Urbanspace

01/02/2009 amoa's new home, museum tower project nixed

The economic downturn has claimed a major downtown Austin project as victim, the proposed Museum Tower office building and the Austin Museum of Art’s proposed new home. Hines Interests LP will not renew its option on the land owned by the Austin Museum of Art when that option expires this afternoon, the last day of 2008. That land had been slated for a 30-story, 425,000-square-foot office building dubbed the Museum Tower and a new home for AMOA. Read more...

01/01/2009 Ken Riggs: CCIM Third Quarter Edition of Investment Trends Quarterly

The tremendous volatility in the national economy has, of course, created havoc within the commercial investment real estate industry. When will the market get back to “normal?” That question was one posed to Kenneth Riggs, CCIM, in a discussion of the findings in the Third Quarter 2008 edition of the RERC/CCIM Investment Trends Quarterly report. Listen as Mr. Riggs offers a straightforward perspective on when volatility will subside. He’ll also comment on the troubled retail sector, and point out what markets offer investors the best opportunities in the months to come. Click for podcast

12/31/2008 sale of two office buildings is first big commercial deal since economic meltdown

Two high-profile Austin office buildings have been sold in the first large commercial real estate transaction in Austin since the economic slide deepened in September. Austin-based HPI Real Estate Services and Investments Inc. and Dallas-based Sarofim Realty Advisors closed on the purchase last week of Barton Oaks Plaza II and III, which are just south of Zilker Park on South MoPac Boulevard. Read more...

12/29/2008 austin icon bites the dust

The saga engulfing downtown Austin’s Las Manitas Avenue Café took one last step on Dec. 22, as demolition crews tore into the building that also had housed neighboring Escuelita Del Alma and the Tesoros gift shop. It is still unclear if the restaurant will reopen at another location. Both the school and Tesoros have reopened at new locations. Read more...

12/29/2008 21c gets glowing review by npr

Austin’s 21c museum residences and hotel may be on hold for now, but this morning NPR gave a glowing review of the original concept in Louisville, Kentucky. The NPR story incorrectly states that the Austin 21c is under construction; however, Marriott’s decision to not build 1,000 hotel rooms should reflect favorably on 21c’s pro-formas. 21c was originally planned for development at the Whitley paper building on 3rd and San Jacinto, however, plans changed to locate the building(s) at Red River and Cesar Chavez, along Waller Creek. Read more...

12/17/2008 robertson hill apartments sold

A New York pension fund has closed on the purchase of the 290-unit Robertson Hill Apartments. The unnamed group bought the recently-completed, Class A complex just southeast of I-35 and East 11th Street from Houston-based Roberston Hill Apartments LP. The purchase price was not disclosed. The property was developed by Martin Fein Interests Ltd., also of Houston. Read more...

12/16/2008 work to start on seaholm redevelopment late next year

Construction could begin by late next year on the $117 million redevelopment of the former Seaholm Power Plant in downtown Austin. The public-private venture is expected to transform the decommissioned power plant on West Cesar Chavez Street into a mix of shops, offices, condominiums, a boutique hotel and special-events space. Read more...

12/09/2008 austin to see modest job growth

Central Texas employers have modest plans to add jobs in the first three months of 2009, according to a Manpower Inc. survey set to be released today. The employment services firm, which surveyed a sample of employers in the country's 200 largest metropolitan regions, found that 15 percent of firms in the five-county area planned to add jobs in the first quarter of the new year. Read more...

12/01/2008 west campus boom

Long gone are the days of the West Campus portrayed on Richard Linklater’s Austin film “Slacker,” where shabby houses shared quiet streets with corner markets and vacant lots. Today high-rise condominiums, commercial and retail businesses are beginning to fill the streets as the city’s university neighborhood overlay plans for the area come to fruition. Read more...

11/24/2008 City OKs TIF zone for Seaholm redevelopment

The city of Austin approved the creation of a tax increment financing reinvestment zone to pay for public improvements for the Seaholm redevelopment project. The TIF will be within the area bounded on the west by the planned Seaholm Drive, on the south by Cesar Chavez Street, on the east by West Avenue and on the north by Third Street. Read more...

11/19/2008 frost bank tower's owner pleased with austin office-portfolio performance

Thomas Properties Group Inc., Austin’s biggest landlord, remains bullish on Central Texas. In a conference call with analysts this week, the company cited Austin, alonmg with downtown Los Angeles, Houston and Philadelphia, as markets that “continue to be very healthy,” even amid the economic downturn. Downtown Austint has been especially strong. CEO Jim Thomas said. Frost Bank’s occupancy rose to 89 percent in the third quarter, up from 77.8 percent in the second quarter, he said, and the company’s suburban properties “are basically performing well.” Read more...

