Demolition finally kicked off this week for the William Gammon Insurance building, a small office structure dating back to the 1980s at the southeast corner of West 17th and Guadalupe Streets in downtown, soon to be cleared from its 0.3-acre site at 313 West 17th Street where New York-based investment firm Reger Holdings plans to break…
In Praise of Austin’s TRS Headquarters, a Doomed ’70s Concrete Wonderland
After being solidly shamed out of a big-spending plan to relocate its Austin offices to the recently-completed (and architecturally quite brilliant) Indeed Tower, the state pension managers at the Teacher Retirement System of Texas are now humbly weighing the possibilities of departing downtown for Mueller’s emerging Aldrich Street business district and selling its current headquarters at 1000 Red River Street. Even though the current…
Abolishing FAR Limits Downtown Is the Best Idea Austin’s Had in a While
As the City of Austin works to hammer out a new and improved version of its increasingly dated Downtown Density Bonus Program, we were blown free of our chairs last week by a memo from the city’s Design Commission recommending, among other things, the complete removal of floor-area ratio (FAR) limits in the downtown area. Under such a change, the height and density of new towers…
Holly Park Project Bringing East Austin a New Fishing Pier on Lady Bird Lake
Holly Project, a park improvement initiative spearheaded for years now by the folks at the Trail Foundation to accessibly realign and improve a section of the the Hike-and-Bike Trail in the Holly Shores area of East Austin, is nearing the end of its design period after soliciting significant public input over the last two years — and the updated site…
Natiivo Austin’s ‘Home Sharing’ Concept is 99 Percent Sold in the Rainey District
An unorthodox ownership model and the economic stresses of a pandemic couldn’t keep Natiivo Austin down, though its unique “home sharing” concept remains the only ground-up development of its kind in the region. As of today, the 33-floor tower’s developers at Pearlstone Partners and Newgard Development Group along with the sales team at Prospect Real Estate confirm its 249 units…
The Vesper Condo Tower Breaks Ground in the Rainey Street District
The 41-floor downtown Austin condo tower project at 84 East Avenue has completed the demolition of existing buildings at its 0.4-acre site and officially entered the construction phase, according to its local developers at Pearlstone Partners and the New York-based investors ATCO Properties. The Rainey Street-adjacent tower, which Pearlstone announced today will be called Vesper, is expected to bring 284 condos to the district…