Have you ever looked at the Arboretum Crossing and gotten depressed? This half-dead shopping center at 9333 Research Boulevard in Austin’s “Golden Triangle” at MoPac, U.S. 183, and Loop 360 was once the pride of the 1990s, a traditional strip mall with roughly 20 acres of big-box retail space built as a companion to developer Trammell Crow’s…
urbanism
It’s Time To Stop Asking Questions and Build a Giant Troll in Pease Park
This week, we need you to be thinking about trolls. You need to be talking about trolls. When you see a stranger, your first impulse should be to ask them about their stance on “the troll issue.” You should start describing yourself as “trollpilled.” The source of this recent obsession is the Pease Park Conservancy,…
This October, Celebrate Austin’s First ‘Legacy Business Month’
As advocates for economic development in Austin, it’s tough to see iconic local businesses struggling with the city’s current growing pains — between sky-high land values, labor shortages due to our festering housing crisis, and a municipal permitting bureaucracy largely unchanged since the 1980s, it takes increasingly deep patience and pockets to keep the lights on. That’s why we’re thrilled…
Erwin Center Demolition Work Could Start Next Month in Downtown Austin
The reveal last month that the University of Texas is pursuing a $2.5 billion partnership with the MD Anderson Cancer Center to construct a cancer treatment and research hub in downtown Austin was fantastic news for the city’s emerging Innovation District — and bad news for the Frank C. Erwin Jr. Center, the infamous drum-shaped concrete arena set to be demolished in the near future…
Southeast Austin’s Oracle Campus Planning Office and Hotel Addition
The sprawling waterfront headquarters of software multinational Oracle Corporation could soon expand once again in Southeast Austin, according to recent city permits. The firm, which opened a large office campus on South Lakeshore Boulevard in 2018 and designated the site as its new corporate headquarters two years later, currently owns approximately 50 acres on the southeast shore of Lady Bird Lake under the terms of a…
Brush Square’s Back in Downtown Austin
The current heat wave hasn’t made it easy to notice, but fences are finally down at Brush Square in downtown Austin. After a year of construction and roughly five years of planning efforts, the first phase of improvements to this longtime downtown public space at 409 East Fifth Street are substantially complete. Although you can go check it out…