Spring Breaks Ground

Another downtown Austin condo building has begun it’s unstoppable climb to the sky. Over the last few weeks, construction has begun on the Spring condo development in the Austin Market District, just south of Whole Foods. The $70 million project will be 42-stories high. The 260-unit project at 3rd & Bowie will have units starting in the low $200s.

Here are some new notes on the project from the staff:

Spring is designed by Foad Rafii, a Vancouver architect, using design principles that maximize the amount of usable space on each floor. Panoramic views of the city, wall-to-wall glass and concrete “point towers,” so called because a plate – the footprint of one floor – is limited to 6,800 square feet. Compare this to Austin, where many of our recent residential buildings are thick and squat and use land inefficiently. Plans call for ground-level retail and 248 units, priced from $235,000 (600 SF) to $950,000 (1,720 SF), with only four to eight units per floor. This will be a stunning piece of architecture, and it will help accommodate the need for urban living space in the heart of Austin.Larry Warshaw, who is developing the project along with Perry Lorenz, Robert Barnstone and Diana Zuniga. Lorenz and Barnstone were partners in the Nokonah condominiums on North Lamar Boulevard and West Ninth Street. Robert Barnstone also served on the Austin City Council from 1988 to 1990. Warshaw and Lorenz co-developed the Pedernales Lofts condominiums on East Sixth Street. Zuniga, a well-known broker, also is a principal in the partnership that sold the land.

And of course, AT has a full profile. And here is a picture: