• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

TOWERS

Austin city life since 2007.

  • News
    • Condo Projects
    • Neighborhoods
  • Listings
    • Austin Condo Guide
  • Newsletter
Search
You are here: Home / News / ‘Experiential Living’ Tower Planned in Downtown Austin’s Innovation District
Search suggestions: condos for sale • rainey street

‘Experiential Living’ Tower Planned in Downtown Austin’s Innovation District

James Rambin January 31, 2023 Comment

Image: LV Collective / STG Design

The 39-story tower planned by local developer LV Collective at the one-acre former site of a state pension fund office near the corner of East 12th and Sabine Streets in downtown’s emerging Innovation District shows up in the City of Austin’s permit system as a hotel, but that’s not exactly right. It doesn’t seem like anyone’s agreed on a satisfying term for the growing concept of a rental building potentially containing furnished and unfurnished units, offering both short-term (one day) and long-term (one year) stays with concierge services and other features straddling the line between residential and hotel-style amenities — it’s not Natiivo, since the units aren’t purchased by individual investors, and it’s not the Guild, since the tower is purpose-built rather than a percentage of units in an existing building.

It’s also not a timeshare and not quite an extended-stay hotel, but the old-school notion of an “apartment hotel” comes close. The developers at LV Collective prefer something like “experiential living” or “flexible living,” a 527-unit building that can adapt to the short and long-term residential needs of the future professionals, tourists, students, and everyone else attracted to the Innovation District once it’s built out with numerous life sciences and biomedical uses along with Dell Medical School — and under the city’s creaky old code, this sort of business model is practically impossible in a building developed under a residential use, with limitations on short-term rentals and other requirements locking down that flexibility.

Image: Bing Maps

The closest local comparison is something like Sentral, which offers furnished and unfurnished apartments out of a full building on East Sixth Street for short and long-term stays. (For the record, it doesn’t look like Sentral knows exactly how to describe this business model either, using the deeply unsatisfying term “Home+.”) Looking at this situation from a hype-based perspective, we think it boils down to Airbnb becoming uncool and hotels becoming cool again, but the hotels are now taking cues from the good parts of Airbnb. Anyway, it makes a lot of sense to keep your options open when you look at the potential of the Innovation District, with something like five different towers in various stages of development near the new Waterloo Park.

Image: LV Collective / STG Design

While the details of the project remain mostly up in the air, the unnamed tower at 12th and Sabine will contain ground-floor retail including a full-service coffee bar, a co-working space, bike storage, a gym and yoga studio, and amenity decks on the ninth and 38th floors. The project’s architects are local firm STG Design, and while we only have a single rendering of the tower for now, the building’s unique roofline and light exterior are a welcome addition to a district with a lot of interesting colors on the horizon. One feature of the building is a lot more like a residential tower than a hotel — its seven-floor garage podium with 547 parking spaces. The project’s groundbreaking date is currently unknown, but LV Collective indicates a scheduled completion date sometime in 2026. We’ll see if we can come up with a snappy term to describe it by then, hopefully something better than “Flexitel.”

Related

Filed Under: News Tagged With: 78701, architecture, city life, design, hotel, mixed-use, residential

About James Rambin

James is an Austin native and fifth-generation Texan, but tries not to brag about it. Email him anything at james@towers.net.

603 Davis Street #604
Austin, TX
Photo of 603  Davis Street #604, Austin, TX 78701 (MLS # 2434110)
$649,900
10
  • Lot Size
    214 sqft

  • Home Size
    1,136 sqft

  • Beds
    2 Beds

  • Baths
    2 Baths

Previous Post: « West Avenue Residential Tower Seeks Height-Friendly Rezoning Downtown
Next Post: Hundreds of Homes Planned Near South Congress Avenue’s Retail District »

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

  •  Schedule a showing

FEATURED Listings

603 Davis Street #604
Austin, TX
Photo of 603  Davis Street #604, Austin, TX 78701 (MLS # 2434110)
$649,900
10
  • Lot Size
    214 sqft

  • Home Size
    1,136 sqft

  • Beds
    2 Beds

  • Baths
    2 Baths

44 EAST Avenue #2310
Austin, TX
Photo of 44  EAST Avenue #2310, Austin, TX 78701 (MLS # 9418770)
$1,425,000
40
  • Lot Size

  • Home Size
    1,260 sqft

  • Beds
    2 Beds

  • Baths
    2 Baths

View Virtual Tour
44 East Avenue #1607
Austin, TX
Photo of 44  East Avenue #1607, Austin, TX 78701 (MLS # 3439383)
$1,250,000
36
  • Lot Size

  • Home Size
    1,221 sqft

  • Beds
    2 Beds

  • Baths
    2 Baths

View Virtual Tour
608 Brentwood Street #A
Austin, TX
Photo of 608  Brentwood Street #A, Austin, TX 78752 (MLS # 3202099)
$989,608
33
  • Lot Size
    4,356 sqft

  • Home Size
    1,959 sqft

  • Beds
    3 Beds

  • Baths
    3 Baths

501 West Avenue #2103
Austin, TX
Photo of 501  West Avenue #2103, Austin, TX 78701 (MLS # 4503529)
$2,895,000
40
  • Lot Size

  • Home Size
    2,822 sqft

  • Beds
    3 Beds

  • Baths
    4 Baths

austin condo report

Featured Buildings

  • 360 Condos
  • Austin City Lofts
  • The Independent
  • The Shore Condos
  • 70 Rainey

Footer

LEGAL NOTICE

TREC Information About Brokerage Services (pdf)

Texas Real Estate Commission Consumer Protection Notice


TOWERS realty

Austin Condos For Sale

Agents

Downtown Buildings

Luxury Towers

  • Four Seasons Residences
  • W Hotel & Residences
  • The Austonian
  • 5 Fifty Five at Hilton

Most Popular

  • The Shore
  • 360 Condos
  • Seaholm Condos
  • Spring Condos
  • Milago Condos

New Construction

  • The Independent
  • 70 Rainey
  • Austin Proper
  • Fifth & West

Loft Style

  • Austin City Lofts
  • Brazos Place
  • The Sabine
  • Plaza Lofts
  • Avenue Lofts
  • Brazos Lofts
  • Brown Building

Resources

  • Austin Condo Guide
  • Condos For Sale
  • Condo Buyer FAQ
  • Property Search

Featured

Archives

Newsletter · About · Contact Us · DMCA · Privacy Policy · SLAPP · Copyright © 2007-2022 TOWERS.net · All Rights Reserved
 

Loading Comments...