A rendering of the Guthrie development planned at 3300 Gonzales Street. Photo courtesy of Argyle Residential.
Gonzales Street is quiet, for now. It’s a sleepy path of single-family homes in far East Austin just north of the East Seventh Street bridge’s span over Tillery Street, and the elevation of Seventh Street in this area insulates nearby homes from most major traffic. The abundant trees on the un-and-underdeveloped lots at the intersection of Gonzales and Tillery Streets lend the block an oddly rural stillness, which helps to circumvent its actual geography barely more than two miles from downtown.
A swing hanging underneath the Seventh Street bridge near the intersection of Tillery and Gonzales Streets. Photo courtesy of Hatch Workshop / Red Swing Project.
Since this is Austin, the Govalle neighborhood that claims Gonzales Street at its center might be described as “the next big thing,” or “the crest of the wave” — the watershed point on a vertical swath of high-density real estate development slowly chewing its way eastward through aging single-family homes and light industrial warehouses, leaving behind apartment complexes and mixed-use midrises as it goes.
The site of the former Guthrie Lumberyard at 3300 Gonzales Street. Photo by James Rambin.
It’s here in Govalle, at the site of a former Gonzales Street lumberyard, that we find a new benchmark for the eastern spread of density: The Guthrie, a four-story multifamily development planned by Oden Hughes and Argyle Residential at 3300 Gonzales Street.
A north-facing elevation of the Guthrie project. Photo courtesy of Steinberg Design Collaborative.
The project — which gets its name from the lumberyard previously at the address a la The Arnold, The Chicon, The Leslie, and so on — will contain 310 apartment units, with 12 units at a secondary Guthrie II development at 3215 Gonzales Street, just across the road from the main site.
A southern elevation of the Guthrie II, designed as a live/work building. Photo courtesy of Steinberg Design Collaborative.
It’s not really the design of the building that grabs me. Judging by the available renderings, plans and elevations, it just sort of looks like the Triangle — in fact, it’s designed by the same architects. But two things are particularly noteworthy here:
• The units at the Guthrie II are designed as live/work space, with a commercial ground floor and two floors of living space up top. This is a feature for these types of buildings you just don’t see very often — it’s usually ground floor retail with apartments up above, and never the twain shall meet. Super interesting, even if the lack of current pedestrian traffic in the neighborhood means these spaces will inevitably end up as law offices or something.
• If I’m keeping score correctly, the Guthrie is the first multifamily development of its size to arrive in this section of Austin’s far east side by something like half a mile, at least on the East Seventh Street corridor and surrounding areas.
A map of the sites for the Guthrie and Guthrie II developments. Photo courtesy of Google Maps.
Further east on Gonzales Street, MX3 Homes has several projects in play, which makes me wonder if parts of East Austin closer to the highway are finally getting too expensive even for developers. Putting up 300-plus residential units is certainly a bold way to anchor future development in a slightly more remote section of the zip code.
Another rendering of the Guthrie project. Photo courtesy of Argyle Residential.
Between this Guthrie project, the East 5th Condos, and the Rail Spur Building located a bit further down Tillery Street, we’re seeing some genuine action in this bit of Govalle. The neighborhood remains one of my favorite parts of the city, but I’m not necessarily crossing my fingers for the area to receive the East Sixth treatment.
More density is inevitable, but awareness of your surroundings and neighborhood context is often overlooked by multifamily developers. Govalle has a quieter vibe that lends itself to industrial adaptive reuse projects like the Rail Spur Building or Austin Bouldering Project’s repurposed produce factory over brand new midrise development — which often seems to deliver buildings with no sense of time, place, or anything else, for that matter.
