Last month, we asked the intrepid workforce of downtown Austin for some takes. Specifically, if you were an office worker somewhere in the downtown area prior to the pandemic, what does your work situation look like now? Are you back to the office in person, working fully remotely, or splitting the difference with a hybrid schedule? Is Downtown Austin Back in the Office? Although…
adaptive reuse
It’s Not Looking Good for Downtown Austin’s Conrad Hotel Tower Plan
Don’t look now, but the 63-story downtown Austin condo and hotel tower known as the Conrad Hotel and Residences planned by local developer Intracorp for a property located on East Second Street directly west of the Austin Convention Center appears to be officially defunct this week. A new listing posted Wednesday by commercial brokers CBRE offers the full half-block south of East Second Street from…
Trading Parking for Pickleball at the Austin Pickle Ranch on West Sixth
Austin has a pickleball shortage. I know that sounds hard to believe, but stay with me — Austin also has too much parking. The rise of pickleball as the fastest-growing sport in America causing increased crowds at local pickleball courts happens to coincide with growing public awareness that overzealous parking requirements have screwed up the urban design of cities all over the country, with…
Demolition Pending for River Park Mixed-Use Project on East Riverside
River Park, the massive 109-acre mixed-use development by developer Presidium Group and global private equity firm Partners Group, envisions the construction of roughly 10 million square feet of apartments, offices, hotel, and retail space over the next 10 to 20 years near the intersection of East Riverside Drive and Pleasant Valley Road. It’s a stone’s throw from the ever-expanding Oracle corporate headquarters…
Brodie Oaks Is the Future of Austin
The redevelopment plan for South Austin’s 37-acre Brodie Oaks shopping center received the green light from Austin’s City Council yesterday, with the $1 billion Planned Unit Development agreement between the city and development partners Barshop & Oles and Lionstone Investments passing its third and final reading and now expected to break ground sometime in 2025. We’ve talked a lot…
Is Downtown Austin Back in the Office?
Hey, is anybody working in downtown Austin? This sounds like the setup to a joke, but we’re actually curious — with high office vacancy rates and an increasing preference for hybrid or fully remote work after the start of the pandemic three years ago, the current state of working downtown is kinda up in the air. One Lady Bird Lake Office Tower Project Redesigned for Residential Use This cultural shift has all sorts of…