The proposal envisions the rest as joint development of underused state land with private interests.

The planners anticipate that the undertaking would comply with City of Austin development rules and respect the so-called Capitol view corridors. The plan is "parking neutral" — replacing lost spaces with underground parking — but anticipates that the Capitol complex eventually would be served by light rail and urban rail.

...

[austin242]

This Is very great news

[The Lorax]

I agree that it's good news, but it seems half-baked. It sounds like TFC has not had any discussions with DPS, THC or others.

[ATXboom]

http://downtownaustinblog.org/2010/0...ontent=Twitter

Nice write up on the effort... don't forget we can all participate in vision development next week - see blog post for details.

[Downtown_Austin]

Originally Posted by ATXboom

http://downtownaustinblog.org/2010/0...ontent=Twitter

Nice write up on the effort... don't forget we can all participate in vision development next week - see blog post for details.

I'm encouraged and hoping we're not being paid lip-service by the Texas Facilities Comish. Housing civic-employees (at least) makes so much sense. The Capitol Complex holds vast potential for bringing affordable housing into downtown Austin. It's one thing to tell a private land owner how they need to develop their residential tower, it's another to have a surplus of underutilized publically owned land sitting in the middle of the Urban Core.

[MichaelB]

Love the fact that the state may get smarter bout the land use around the Capitol. We need more housing in the area.

One of the good things about the possibility of this actually happening at some point is that one of the people steering this effort, Terry Keel lives in the area..... Cambridge Tower. That is not an endorsement of his politics.... but he not only live downtown, but in the Cap Complex area... so he may better understand the potential and needs of the area. Lets hope.

I am really happy to see the discussion of Affordable housing in the uptown area. Is it perfect for it. There are truly sooo many state and University employees that would live in the area. (Many Profs, lobbyist and other state folks live in Cambridge.)

I have to do a big, potentially unpopular, however.

As far as students go... a fair # of students live in many downtown buildings as it is.... but, I would not want to see a higher concentration. Sorry,I am sure his will not set well with all, but i live in a downtown building with a small student population. A few is fine, but when an area turns predominately student it pushes up the transient factor ( as in mobility of resident, not street people) and makes for a higher percentage of less conscience neighbors. .... at least in the undergrad population. Both make for a less stable neighborhood. AND what we are wanting is a neighborhood.! And, the more a building is perceived as student housing, the less likely professionals and families ( including the ones with children) will move in.... affecting value. Gotta be aware of that.

[Syndic]

carried out over several decades

WTF?

[migol24]

Originally Posted by Syndic

carried out over several decades

WTF?

I'm 26.... I might get to see 80-90 percent of these projects pull through.

[KevinFromTexas]

Update. It sounds like a good idea. They're trying to get ahead of rental rate hikes in 6 years when 70 percent of the contracts for the state's leased space is up.

http://www.statesman.com/news/texas-..._comments_list

Capitol complex could get a new look
Texas agency to vote on master plan that would mix government and private enterprises.

By Laylan Copelin
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Updated: 7:42 a.m. Sunday, Jan. 16, 2011
Published: 9:14 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 15, 2011

On Wednesday, the Texas Facilities Commission - which thinks it has found a way to pay for such an undertaking - is scheduled to vote on a new master plan for state facilities.

It is the first official step for a concept, unveiled as a trial balloon in May, that would involve the private sector in fully developing the Capitol complex, from 11th Street to Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, as a mixture of government and private enterprises.

The plan imagines a new north gateway to the Capitol complex at Congress Avenue and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, including the possibility of a civic space - another museum perhaps - across from the Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum in the complex and the Blanton Museum of Art on the University of Texas campus. A boulevard would lead from the gateway to the Capitol.

Agency staffers recently uncovered many of the same ideas - a grand north entrance and boulevard, for example - in a 1956 master plan on the shelves of the Austin History Center.

The state is paying $42.6 million annually to lease 3 million square feet of space in Travis County. Two-thirds of that total space could be consolidated into existing and three new state-owned buildings, according to the report.

"If they were on the ground today," Dukes said, "we could fill them all."

The report also assumes that lease rates will increase over the next six years as 70 percent of the state's leases expire. Today the state's average rental rate is $16.28 per square foot, compared with the current market rate of $21.

"If we're not in front of it, what's going to happen when the majority of our portfolio expires?" Dukes asked.

Over the past 20 years, Dukes said, the state spent $500 million on leases in Travis County. The state built its last office building in 2000. Since then, Dukes said, the state's lease costs have increased about 250 percent.

At least one, maybe two of these model buildings seem to be about 500 feet tall. The white building with the barrel vaulted roof to the right is 242 feet tall, and the model next to it is at least twice as tall. By the way, the 2nd tall model across the street from the Bullock Museum is the same block that the planetarium is planned for. So maybe they're considering pairing the tower with the museum to help get the museum built. The other tall model to the left seems to be around 325 feet or so.

[photoLith]

Wow, thats pretty impressive, lets see if any of it comes to fruition though. It looks like in front of the capitol a building will be blocking the view of it from Congress, Im sure that wouldnt happen.

[KevinFromTexas]

Those are very conceptual. The building on the right (east side) as seen in the first image is right next to 1005 Congress. That wouldn't block the view. 1005 Congress is itself around 130 feet tall. The site for the new building next to it was originally occupied by the old Travis County Courthouse that was demolished in 1964. Right now it's just a parking lot. As for the building across Congress with the odd shape, I'm not sure what they're showing with that. But I'm doubtful that any project would take that shape. I think these models are only to show the lots that are currently undeveloped and are only meant to show what size envelop of a building we could possibly see there. Still, I doubt anything would look like that.

[electricron]

While it's okay for privately ran service companies to do their business, providing services, in state owned buildings, I'm against private companies leasing office space in state owned buildings that pay no property taxes.
There's just no way the City of Austin or Travis County could tax them either.

Private interests, I'm suggesting lobbyists, already have too easy access to state officials and legislatures. Having them within one building is making it far too easy for shady deals to occur. Let's, at least, make them have to cross city streets to make them.

[Armybrat]

Well, they darn sure better not mess with Scholz's.

[KevinFromTexas]

http://www.statesman.com/business/st...inglePage=true

State agencies at odds on Capitol complex development

By Laylan Copelin
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Updated: 10:47 p.m. Wednesday, June 6, 2012
Published: 9:52 p.m. Wednesday, June 6, 2012

A state agency is auctioning off parcels of the Capitol complex over protests from a second state agency that has designs on developing the 70-block Capitol complex with the help of the private sector.

For the past two years, the Texas Facilities Commission has crafted a strategy of attracting private partners to fully develop the Capitol complex without appropriations or bonds. That would include the construction of new state office buildings, as well as mixed-use development and a cultural attraction near Congress Avenue and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.

The concept of using ground leases and other partnerships — instead of selling state land to the private sector — extends to other Austin properties, including the Hobby State Office Building and a nearby parking garage in a hot development zone in the southwest sector of downtown.

[KevinFromTexas]

If this happens, it could mean 6 to 7 million square feet of development/redevelopment in the Capitol Complex. The plan is to develop the empty parking lots and redevelop the hulking parking garages. Some of the space would be state offices, while other space would be the private sector with everything from commercial office space to residential, hotel and retail. There's even a planetarium planned with a 655 foot 47-story tower attached.

http://www.statesman.com/business/re...l-2399766.html

State weighs $500 million in proposals for Capitol complex development

By Laylan Copelin
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Updated: 10:00 p.m. Thursday, June 14, 2012
Published: 9:53 p.m. Thursday, June 14, 2012

The private sector is knocking on the Capitol's door.

Officials with the Texas Facilities Commission told state lawmakers Thursday that they are studying five unsolicited proposals, worth an estimated $500 million, for possible public-private partnership projects at the Capitol complex.

The proposals are moving faster than the process, as the Partnership Advisory Commission — mostly lawmakers who will backstop the Facilities Commission — took testimony from public-private partnership pioneers from Virginia and Canada.

[KevinFromTexas]

http://www.statesman.com/business/re...d-2439529.html

Sale of Capitol complex property falls through amid opposition

By Laylan Copelin
Published: 8:43 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 21, 2012

The controversial sale of a piece of the Capitol complex has fallen through, but the General Land Office has put the parking lot west of the Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum back on the market.

Sealed bids are due at noon Aug. 29.

A subsidiary of Austin-based American Campus Communities, which had agreed to pay $4.3 million for the property, needed a zoning change to construct student housing on the site, at 203 W. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. But it recently withdrew from the project in the face of opposition, including from some state officials. Company officials did not return calls for comment Tuesday.

State Rep. Debbie Riddle, R-Tomball, who has a condo in Cambridge Towers, which is adjacent to the lot, rallied opposition, saying the state should not sell the lot because it is near two museums and offers a view that connects the University of Texas and the Capitol complex.

"This is a treasure," Riddle said of the parking lot. "To obscure that view would be criminal."

[the Genral]

Its obvious she wants to protect HER view and I really can't blame her for that. But she's seems a bit arrogant and snooty to me in the way she makes her point. Her Walmart analogy is one example, and the way she appears to be rallying others to share her opinion. Yes Riddle, your main objection IS because you live next door. And the view you wish to protect IS mostly your view and that of a select few. But like so many other Liberals in this town, just keep telling the rest of us what's best for us and thinly disguise it as a sincere gesture to get what you want. I have to wonder if she would be this vocal if she lived somewhere else. Oh well, maybe I'm way off...but she's annoying the shit out of me.

[MichaelB]

Originally Posted by the Genral

Its obvious she wants to protect HER view and I really can't blame her for that. But she's seems a bit arrogant and snooty to me in the way she makes her point. Her Walmart analogy is one example, and the way she appears to be rallying others to share her opinion. Yes Riddle, your main objection IS because you live next door. And the view you wish to protect IS mostly your view and that of a select few. But like so many other Liberals in this town, just keep telling the rest of us what's best for us and thinly disguise it as a sincere gesture to get what you want. I have to wonder if she would be this vocal if she lived somewhere else. Oh well, maybe I'm way off...but she's annoying the shit out of me.

Well you are off base on two key things. A: Her view is not affected. THat was a misquote.She lives on the other side of the building. B: She is an Arch Conservative Republican. I live in the same building. There were many more offensive issues with the project that you can do your homework and search for in earlier posts.

[LoneStarMike]

I did your homework for you, General.

[Myomi]

Why was student housing right across the street from a massive university a bad thing? Sorry I must of missed it in the discussion. You said it was suburban. Was that because it was only 5 stories? Or did you guys see a rendering?