The Employees Retirement System of Texas isn’t wasting any time adding value to its office property located at 200 East 18th Street, which occupies a full block in the northeastern corner of the Texas Capitol Complex. Alongside the major changes taking place at the nearby Texas Mall section of the Capitol Complex Master Plan, the ERS plans to construct a mixed-use office and retail building on its block, retaining the site’s…
capitol complex
Downtown’s Eight-Block Transformation Kicks Off at Capitol Complex
Unlike a lot of downtown Austin developments that kick around in a state of limbo for what feels like a million years before turning dirt, the Texas Facilities Commission isn’t screwing around. Commission documents from earlier this month indicate that construction on the underground parking garage component of the Capitol Complex Master Plan’s Texas Mall project will begin by June 2019,…
Mixed-Use Expansion Planned at State Employees Retirement System Offices
The Employees Retirement System of Texas occupies one of the more creatively-designed buildings in the Texas Capitol Complex at 200 East 18th Street, but the agency seems to have outgrown its home, with plans for a major expansion underway. The main building, a five-story 1979 structure shaped like a Chinese wood puzzle, will remain as the agency’s main office. However, a much shorter…
Capitol Complex Master Plan’s First Phase Brings State-Sponsored Urbanism to Downtown Austin’s Dead Zone
I’ll start by staking out a risky position for a blog like this: Downtown Austin is a pretty good place. Compared to, say, the moribund central business districts of Dallas or Houston, Austin’s original 179 blocks are, for the most part, a thriving patch of round-the-clock city life. Well, for the most part. But once…
Texas Lottery Commission to Move From East Sixth Headquarters
The Texas Lottery Commission plans to vacate its current headquarters at Grant Plaza in the 600 block of East Sixth Street, according to city documents issued earlier this month. Empire Square Group , a boutique private equity firm that owns the plaza, will lose its main tenant in the move. According to the landlord’s portfolio description, the commission occupies 92 percent of…
Plans Revealed for 2 Towers in Downtown’s Capitol Complex
It has been 15 months since the Texas Facilities Commission approved the 2016 Texas Capitol Complex Master Plan , and the concepts unveiled at the time were of a stunningly ambitious, years-long project that would extend the Capitol Complex north by four blocks, incorporating along the way many mixed-use structures, a pedestrian-friendly “Texas Mall” and a massive underground parking system. The TFC recently set…