There are only so many ways to say Austin’s development is heading eastward. Just drive down any street on the east side across from downtown and count the construction sites, and you’ll run out of fingers before you drive a dozen blocks. At the center of it all, East Sixth serves as the de facto gateway to the district — never mind that fancy arch they built over on East 11th.
The roughly mile-long stretch of East Sixth between the highway and Robert Martinez Jr. Street is what people talk about when they talk about “hanging out on the east side,” or “moving to the east side,” so it’s no wonder more changes are on the way for this capsule of everything Austin currently finds extremely cool. Here’s a highlight reel of what’s going on right now.
Arrive Hotel
A rendering of the Arrive hotel project. Photo courtesy of Baldridge Architects.
Austin’s certainly not short on boutique hotels, or upcoming boutique hotel announcements, for that matter. But Arrive, an 82-room hotel project destined for 1813 East Sixth Street near the corner of Sixth and Chicon, still stands out from the crowd. The development will be the second outpost for the Arrive brand, an extremely deliberately hip and tech-minded (order room service via text!) hotel backed by Ezra Callahan, known primarily for being the sixth employee hired at Facebook. “Employee Six Builds Hotel on Sixth” — a strong contender for headline of the year so far.
6th & Chicon Mixed-Use Project
A rendering of the mixed-use project at 6th & Chicon. Photo courtesy of GDA Architects.
There’s little information available about the mixed-use project going up just down the street from Arrive Hotel at 1801 East Sixth Street beyond the initial rendering by GDA Architects. At the very least, the development is set to bring office and retail to the district. Our favorite element of the rendering is the tanks on the right hand side — they’re either part of a fancy rainwater management system (for those sweet, sweet LEED credits) or, as implied by the rendering, something to hang rope lights from. Whatever their purpose, consider us on Team Tank.
The Arnold II
An early rendering of the Arnold Phase II project. Photo courtesy of Transwestern.
The second phase of the completed Arnold mixed-use community is planned for 1614 East Sixth Street, across the street from the existing building at 1621 East Sixth Street. In case anyone asks, the name comes from the Arnold Oil Company that used to occupy the site — but even if it didn’t, it might be the best-named project on the east side. The project’s current design includes 112 units in a five-story building.
Osten Hall
A rendering of the Osten Hall project at 901 East Sixth Street. Photo courtesy of Endeavor Real Estate Group.
This warehouse-inspired office space headed to 901 East Sixth Street, just east of the highway, is the next evolution for the region we already dubbed the true gateway to East Austin. With the 6th & Brushy condos and ground-floor retail just across the street, and Corazon only a block over, we personally think our case is convincing. Just don’t mess with the El Milagro tortilla factory.
East 6 Offices
A rendering of the East 6 office project. Photo courtesy of Aquila Commercial.
We don’t know much about this proposal for the old CARTS headquarters site at 2010 East Sixth Street, beyond that it looks a whole lot prettier than most mid-rise office buildings. With four stories, 115,000 square feet of office space, and zero additional details, we’ll just have to wait and see.
Indie Apartments
The Indie’s micro-apartments will force you to downsize your life, which is probably a good thing when you’re working with only slightly more square footage than a shipping container. Photo courtesy of Transwestern.
Calling your new apartment development “Indie” is a bold move for developer Transwestern — are they hiring contractors from the underground construction scene? Curating small-batch, hand-cured drywall? We’ll leave it up to someone else to decide whether the apartment sold out, but this half-acre project somehow squeezing in 139 “micro-units” ranging from 350 to 520 square feet in size at 1648 East Sixth Street is another triumph for space-saving design, with Murphy beds on deck. We love those guys!
