A view of the second-phase tower announced back in 2021 directly adjacent to the existing Travis apartment tower site, rumored to contain a Ritz-Carlton hotel and residences. Image: M2 / SOM
Most unrealized tower plans never officially fail, they just fade away into vaporware. Start dates get kicked down the road, companies restructure, plans change, and so on. For obvious reasons, no sane developer wants to drop a press release announcing they aren’t building something — in Austin, that means out of the massive crop of towers announced here over the last decade or so, sometimes you’ll come across an old article or rendering and be like hey, that never got built!
Austin’s Tower Vaporware: An Extremely Sad Downtown Field Guide
Our downtown construction slowdown, caused not only by the current lending environment but also high office vacancy rates, means we probably shouldn’t be overly confident in announced projects that haven’t already broken ground, but sometimes you get a slightly more detailed cup of tea leaves. That’s the case over at 80 Red River Street on the west edge of the Rainey Street District, where the 50-story Travis apartment tower is topped out and nearing completion, having broken ground back in 2021 when you could still get this stuff financed. But you may recall a second phase of development planned at this site, an even taller 64-story tower rising right next door to the Travis by developers M2 Development Partners, who were simultaneously pursuing a two-tower Ritz-Carlton hotel plan in downtown Nashville.
Celebrated Architects Skidmore, Owings & Merrill Headed for the Rainey District
The building, containing a luxury hotel brand also rumored to be a Ritz-Carlton alongside a mix of condos, apartments, and retail space, was designed in fetching fashion by celebrated Chicago architecture firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill and announced in breaking fashion on this very site back in 2021. I wonder what M2 and its founding principal Tim Morris have gotten up to since then? Let’s take a look!
The would-be developer of the SoBro property long eyed for a two-tower Ritz-Carlton hotel and residential project — already facing a lawsuit from his bank related to an alleged unpaid loan — is now involved in at least four other legal battles.
According to court documents, the lawsuits involve what the plaintiffs contend are late payments from Tim Morris and his companies.
As the Post reported in October, Oakworth Capital Bank of Alabama is suing RC Nashville Development Partners LLC and Morris (the owners of the property), claiming the defendants failed to make the required payments on a $10 million loan (read here). Morris is the managing member of the LLC, which includes no other investors or individuals.
In addition, Morris is now being sued by Nashville architecture company The Bradley Projects, the owner of downtown’s Fifth + Broadway, the owner of One Hundred Oaks Storage and Nashville engineering and land-planning firm RaganSmith Associates.
Ah well, a minor setback surely, let’s keep looking,
The downtown property slated for a Ritz-Carlton hotel has sold in a foreclosure sale.
RC Nashville Development Partners LLC, which is affiliated with the developer behind the planned Ritz-Carlton, has foreclosed on the 1.21-acre site located at 727 Korean Veterans Blvd., according a deed filed with Metro.
The site’s lender, R Squared Properties LLC, gained ownership of the property at a foreclosure sale today at 10 a.m. at the front door entrance of the Metro Davidson County Courthouse, according to Metro records.
The company purchased the land for $35 million through a credit bid, which allows a lender to bid the amount they are owed on a property. R Squared Properties was the “highest and best” bidder, according to the deed.
Good heavens! Although Morris says he’s still hoping to develop the Nashville project despite these, uh, setbacks, we are forced to conclude that M2’s plans for Austin are probably about as dead as they can be without a formal announcement. We’re very confident a second tower will rise at the Travis site someday, but it’s almost certainly not going to be the one announced back in 2021. Looks like you’ll have to resign yourself to the luxury hotel in the supertall tower currently rising next door. Rats!
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