A Fourth Street Flurry of Office Development in Downtown Austin

Two major downtown Austin office tower developments were announced this week.

405 Colorado Street, currently a surface lot just south of Frank, is set to be developed by the Brandywine Group. Although we’ll be sad to see the exterior wall art project that Frank and The Blanton collaborate on together be covered – we’re always pretty supportive of dense development instead of surface parking.

Indeed! Especially when you aren’t restricted by Capitol View Corridors!

The ABJ reports that while many of the details have not been sorted out, that the current intent for the development would be office / retail / and parking.

Meanwhile, at the corner of 4th and Guadalupe, a stone’s throw from the Plaza Lofts, Travis County is massaging its hopeful plans to blight Republic Square Park with a bland and purposely pedestrian unfriendly new civil courthouse. Due to the high-price tag of the proposed project, Travis County is planning on leasing half their lot (purchased for a cool $21.8MM in 2010) to private developers, who would build an office tower on the “back” portion of the lot. Officials say it will reduce the project cost by 20% (taking into account the income from the lease and property taxes). We still think Travis County is missing the point – many folks’ opposition is not about the development cost, it’s about the opportunity cost of building a civil courthouse on that lot.

Other office towers are in the works for the area, not the least exciting of which is a 179,000 sf, 18 story tower currently under construction nearby at 5th and Colorado – scheduled for completion in spring 2016. The office tower at 3rd and Colorado has only recently completed, as well.

The office tower at 5th & Colorado, picture taken end of May 2015.