A recent push by the City of Austin to study public safety improvements for downtown’s East Sixth Street entertainment district following a string of shootings already has lots of ideas on the table — including a wider variety of cultural activities on the street, rezoning for additional commercial or even residential development, and encouraging more diverse uses for the area’s many historic storefronts beyond the near-identical string of…
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Austin real estate news combined with editorial and opinion.
West Sixth and Rio Grande’s Getting Taller, but Watch That View Corridor!
After finding out last year that San Antonio-based developer Kairoi Residential had purchased the quarter-block at the southwest corner of West Sixth and Rio Grande Street now occupied by the goofily-named bar Whiskey Tango Foxtrot Icehouse (haha, get it?) at 701 West Sixth Street, we knew an apartment tower development of some kind was in the cards —…
What’s Austin’s ‘Evilest’ Building?
As fans of buildings everywhere, it stands to reason that we also enjoy the more sinister-looking buildings discussed on the famous r/EvilBuildings subreddit, which catalogues structures that happen to look particularly like the hangout of a supervillain, crooked sci-fi megacorporation, or otherwise, well, evil. Brutalism, red lighting, and other severe architectural flourishes generally score the most upvotes,…
Hundreds of Apartments Headed for South Lamar’s ‘Chicken Wing’
Do you remember the “friendly whale” apartment project now leasing at Aura on Lamar, built atop a uniquely curved (downright whale-shaped) tract of land at the corner of West Koenig Lane and North Lamar Boulevard? The development was made possible by the sale of the property to the developer from the Texas Department of Transportation, a state…
The Amaya’s Condo Redevelopment is Austin’s Feel-Good Project of the Year
A zoning change approved by the City of Austin’s Planning Commission this week will allow the Amaya family behind local Tex-Mex institution Amaya’s Taco Village to redevelop their 1.2-acre restaurant site at the far edge of the North Loop neighborhood near the southwest corner of I-35 and Highway 290, with plans for a five-story mixed-use building containing an estimated 80…
64 Months Seems Like Long Enough to Build the Tallest Tower in Texas, Right?
When someone says they’re going to build the tallest tower in the state right in your backyard, it’s okay to get a little thirsty for updates. And brother, we are thirsty. To us, even small steps forward are worth celebrating on the mixed-use office, hotel, and residential “supertall” planned to rise a reported 73 floors (and somewhere between 1,022 feet and…