Residential Tower Could Replace Ninth and Lavaca Parking Garage Downtown

A view of the 901 Lavaca Street parking garage. Image: Google Maps

A site plan filed earlier today with the City of Austin indicates a residential tower is in the development stage at the northeast corner of West Ninth and Lavaca Streets in downtown, a 0.41-acre or roughly quarter-block site at 901 Lavaca Street currently occupied by a seven-story parking garage structure. The permit filing, simply calling the project “9th & Lavaca,” describes the project as a mixed-use building containing multifamily and restaurant uses.

Since 2021, the site has been owned by a subsidiary of Los Angeles-based real estate firm Regent Properties, which appears to have purchased the site from local investment outfit Cousins Properties around the same time as the nearby 20-story office building at 816 Congress Avenue, which Cousins sold to Regent for a reported $174 million. Today’s filing, submitted by engineering firm Kimley-Horn, doesn’t indicate whether Regent is also the developer of the project.

A view of the 901 Lavaca Street site, with the area’s view corridors displayed in red. Image: Google Earth / Noah Deneau

Sharing a block with the iconic state-owned Austin Daily Tribune building along with the new nine-story headquarters of the Texas Bankers Association now in a late stage of construction, the project represents potentially the first demolition and redevelopment of a structured parking facility we’ve seen downtown in several years. While the site is just outside the recently relaxed limitations of the Capitol Dominance Overlay District, a Capitol View Corridor still passes over the northwest corner of the property, meaning a residential building here will likely cut a sharp corner in the manner of other recent CVC-adjacent towers downtown.

32-Floor Downtown Austin Condo Tower Planned at 14th and Lavaca Corner

It’s only the latest sign of development pressure in a traditionally quiet sector of downtown, and hopefully the first of many — spend some time walking around this area and you’ll note surface lots, garages, and other low-rise buildings that could house additional development, despite the region’s numerous view corridors. We would like to see more parking structures turned into places people can live, please.