360 Retail, Lance Armstrong Bike Store to Open

According to the Statesman, four new businesses will move into retail spaces on the ground floor of the nearly complete 360 project on 4th and Nueces:

* Blue Café Bar Lounge will open in an 1,100-square-foot space in June. The European-influenced shop will feature coffee drinks, lunch items, desserts and wine among other items.

* Lora Reynolds Gallery will move from its current space on West Avenue to an 1,800-square-foot space at 360 in the fall. The gallery, which opened in 2004, features nationally and internationally recognized artists. It organizes six to eight shows annually, and has promoted gallery artists through a number of platforms including published catalogs and placement in public and private collections.

* Mulberry is the brainchild of local entrepreneur Michael Polombo and designer Michael Hsu. The shop slated to open in July will feature a variety of light cuisine in a neighborhood restaurant and wine bar format.

* Royal Blue Grocery will open its second location at 360. The compact urban market’s first location is in Austin’s Second Street District. The 1,900-square-foot store — a hybrid of sorts between a convenience store and gourmet grocery — will welcome its first customers in August.

With these tenants, 7,909 square feet remain unrented, the highlight of which is a 3,300-square-foot restaurant space overlooking Shoal Creek.

Just a block away – on Nueces between 4th and 5th– Lance Armstrong’s new bike store / coffee house / commuter hub is also opening. The store, named Mellow Johnny’s, is certain to be a major downtown destination. According to Austin 360:

Besides road bikes, Mellow Johnny’s will sell commuter bikes, mountain bikes, triathlon bikes, fixed-gear bikes, low-riders, cruiser-style bikes and even hand-made “art bikes” that look as good hanging on a wall as they do rolling down the street. Stock will also include gear by Giro, Nike and Oakley.Showers and a locker room will allow commuters who don’t have facilities at their offices to ride downtown, store their bikes at the shop, bathe and catch a ride on a pedicab or walk the rest of the way to work.The building covers 18,000 square feet on a main floor and basement level and will have garage doors that roll open at one end. The site has served as a distribution center for Pearl beer, a paint company, a steel manufacturing facility and a resource center for the homeless. Demolition work began in June, and construction inside the shop started two weeks ago. Armstrong and his partners are leasing the property from an undisclosed owner.

Lance Armstong’s Mellow Johnny’s Store is one block north of 360