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You are here: Home / Blog / Welcome to the New East Avenue
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Welcome to the New East Avenue

James Rambin October 18, 2018 Comment

A rendering of the planned 44 East Avenue condo tower. Image: Page

At 51 stories, the recently-announced 44 East Avenue project could soon become one of the tallest Austin condo towers built so far. Although a tower project at this address, located on the south end of the rapidly-developing Rainey Street District, has been anticipated for quite a while, the sheer size of the planned building is more than we ever could have expected. 51 floors isn’t just Rainey Street tall, it’s Austin tall — and even after the completion of the 6 X Guadalupe and Republic towers, it’ll still be pretty high up in the top ten. If plans stay on track, 70 Rainey will only enjoy about four years as the Rainey Street District’s tallest tower, with 44 East Avenue set to deliver in 2022. 

Another rendering of the planned condo tower at 44 East Avenue. Image: Intracorp

Although the certainty of all these buildings actually being built varies somewhat, it’s striking to see the potential future skyline of the Rainey region, based on the addresses and floor counts of towers planned in the area so far. It’s especially fun to mock it up, so I make a new visualization of the district’s next crop of towers every time another is announced — as you can see, 44 East Avenue really changes the game:

with the announcement of a 51-story condo tower at 44 east avenue, it's time to update the ol' rainey street district near-future skyline renderinghttps://t.co/UTVTytKlU9 pic.twitter.com/SJv5H5A5vY

— James Rambin (@JamesRambin) October 3, 2018

But even though it’s enlightening to track the development planned all over the district, I find both the history and future potential of East Avenue to be one of the most interesting parts of the whole thing. A block removed from Rainey Street proper, East Avenue, like Red River Street, is the actual conduit connecting the district to the rest of the city.

A map of the Rainey Street District and East Avenue — it’s vertically oriented from east to west, rather than north to south, so don’t get confused! Click for a larger view. Image: Google Maps

Rainey Street itself is insulated from downtown by its lack of a direct connection with Cesar Chavez Street, while East Avenue receives traffic from the I-35 frontage road, intersects with Holly Street — which is rapidly becoming a corridor in its own right — and travels under the highway bridge on the north shore of the lake to connect the Rainey Street District with the RBJ Center / Holly Shores complex, both of which will likely grow in popularity pretty soon as plans for their redevelopment move forward.

Renderings of the 48 East Avenue condo tower. The 44 East Avenue condo tower will be directly south of this — as in, next door. Image: STG Design

The wildest part of the 44 East Avenue tower announcement is when you remember that there’s another condo tower planned literally right next door, a 33-story joint by developers Pearlstone Partners at 48 East Avenue. When you put massings of those two towers together, along with the existing Windsor on the Lake tower directly to the west of the 44 East Avenue site, the south side of the Rainey Street District starts looking like its own little downtown. Remember, these massings are just 3D models based on the stated height and property lines of these developments, and don’t necessarily reflect the look of the finished tower. We’re pretty confident in the accuracy of the heights, however, and the effect is striking:

Approximate massings of the 44 and 48 East Avenue condo towers planned in the Rainey Street District. Image: Google Earth / James Rambin

But we’ve got to pull the camera back even further and drop more massings in. Even though its development isn’t the surest, or even the fifth-surest thing, there’s supposedly an office tower in the works at the World Class Capital-owned building at 56 East Avenue — not to mention a third residential tower, likely apartments, in an unknown planning stage even further south down East Avenue by the Holiday Inn at the north shore of the lake! (That one’s also got a new name: One Austin.) There’s also unfortunately an Austin Energy electrical substation planned smack dab in the middle of all this action, at 55 East Avenue — but it doesn’t have to suck! When you assemble all these possibilities, it’s clear East Avenue has the potential to become a sort of district in its own right, though not as dense in bars and entertainment as Rainey Street proper: 

Image: Google Maps / James Rambin

There’s also significant development potential on the stretch of East Avenue north of River Street. Homewood Suites, a strange building of unknown purpose, is wrapping up its construction at 78-80 East Avenue, and once upon a time, two additional hotels were planned along this stretch — a Kimber Modern property, and a Cambria Hotel. The Kimber plan, formerly bound for 62 East Avenue, is clearly dead in the water, but the Cambria project’s a little more up in the air. An Austin Business Journal update from earlier this year stated the Cambria project, planned at 68 East Avenue, was still in the “pre-development and early design phase” — but considering the hotel’s parent company, Choice Hotels, has started developing Cambria hotels elsewhere in Austin, I probably wouldn’t hold my breath. Still, considering its proximity to Rainey Street, this part of the avenue seems ripe for hotel development. 