11/11/2008 stalled project gets new owners

La Vista on Lavaca, a 66-unit, mixed-use project in downtown Austin where construction was halted earlier this year, has new owners who say they plan to resume work on the $30 million development soon. The Sutton Co. and two undisclosed local investors have purchased the partnership interests in the eight-story project at 17th and Lavaca streets, said Mac Pike Jr., a partner in the Sutton Co. with Wally Scott III. Read more...

11/04/2008 developer cuts plans for riverside drive project by a third

The economic downturn hasn't derailed plans for the biggest redevelopment project proposed along East Riverside Drive. Houston-based Grayco Partners is moving forward with most of its proposed 30-acre project between Riverside and South Lakeshore Boulevard, where it plans to replace blocks of aging apartments and retail strip centers with a dense district of townhouses, condominiums and higher-end retail. Read more...

10/30/2008 homeaway moving downtown

Schlosser Development Corp. announced on Tuesday that it will build a new 85,000-square-foot building downtown to house the corporate headquarters of Web-based vacation rental company HomeAway Inc. Read more...

10/10/2008 soco icon to move downtown

El Sol y La Luna, a South Congress Avenue institution since 1995, is moving to Sixth Street, where a larger restaurant will allow room for more seating, a dance floor and a stage for live music performances. "Sixth Street won't know what hit them," El Sol co-owner Nilda de la Llata said Thursday outside her new location at 600 E. Sixth Street, on Red River Street in downtown Austin. Read more...

10/09/2008 private equity fundraising on record pace

While public financial markets are in crisis, U.S. private equity firms not only continue to stockpile capital but have picked up the pace of their fundraising, according to a report Tuesday from Dow Jones Private Equity Analyst. Read more...

10/02/2008 lehman brothers bankruptcy creates questions over major austin office portfolio

Fifteen months after a joint venture led by Thomas Properties Group Inc. bought most of Austin’s premier office space in a record $1.15 billion deal, the future ownership of those buildings may be in question. Read more...

10/01/2008 downtown office building to be redone

After a dramatic renovation, 1300 Guadalupe, on the northwest corner of 13th and Guadalupe streets, will offer 55,000 square feet of sorely needed Class A office space in the urban core. The three-story, 36,000-square-foot building will be completely revamped with a new exterior and interior, two additional floors and upscale amenities such as a rooftop terrace with views of the Capitol. Read more...

09/24/2008 Sushi, wine bar headed for downtown Austin building

Two unique Texas restaurants are making their Austin debut at a downtown building near the convention center. Max’s Wine Dive and Piranha Killer Sushi are each leasing about 3,000 square feet at 207 San Jacinto St., the building just north of P.F. Chang’s on the corner of Third Street. Read more...

09/20/2008 austin job market holds up amid national slowdown

Austin's job market has slowed, but the region continues to gain jobs while many other parts of the country are losing them. The Central Texas job growth rate was 2.4 percent in August, meaning the region had 18,100 more jobs than it did a year ago, the Texas Workforce Commission reported. Unemployment was 4.5 percent, up a tenth of a percent from July and up from 3.7 percent a year ago. Read more...

09/09/2008 austin 2nd fastest-selling housing market in the us

After Sunnyvale, Austin, Tex., another high-tech center, comes in second at 68 days. The third-fastest-selling Zip is the Scripps Ranch neighborhood of San Diego, a wealthy inland market where listings were typically 70 days old, a span that would have been unthinkable during the real estate boom. Read more...

09/08/2008 boutique hotel and retail project slated for soco

A new 90-room boutique hotel will soon rise on South Congress Avenue. The mixed-use project designed by Dick Clark Architecture is planned for the half-block just south of the Congress Baptist Church and across the street from Allen’s Boots and Vespaio. The site, which is owned by the church, is currently a parking lot and home to mobile retail startup Hey Cupcake! Read more...

09/05/2008 zilker park condo project now includes hotel

Original plans for the project, announced in November, had 74 condominium units at the eastern edge of the park. The new design includes 40 condominiums and a 65-room boutique hotel whose operator Wooley said he's not ready to disclose. Read more...

08/21/2008 deal near on austin luxury hangars

The City of Austin is finalizing plans to let a California firm build luxury hangars at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport. Business groups say the hangars will help Austin recruit companies whose executives prefer to fly on private aircraft. Read more...

08/19/2008 austin will recover faster than the rest of the u.s.

In the coming year Austin will outperform the rest of the country in job growth and in the health of its housing market, according to Mark Dotzour, chief economist at Texas A&M University's Real Estate Center. Read more...

