The last time we caught up with the Drake Bridge Commons — a project by Austin’s Trail Foundation imagining a new downtown public space beneath the Drake Bridge carrying First Street across Lady Bird Lake — we had two design options to choose between as part of the community engagement stage of the plan. Now, based on that input, the…
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Austin real estate news combined with editorial and opinion.
Natiivo ‘Home Sharing’ Tower Breaks Ground in the Rainey Street District
A groundbreaking event took place this morning for Natiivo, the “Airbnb-powered” home sharing brand announced earlier this summer as the identity of the 33-story tower planned for many years at 48 East Avenue in the Rainey Street District. It's rare to see the birth of a totally new product type. STR is effectively banned by downtown condo HOAs. Railyard and…
Schlotzsky’s Soon Scuttling Its South Lamar Flagship, So Here’z What’z Next
Austin-gone-international sandwich chain Schlotzsky’s has had its ups and downs. First opened in 1971 at the current site of Amy’s Ice Cream at 1301 South Congress Avenue, the growth of the brand through the 1990s eventually saw the relocation of its flagship outlet to a two-story former grocery store at 218 South Lamar Boulevard, which also…
At Downtown Austin’s Block 36, ‘Micro-Unit’ Apartments and Billboards Mingle
We’ve waited for a rendering of developer Transwestern’s Block 36 apartment project in downtown Austin for the better part of two years at this point, so long in fact that we have all become skeletons sitting patiently in our chairs. But the wait is over! Recent marketing materials for the project give us our first good look at the…
At La Vista de Lopez, an East Austin Holdout Imagines a Tower of Its Own
After holding out against development in a rising district of East Austin for more than 30 years, the Lopez house isn’t giving up — in fact, it might go up instead. This historic single-family home just east of I-35 at 809 East Ninth Street, officially known as the Routon-Alvarez-Lopez House, has enjoyed a long life despite a universe of growth…
Demolition at the 6 X Guadalupe Tower Site Could Arrive Next Month
To build the new tallest tower in Austin, you’ve got to break a few eggs — or, in this case, demolish a completely unremarkable hotel. In other words, the Extended Stay America now occupying the famously “cursed” former home of the late Alamo Hotel at the northwest corner of West Sixth and Guadalupe Streets is not long…