The above map of upcoming development and other properties on East Avenue should give you a better idea of the street’s potential. Needless to say, there’s a lot going on over there, and we’ll enjoy keeping up with it as this far end of downtown finds its legs.

Rainey Street Condos For Sale

  • $599,900 54 Rainey Street #1220
    Austin, TX
  • $814,999 54 Rainey Street #414
    Austin, TX
  • $1,750,000 48 East Avenue #3201
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  • $1,300,000 48 East Avenue #1210
    Austin, TX
  • $865,000 48 SE East Avenue #2508
    Austin, TX
54 Rainey Street #1220
Austin, TX
Photo of 54  Rainey Street #1220, Austin, TX 78701 (MLS # 9400800)
$599,900
Lot Size
175 sqft

Home Size
750 sqft

Beds
1 Bed

Baths
1 Bath

54 Rainey Street #414
Austin, TX
Photo of 54  Rainey Street #414, Austin, TX 78701 (MLS # 5984631)
$814,999
Lot Size
305 sqft

Home Size
1,164 sqft

Beds
2 Beds

Baths
2 Baths

48 East Avenue #3201
Austin, TX
Photo of 48  East Avenue #3201, Austin, TX 78701 (MLS # 6386893)
$1,750,000
Lot Size
109 sqft

Home Size
1,299 sqft

Beds
2 Beds

Baths
2 Baths

48 East Avenue #1210
Austin, TX
Photo of 48  East Avenue #1210, Austin, TX 78701 (MLS # 9504201)
$1,300,000
Lot Size
105 sqft

Home Size
1,277 sqft

Beds
2 Beds

Baths
2 Baths

48 SE East Avenue #2508
Austin, TX
Photo of 48 SE East Avenue #2508, Austin, TX 78701 (MLS # 8722079)
$865,000
Lot Size
66 sqft

Home Size
803 sqft

Beds
1 Bed

Baths
1 Bath

  • 54 Rainey Street #1220
    Austin, TX
    Photo of 54  Rainey Street #1220, Austin, TX 78701 (MLS # 9400800)
    $599,900
    Lot Size
    175 sqft

    Home Size
    750 sqft

    Beds
    1 Bed

    Baths
    1 Bath

  • 54 Rainey Street #414
    Austin, TX
    Photo of 54  Rainey Street #414, Austin, TX 78701 (MLS # 5984631)
    $814,999
    Lot Size
    305 sqft

    Home Size
    1,164 sqft

    Beds
    2 Beds

    Baths
    2 Baths

  • 48 East Avenue #3201
    Austin, TX
    Photo of 48  East Avenue #3201, Austin, TX 78701 (MLS # 6386893)
    $1,750,000
    Lot Size
    109 sqft

    Home Size
    1,299 sqft

    Beds
    2 Beds

    Baths
    2 Baths

  • 48 East Avenue #1210
    Austin, TX
    Photo of 48  East Avenue #1210, Austin, TX 78701 (MLS # 9504201)
    $1,300,000
    Lot Size
    105 sqft

    Home Size
    1,277 sqft

    Beds
    2 Beds

    Baths
    2 Baths

  • 48 SE East Avenue #2508
    Austin, TX
    Photo of 48 SE East Avenue #2508, Austin, TX 78701 (MLS # 8722079)
    $865,000
    Lot Size
    66 sqft

    Home Size
    803 sqft

    Beds
    1 Bed

    Baths
    1 Bath

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Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: 78701, architecture, city life, commercial, condos, design, development, east avenue, mixed-use, offices, residential, towers, urbanism

About James Rambin

James is an Austin native, but tries not to brag about it. Email him anything at james@towers.net.

48 SE East Avenue #2508
Austin, TX
Photo of 48 SE East Avenue #2508, Austin, TX 78701 (MLS # 8722079)
$865,000
33
  • Lot Size
    66 sqft

  • Home Size
    803 sqft

  • Beds
    1 Bed

  • Baths
    1 Bath

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