08/15/2008 austin-area median home price up

The Austin-area real estate market continued to outperform the nation in the second quarter of 2008, a new report from the National Association of Realtors said Thursday. Median home prices in the Austin area rose by 4.1 percent, to $194,200, from the year-ago period, while the national median fell 7.6 percent, the real estate group said. Read more...

07/18/2008 mckinney architects heads to east austin

Eyeing the commercial transformation happening in East Austin, McKinney Architects Inc. is trading in its downtown digs for a new office on East Seventh Street. The 25-year-old architecture firm recently bought the roughly 4,100-square-foot building at 1301 E. Seventh St. McKinney is renovating the building with move-in sometime in September.

The eight-story building is planned for the western end of West Fifth Street, which is becoming a newly revitalized gateway to downtown. Retail space and more than 300 apartments are under construction on the stretch of West Fifth between MoPac and Lamar boulevards that for years was lined mostly with car lots and warehouses. Read more...

07/13/2008 austin retail sector continues to outperform other texas markets

The retail sector remains a bright spot in Austin commercial real estate amid rising office vacancy and a potential glut of apartments. Read more...

07/01/2008 texas' commercial real estate market holding steady

Despite the downturn in the national economy, Texas' real estate market remains resilient as major metropolitan areas continues to post gains in employment and population. That's according to a report by Houston real estate valuation and consulting firm Lewis Realty Advisors. Read more...

06/30/2008 austin ranked 13th best u.s. city for building wealth

Austin ranks 13th among 69 U.S. cities as a place to build wealth, according to a survey from Salary.com. Another Texas city, Plano, tops the list, followed in order by Aurora, Colo.; Omaha, Neb.; Minneapolis; and Albuquerque, N.M. The 2008 Salary Value Index ranked New York City as the worst metropolitan area to build wealth. Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, Honolulu, and San Francisco rounded out the worst five cities. Read more...

06/27/2008 appraisers look at measuring the value of green

Real estate appraisers from around the country were in Austin earlier this week for a seminar on how green-building components can affect property values. Read more...

06/16/2008 condo boom gets south push on soco

Four urban living projects filled with condos and lofts are coming or expanding on South Congress Avenue, but they are a little less expensive than some of the developments just a few miles north, with prices starting in the low $100,000s. That is because they are all south of Hwy. 71. Read more...

05/29/2008 austin 6th on kiplinger's best cities list

Austin ranks sixth on Kiplinger's Personal Finance's newest list of top 10 cities in which to live, work and play. The list, published in Kiplinger's July issue, ranks cities based on the strength of their economies, abundance of jobs, reasonable costs of living and activities. Read more... Photo Close loading indicator

05/21/2008 matrix of downtown retail taking shape amid development

To the CEO of modern decor retailer Essenze, only downtown had both the cachet and the demographics that would work. "Austin is the creative center of Texas, and downtown is the place to be in Austin," says Cook. Read more...

05/18/2008 austin keeps truckin' on job creation

Providing more evidence of Austin's economic resilience, the region added 4,100 jobs last month with big gains in sectors such as hospitality and professional and business services. Read more...

05/07/2008 austin recession-proof?

Austin was named third on the Forbes.com list of the top 10 "Recession-Proof Cities" in the United States. For its part, Austin was lauded for being a hip town with one of the lowest unemployment rates in the country. Read more...

04/22/2008 its back: a proposal for light rail

A light rail system proposal from ROMA Design Group, a consultant hired by the city of Austin, will be unveiled tonight during a public meeting. Read more...

04/21/2008 cws reaches deal to build lakefront condos

Those opposed to CWS Capital Partners LLC's plan to build condos close to Lady Bird Lake have reached an agreement with the developer. The groups Save Town Lake and South River City Citizens have agreed to new plans by CWS to build three residential towers at 222 and 300 East Riverside at least 200 feet from the lakeshore and at a height of no more than 96 feet high. The buildings would conform to setbacks outlined in the Waterfront Overlay Ordinance. Read more... Photo Close loading indicator

04/10/2008 city plans for dense development around rail stops

When Capital Metro's commuter rail service begins rolling late this year, there will be little along the rail line to entice riders. Austin leaders say they hope to change that in the next few years by encouraging developers to build housing, shops, entertainment destinations and employment centers near the rail stops. The projects could generate more riders, reduce the number of drivers on the city's roads and increase the tax base from what are now largely aging or vacant commercial and industrial properties. Read more...

04/09/2008 patagonia to open retail store downtown

Patagonia, a manufacturer and retailer of outdoor clothing that was founded by a mountain climber, plans to open its first Texas store on Congress Avenue in downtown Austin this fall. The national retailer, which is opening a 7,000-square-foot store in the historic W.B. Smith Building, 316 Congress Ave., will be one of the only retailers of that stature to open on Congress in decades. Read more...