An aerial view of the two Railyard tracts, each occupying a half-block on either side of San Jacinto Boulevard. From this perspective, the top site highlighted is the eastern tract and the bottom site highlighted is the western tract. Image: Bing Maps
After last year’s blockbuster $104 million sale of downtown Austin condo community the Railyard to Los Angeles investment firm Karlin Real Estate, we knew it was only a matter of time before the site’s redevelopment — in part simply because it’s a big piece of land downtown, roughly 1.6 acres of low-rise residential units spanning two half-blocks on both sides of San Jacinto Boulevard at 201 and 301 East Fourth Street.
But our fantasies for the future of this property were informed by its new owners themselves before they’d even had a chance to close on the deal, with a marketing brochure circulated last year from Karlin and commercial real estate firm CBRE promoting the possibility of twin towers atop the Railyard’s two tracts — bringing what was then described as a combined 1.7 million square feet of development to the site in a package potentially taller than anything the city’s seen before.
Image: Karlin Real Estate / CBRE
Image: Karlin Real Estate / CBRE
Image: Karlin Real Estate / CBRE
We still can’t be sure if the futuristic towers seen in the above marketing material actually indicate the direction of design for what will eventually rise here, but thanks to city utility filings from an unknown developer earlier this week we can now confirm that two towers of significant size are in the pre-development stage at the Railyard property. Though we don’t know their exact heights at this point, the square footages described in these documents imply towers of significant scale, potentially even reaching higher than anything built or planned in Austin at the moment.
Known only as ATX Tower East and ATX Tower West in current filings, the tower east of San Jacinto Boulevard is mostly residential in use, described as containing approximately 500 apartments, 300 condo units, and 15,000 square feet of restaurant space. The western tower contains approximately 884,000 square feet of office space and another 15,000 square feet of restaurant space.
These are obviously big numbers, particularly that total of 800 apartment and condo units in the eastern tower — the Independent, currently Austin’s tallest building at 58 floors, only contains 370 condos. It’s not easy to accurately estimate the height of these two structures from the few numbers we have now, but considering the scale of the development seen in the marketing graphics intended to show what could be built here, it’s a pretty safe bet that one or both of these towers will push the envelope on height — and even if it doesn’t end up the tallest in town, anything built here will represent a massive increase in space over the three-story buildings there now.
A current view of the Railyard condos. Image: Railyard Condos / Facebook
These square footages are the only concrete information we have at the moment regarding what to expect at the Railyard, but it’s enough to make us all sit up and pay attention, especially since this isn’t the only low-rise residential building bought out for a potential future redevelopment even in the last few months. As downtown’s remaining stock of undeveloped tracts dwindles, we’ll see more projects like this moving forward — and if you’re anything like us, that’s pretty exciting stuff.
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