Two new projects have filed site plans for new construction within the Rainey Street neighborhood district.
The vacant lot across the street from the Mexican American Cultural Center at 70 Rainey filed paperwork to build a mixed-use sky scraper consisting of a restaurant, residential units, and parking.
Down the street, the North Shore Lofts are moving forward with a multi-family building at the corner of the north shore and I-35, that will bring 44 class A multifamily units to the site.
The 70 Rainey development, which encompasses the lots between 66-72 Rainey Street, had been interested in incorporating 64 Rainey Street into their plan, but the MACC successfully lobbied City Council last fall to get the land instead.
Location of 70 Rainey showing clear views of Lady Bird Lake
The 70 Rainey development, which would share an alley with the Shore Condos, includes Riverside Resources and is being financed through Ft. Worth-based Kelly Capital Partners, had said it planned a 31-story, 385,464 square-foot mixed use, multifamily project there if it could include the 64 Rainey lot. (To add perspective, the Shore condo tower next door is 22 stories.)
Details should emerge soon as to whether their project scope will be reduced, but it is evident that the team is moving forward, and ceding the 64 Rainey lot to the MACC for now.
Down the street, the North Shore Lofts are moving forward and will offer incredible views of Lady Bird Lake. If built, these would replace the Towers of Town Lake as the southernmost residential project in the Rainey district.
The Downtown Austin Blog had posted a short item on the North Shore Lofts in February, noting that the site was rezoned from downtown mixed-use (DMU) to central business district (CBD) in 2005, and at the time was owned by Tom Calhoon, of Calhoon Properties.
It looks like it has changed hands and now belongs to a consortium called Town Lake LLC, which lists JCI Residential President Kurt Goll as the point of contact.
JCI Residential looks like a relatively young company but has experience principals, and is developing over at the Plaza Saltillo area on East Fifth. (Their website also lists a mystery project, called Seville, which will bring 200 units “within blocks of downtown” plus 10,000 square feet of ground floor retail and live/work space.
The North Shore Lofts will certainly have to contend with a lot of ambient highway noise, and the JCI team seems to have a lot of experience with architectural design, so it will be interesting to see how this project incorporates sweeping views, but mitigates sound pollution for tenants. They are also building a $24 million, 300-unit multifamily complex in Buda near that Cabela’s, which presumably would suffer from the highway noise pollution, so they must have something figured out.
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