Image: Barnes Gromatzky Kosarek Architects
Nearly a year ago, we dug into plans for 701 Rio, a five-story office project bound for a 0.6-acre collection of lots at the northeast corner of West Seventh and Rio Grande Streets in the generally lower-density west end of downtown Austin. Though the development was originally expected to kick off back in April 2019 with the demolition of the existing office structures at 701 Rio Grande Street and 602 West Seventh Street to make way for the new building’s construction, those old offices are still standing.
A relatively current view of the 701 Rio Grande Street site.
Representatives of the project, including its developers Investors Alliance and commercial real estate firm JLL, aren’t yet able to confirm the exact timeline for construction — meaning they’re still likely nailing it down — but that doesn’t mean this project’s not breathing. In fact, demolition permits were filed by the developers with the city earlier this year for the removal of the two on-site structures, and though we don’t know when that demolition’s actually taking place, additional construction permits dating to earlier this week give us reason to believe it’s kicking off soon — possibly as soon as later this month.
Image: Barnes Gromatzky Kosarek Architects
The dates on these permits don’t always reflect the constantly-shifting timelines of actual demolition or construction, so I wouldn’t start a hunger strike until the old buildings come down or anything, but there’s still more than enough permit activity connected to these addresses over the last few months to confidently say this project ain’t anything close to dead — for one thing, recent leasing information for the building’s office space includes an availability date of February 2021.
If you need a refresher after a year, the 701 Rio building itself contains 120,000 square feet of office space along with ground-floor retail of some kind (labeled as a “cafe” on the rendering below, but who knows) and underground parking for 296 cars. It’s worth noting that the building looks a lot prettier than some of its competition because its developers are spending more money to put the parking completely underground rather than sticking it on the first couple of floors. Isn’t that something?
Image: Barnes Gromatzky Kosarek Architects
Anyway, besides the seemingly impending action at this site, the real reason we’re here is to look at some nice new renderings of the project, courtesy of its designers at local outfit Barnes Gromatzky Kosarek Architects. You’ve already seen a few of them peppered throughout this article, but let’s sit down and rattle off the rest of them real fast, including views of the building’s interior and rooftop amenity deck:
A view of the 701 Rio building’s lobby. Image: Barnes Gromatzky Kosarek Architects
Looking at some office space in the 701 Rio project. Image: Barnes Gromatzky Kosarek Architects
Another office space view at 701 Rio, this time really driving the point home about how close this project is to the higher-reaching towers of downtown proper. Image: Barnes Gromatzky Kosarek Architects
The rooftop amenity deck planned at the 701 Rio project — quite a view, isn’t it? Image: Barnes Gromatzky Kosarek Architects
Though we’re never going to get as excited about a project of this scale compared with, say, a record-setting downtown tower, the building seems well-designed with an amenity package befitting its downtown location — shoutout to the rooftop amenity deck, seemingly a requirement for almost every new office announced downtown.
Another view of the rooftop deck, this time with evening flavor. Image: Barnes Gromatzky Kosarek Architects
It’s also nice to see density even at this scale arriving in the more height-restrictive western end of downtown, much of which is actually gerrymandered out from the Downtown Density Bonus Program’s boundaries. With other development hitting the general area, including the recently-announced Quarters project a few blocks away and new height bound for the forgotten northwest corner of downtown, we may have to eventually do something about that — but y’all aren’t ready for that conversation.
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