Govalle neighborhood homes for sale
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$385,000
2220 Webberville RD #402
Austin, TX -
$1,800,000
3210 Thompson ST
Austin, TX -
$605,000
4708 Gonzales ST
Austin, TX -
$565,000
1000 Muse LN #10
Austin, TX -
$425,000
3101 Govalle Ave #208
Austin, TX -
$675,000
604 Allen ST #104
Austin, TX -
$545,000
3101 Govalle Ave #107
Austin, TX -
$1,099,000
1006 Tillery ST #1
Austin, TX -
$899,000
1123 3/4 Gunter ST #2
Austin, TX -
$1,300,000
2236 Webberville RD
Austin, TX -
$549,999
2713 LYONS RD
Austin, TX -
$405,000
3101 Govalle Ave #117
Austin, TX -
$1,600,000
201 Broadway ST
Austin, TX -
$1,699,000
1105 Linden ST
Austin, TX -
$549,900
2708 Halcyon DR
Austin, TX -
$975,000
739 Gunter ST #1
Austin, TX -
$1,249,000
746 Pedernales ST
Austin, TX -
$1,150,000
3001 Stokes DR
Austin, TX -
$749,999
3133 Govalle Ave #B
Austin, TX -
$789,000
2519 Gonzales ST
Austin, TX -
$1,199,950
2816 Garwood ST #1
Austin, TX -
$415,000
3101 Govalle Ave #304
Austin, TX -
$389,000
2220 Webberville RD #318
Austin, TX -
$815,000
603 Vermont RD
Austin, TX -
$898,000
720 Pedernales ST #A
Austin, TX
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$385,000Lot SizeN/A
Home Size650 sqft
Beds1 Bed
Baths1 Bath
-
$1,800,000Lot Size7,070 sqft
Home Size2,456 sqft
Beds4 Beds
Baths3.5 Baths
-
$605,000Lot Size7,724 sqft
Home Size832 sqft
Beds2 Beds
Baths1 Bath
-
$565,000Lot SizeN/A
Home Size1,253 sqft
Beds2 Beds
Baths1.5 Baths
-
$425,000Lot Size1,647 sqft
Home Size1,081 sqft
Beds2 Beds
Baths2 Baths
-
$675,000Lot Size2,666 sqft
Home Size1,513 sqft
Beds3 Beds
Baths2.5 Baths
-
$545,000Lot Size2,266 sqft
Home Size1,459 sqft
Beds3 Beds
Baths2 Baths
-
$1,099,000Lot Size7,192 sqft
Home Size2,414 sqft
Beds4 Beds
Baths3.5 Baths
-
$899,000Lot Size5,441 sqft
Home Size1,485 sqft
Beds3 Beds
Baths3 Baths
-
$1,300,000Lot Size5,838 sqft
Home Size1,116 sqft
Beds3 Beds
Baths2 Baths
-
$549,999Lot Size6,600 sqft
Home Size852 sqft
Beds2 Beds
Baths1 Bath
-
$405,000Lot Size1,220 sqft
Home Size800 sqft
Beds1 Bed
Baths1 Bath
-
$1,600,000Lot Size6,125 sqft
Home Size2,468 sqft
Beds4 Beds
Baths3 Baths
-
$1,699,000Lot Size11,448 sqft
Home Size2,657 sqft
Beds5 Beds
Baths4.5 Baths
-
$549,900Lot Size1,952 sqft
Home Size1,195 sqft
Beds2 Beds
Baths1.5 Baths
-
$975,000Lot Size5,689 sqft
Home Size2,117 sqft
Beds4 Beds
Baths3 Baths
-
$1,249,000Lot Size5,049 sqft
Home Size2,300 sqft
Beds4 Beds
Baths3.5 Baths
-
$1,150,000Lot Size7,262 sqft
Home Size2,374 sqft
Beds4 Beds
Baths3.5 Baths
-
$749,999Lot Size3,777 sqft
Home Size1,868 sqft
Beds2 Beds
Baths2.5 Baths
-
$789,000Lot Size5,097 sqft
Home Size1,812 sqft
Beds3 Beds
Baths2.5 Baths
-
$1,199,950Lot Size6,970 sqft
Home Size2,313 sqft
Beds4 Beds
Baths3.5 Baths
-
$415,000Lot Size1,582 sqft
Home Size1,040 sqft
Beds1 Bed
Baths2 Baths
-
$389,000Lot Size5,838 sqft
Home Size682 sqft
Beds1 Bed
Baths1 Bath
-
$815,000Lot Size12,607 sqft
Home Size2,747 sqft
Beds4 Beds
Baths2 Baths
-
$898,000Lot Size3,437 sqft
Home Size1,944 sqft
Beds3 Beds
Baths2.5 Baths
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