Thirteen prime acres in the Rainey street neighborhood – the district between Red River and I-35 south of Cesar Chavez – are for sale in one of the largest downtown real estate offerings ever. The owners who assembled 20+ individual parcels including a large section along the lake are hoping that a master developer will purchase the land for dense multi-use development.
This would make sense as there are already multiple projects under way in the area including the Hotel Van Zandt. Shore Condos, the Mexican American Cultural Center, and the recently completed Milago condominiums. The area was recently rezoned for dense development and is a prime location for residential and hotel development. Additional retail, commercial, and entertainment projects would extend the traditional downtown boundaries and accelerate the shifting center of gravity further to the south.
The land is particularly attractive because the entire Rainey Street neighborhood is outside of existing Capital View Corridors that limit development. With the new zoning, it is a prime area for tall and dense new construction. However, a number of single family house owners continue to hold on to their parcels and may fight future requests for variances, which may add risk to the purchase and for any buyer who is looking to create a larger “master planned” district in the mold of the successful 2nd street district to the West.
