The 41-story Vesper condo tower is now complete in the Rainey Street District of downtown Austin, with its first phase of move-ins kicking off this week. According to developers Pearlstone Partners and sales agency Prospect Real Estate, the building is currently 67 percent sold. The 452-foot tower broke ground in the summer of 2021, situated on a small 0.4-acre site at…
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415 Colorado Apartment and Office Tower Tops Out in Downtown Austin
415 Colorado, the 47-story apartment and office tower under construction at the southeast corner of West Fifth and Colorado Streets in downtown Austin, celebrated reaching its maximum structural height last week by hosting a “topping out” ceremony. As you might know if you’re familiar with this tradition — perhaps the only time the construction industry dabbles in paganism — the…
Downtown Austin’s Mexic-Arte Museum Plans a Long-Awaited Renovation
Since 1984, the Mexic-Arte Museum has served Austin as the city’s official home for Mexican, Latino, and Latin American art — and it should be the most well-positioned museum in the city to showcase that art, having occupied an extremely visible location at the southeast corner of Congress Avenue and Fifth Street since 1988. But…
700 River Apartment Tower Celebrates Topping Out in the Rainey Street District
The 43-story 700 River apartment tower now under construction at the corner of Rainey and River Streets in downtown’s perpetually exploding Rainey Street District announced its official topping out today, with the structure reaching its maximum height of 500 feet. This is a significant milestone for a neighborhood experiencing the densest concentration of simultaneous tower construction anywhere in Austin, with two other projects of…
Demolition Expected for Fifth and Lavaca Corner in Downtown Austin
The news this week that downtown ping pong bar Smash ATX had permanently closed at the southeast corner of West Fifth and Lavaca Streets didn’t come as a huge surprise to us considering the longstanding plans for a dual-branded Embassy Suites and Tempo by Hilton hotel with a combined 480 rooms in a 30-story tower at this site, but if…
Is This Downtown Austin’s Silliest Parking Lot?
Believe it or not, the flagship Whole Foods at Sixth Street and North Lamar Boulevard was once the center of gravity for much of downtown Austin’s daytime social life — you’d meet friends for brunch there and take visitors from out of town to gawk at the cheese displays. That sounds kind of silly now,…