Ever heard of the downtown Austin "Panhandle?" We've used this charmingly western-tinged name from time to time for the weird little peninsula of the 78701 ZIP code between I-35 and Lady Bird Lake south of Cesar Chavez Street, most of which is occupied by the Rainey Street District. Look, it's a little panhandle! This minor geographic anomaly makes the panhandle ...
development
Here’s Our First View of the Updated South Lamar and Riverside Hotel
Remember the plans for a South Austin condo or apartment building at the southeast corner of South Lamar Boulevard and West Riverside Drive? This long-awaited and occasionally controversial project, first announced in 2013 as a 175-unit residential community, recently returned in the form of a 107-room hotel, also sporting 25 condo units and retail space to boot. ...
Hey Look, the Old Ginger Man Facade is Back at the Hotel ZaZa
Remember the Hotel ZaZa and Gables Republic Square project at 401 Guadalupe Street? First announced nearly seven years ago, the timeline of this 24-story hotel and apartment project one block east from Republic Square Park has been fairly long by Austin standards, but we're expecting its opening relatively soon. Representatives of the project have slyly told us it's ...
At Holly Point, Long-Awaited Upgrades Head for an East Austin Park
The long-discussed plan for the improvement of East Austin's enormous tracts of parkland on the north shores of Lady Bird Lake near the former Holly Power Plant is finally taking its first small steps, nearly a decade after City Council approved the development of a vision for upgrading the area in 2009. Generally referred to as Holly Shores but technically containing ...
What Can We Learn From East Austin’s Chestnut Plaza Development?
Last year, TOWERS profiled the ongoing growth of Chestnut Plaza and the Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) at MLK Jr. Boulevard and Alexander Avenue, located in East Austin at the MLK Jr. Station of Capital Metro's Red Line. Nearly 10 years after the rail station first opened, the area around it still has plenty of empty space waiting for growth, but some of those gaps should ...
