A mixed-use redevelopment is currently in the planning stages at South Austin’s longtime Twin Oaks Shopping Center, according to a site plan filed with the city earlier this week. Located at 2315 South Congress Avenue, this midcentury strip mall has been owned since 2016 by beloved Texan grocers H-E-B, acquired as part of its redevelopment strategy for…
retail
Reconsidering an Ocean of Asphalt at the Anderson Square Shopping Center
The owners of a longtime North Austin shopping center with one of the city’s most perpetually empty parking lots are currently weighing the possibilities of a denser redevelopment, according to a meeting of the Wooten Neighborhood Association earlier this month. The Anderson Square shopping center, located at the southwest corner of the interchange between Highway 183, West Anderson Lane,…
Demolition Pending For El Mercado Building at 17th and Lavaca Downtown
A permit filed with the city this week indicates the pending demolition of the buildings located at West 17th and Lavaca Streets in downtown’s growing northwest corner — most notably including the former home of the longtime El Mercado Uptown restaurant at 1702 Lavaca Street, which shuttered last year after nearly 30 years of business. Although the buildings at the corner date…
A Block-Sized Demolition’s Headed for Sixth & Blanco West of Downtown Austin
A five-story mixed-use project bringing retail, hotel, office, and residential space to more than two acres along West Sixth Street near downtown Austin is headed for the demolition phase. Sixth & Blanco, a new name for the plan first announced last summer as Clarksvillage, imagines a large-scale destination for the neighborhoods west of downtown courtesy of…
Raise a Glass to Austin’s Planned Abolition of Bar Parking Mandates
Minimum parking requirements are bad for cities. Once upon a time you’d risk getting run out of town for saying this in public, but we’ve seen an increasing awareness over the last decade of these and other invisible rules shaping how places like Austin grow, and the results aren’t always great — ask yourself, why does every new tower downtown have a…
At East Riverside Gateway, a New Neighborhood Waits for the Train
The East Riverside Gateway project planned by local real estate firm PlaceMKR would bring roughly 2 million square feet of mixed-use development to the intersection of East Riverside Drive and Highway 71 in Southeast Austin, creating a seven-building complex containing more than 1,000 residential units and three office towers connected by a walkable streetscape of ground-level retail. The plan is…