You and I will likely never understand exactly how it feels to bomb down Castle Hill on a skateboard, which is nearly as sad for our collective joie de vivre as it is deeply comforting to our insurance providers. All you really need to know is that despite its character ranging from million-dollar homes to interior design studios, the stretch of West 12th Street spanning both sides of North Lamar Boulevard from roughly Baylor Street to West Avenue hosts one of Austin’s more vibrant and youthful skate scenes, a sentence that makes me feel pretty old just for typing it.
This guy’s probably not winning any Nobel Prizes, but you’ve got to appreciate the audacity.
No-Comply Skate Shop, located since 2007 in the center of this action at 812 West 12th Street, probably has a lot to do with that — and the Heath Eiland and Morgan Moss BMX Skate Park opened just around the corner in 2011 on the site of the former Austin Recreation Center building at 1213 Shoal Creek Boulevard doesn’t hurt either.
But even the the geography of West 12th Street itself assists local skaters by helpfully including both the aforementioned death-defying hill west of North Lamar Boulevard, and a gentler eastern slope from West Avenue down to Shoal Creek Boulevard:
Practically across the street from the district’s longtime skate shop is 827 West 12th Street, a roughly .55-acre tract currently occupied by four buildings including the headquarters of Dynamic Reprographics Inc., retail bookshop 12th Street Books, and two smaller office spaces. Though the land is currently owned by Dynamic Reprographics president Lisa Jean Tipps, recent city filings indicate this property will soon see a mixed-use residential development by Houston real estate firm Transwestern, bringing approximately 175 “micro-unit” apartments and ground-floor retail space to the site — a plan that sounds fairly similar, at least in the broad strokes, to the developer’s upcoming Block 36 project elsewhere in downtown.
Though renderings or even drawings aren’t yet available for the project, a rezoning case for the property from earlier this year approved a change from Commercial Services (CS) to Downtown Mixed-Use (DMU) zoning with a conditional overlay limiting the height of any building here to 60 feet — or roughly five to six floors at most — which means the least we can do is mock something up for your viewing pleasure with one of our famous green box massings:
The height of the 3D box in the images above is as accurate to 60 feet as we can get it with the wildly varying elevations of this area — but the Austin Community College parking garage directly across the street is 63 feet high, if that gives you a better idea.
Documents related to the rezoning of the site and its subsequent development indicate Transwestern has worked with the Downtown Austin and Old Austin Neighborhood Associations to hash out the details of a private restrictive covenant agreement on some additional terms for a building here — namely that the project would provide Great Streets improvements along its West 12th Street frontage, along with screening and architecturally integrating its above-ground parking structure into the overall building (seemingly in an effort to avoid the dreaded “plinth” look).
We are excited about the prospect of having new residential neighbors at this site, and we’re glad the planned parking ratio is relatively low (0.7 spaces/unit). While we would prefer that the parking be below-grade, adaptable for other uses, and available from the beginning to other users, we still believe that this project, with the restrictions outlined above, represents a significant step forward for the neighborhood.
— Dan Keshet, DANA Policy Committee Chair
There’s no groundbreaking date for this project, or even any indications of demolition for the existing buildings at the site, so we don’t have much to work with beyond what you see here — still, this side of downtown isn’t generally considered a hotbed for residential development, so anything happening over here is noteworthy. We hope 12th Street Books finds a new location for its incredible collection of rare texts without too much trouble, though it would be even better if Transwestern had the heart to give the store some space in the ground floor of the new building — after all, a physical bookstore surviving in 2019 is almost as weird as skating Castle Hill.
