I’ll start by staking out a risky position for a blog like this: Downtown Austin is a pretty good place. Compared to, say, the moribund central business districts of Dallas or Houston, Austin’s original 179 blocks are, for the most part, a thriving patch of round-the-clock city life. Well, for the most part. But once…
News
Austin real estate news combined with editorial and opinion.
Finally, East Austin’s RBJ Center Redevelopment Will Begin in 2018
It’s been a few years — and then some — since we began following plans for a mixed-use project at the site of the Rebekah Baines Johnson Center, a senior housing development completed in 1972 on an 18-acre site southeast of downtown, and major updates on what’s planned have been scarce for years. Until now, that is. This week,
Vertical Mixed-Use Headed to South Congress Near the St. Elmo District
South of Highway 290, much of South Congress Avenue retains its original appearance of industrial properties, car dealerships, and self-storage units. After all, this area’s pretty far from downtown by the typical standards of density — but you’ll still find pockets of rapid development along the avenue that seem to imply that won’t be the…
With Demolition Pending, Castle Hill’s Graffiti Gallery Isn’t Long for This World
The outdoor graffiti park on the far west end of downtown, located at 1008 Baylor Street atop the crumbling remains of a failed Castle Hill condo development, is about as close to a sacred site for the new generation of the Keep Austin Weird set we’ve got these days. The only remaining step for its…
Bank of America Center, Downtown Austin’s Favorite Monolith, Gets a Friendlier Ground Floor
Bank of America Center, the current name for a 26-story office tower at 515 Congress Avenue, might be best described as “austere.” Completed in 1975 as the Austin National Bank Tower, the building’s dark, monolithic appearance helps you decide whether you love it or hate it pretty quick. But compared to the tower’s heyday of the 1970s,…
Guesthouse Hotel Project Heads to an Unlikely Site on South Congress
As we all drag collective ass into the new year, it’s nice to nostalgize about a time not so long ago when Austin’s “hotel shortage” was something people worried about. That’s certainly not the case these days, with thousands of new rooms either built, underway, or planned across town. Outside of your Fairmonts and