Clarksville Homes For Sale
-
$497,000
1603 Enfield RD #313
Austin, TX -
$998,000
1205 W 10th ST
Austin, TX -
$1,525,000
1307 Marshall LN
Austin, TX -
$2,100,000
1207 W 10th ST
Austin, TX -
$439,850
1603 Enfield RD #206
Austin, TX -
$915,000
729 Patterson Ave
Austin, TX -
$410,000
1406 Windsor RD #203
Austin, TX -
$3,750,000
1004 Maufrais ST
Austin, TX -
$595,000
806 Winflo DR #5
Austin, TX -
$795,000
1200 Castle Hill ST #B
Austin, TX -
$875,000
1621 Enfield RD #D
Austin, TX -
$420,000
1202 Marshall LN #1
Austin, TX -
$4,250,000
1315 W 9th ST #2
Austin, TX -
$4,799,000
613 West Lynn ST
Austin, TX -
$2,249,000
609 Baylor ST
Austin, TX -
$2,995,000
1305 Lorrain ST #House+A+B+C
Austin, TX -
$699,900
1115 10th ST W #204
Austin, TX -
$1,200,000
1010 W 10th ST #303
Austin, TX -
$2,239,000
1801 Palma PLZ
Austin, TX -
$1,199,000
1606 W 14th ST
Austin, TX -
$3,995,000
1000 Shelley Ave
Austin, TX -
$1,225,000
1205 Elm ST #5
Austin, TX -
$3,999,999
1615 Waterston Ave
Austin, TX -
$2,100,000
1111 W 12th ST #118
Austin, TX -
$539,850
1613 W 10th St
Austin, TX
-
Lot Size1,564 sqft
Home Size980 sqft
Beds1 Bed
Baths1 Bath
-
Lot Size4,269 sqft
Home Size2,184 sqft
BedsN/A
BathsN/A
-
Lot Size8,451 sqft
Home Size2,228 sqft
Beds3 Beds
Baths2 Baths
-
Lot Size4,966 sqft
Home Size1,752 sqft
Beds3 Beds
Baths2 Baths
-
Lot SizeN/A
Home Size824 sqft
Beds1 Bed
Baths1 Bath
-
Lot Size2,279 sqft
Home Size2,112 sqft
Beds3 Beds
Baths2.5 Baths
-
Lot Size1,377 sqft
Home Size856 sqft
Beds1 Bed
Baths1 Bath
-
Lot Size9,993 sqft
Home Size3,912 sqft
Beds4 Beds
Baths3.5 Baths
-
Lot Size872 sqft
Home Size901 sqft
Beds2 Beds
Baths2 Baths
-
Lot Size2,074 sqft
Home Size1,200 sqft
Beds2 Beds
Baths2.5 Baths
-
Lot Size3,002 sqft
Home Size1,875 sqft
Beds3 Beds
Baths3.5 Baths
-
Lot Size1,137 sqft
Home Size673 sqft
Beds1 Bed
Baths1 Bath
-
Lot Size4,147 sqft
Home Size3,003 sqft
Beds3 Beds
Baths3 Baths
-
Lot Size10,150 sqft
Home Size4,854 sqft
Beds6 Beds
Baths6 Baths
-
Lot Size7,928 sqft
Home Size2,506 sqft
Beds3 Beds
Baths2 Baths
-
Lot Size20,038 sqft
Home Size6,246 sqft
Beds12 Beds
Baths6 Baths
-
Lot Size1,821 sqft
Home Size1,251 sqft
Beds2 Beds
Baths2 Baths
-
Lot Size1,220 sqft
Home Size1,913 sqft
Beds3 Beds
Baths2.5 Baths
-
Lot Size9,035 sqft
Home Size2,768 sqft
Beds4 Beds
Baths3 Baths
-
Lot Size6,988 sqft
Home Size2,138 sqft
Beds3 Beds
Baths2 Baths
-
Lot Size6,656 sqft
Home Size3,099 sqft
Beds5 Beds
Baths3.5 Baths
-
Lot Size1,996 sqft
Home Size2,066 sqft
Beds3 Beds
Baths3.5 Baths
-
Lot Size7,471 sqft
Home Size5,460 sqft
Beds5 Beds
Baths6 Baths
-
Lot Size3,572 sqft
Home Size2,932 sqft
Beds4 Beds
Baths4 Baths
-
Lot Size3,372 sqft
Home Size576 sqft
Beds2 Beds
Baths1 Bath
Leave a Reply