Image: Randy von Liski / Flickr Creative Commons
2023 marked an interesting milestone for Austin, and it’s one you probably missed — this is the first year in some time that no new major tower projects broke ground in downtown proper. That might seem hard to believe considering all the cranes around here, but everything tall currently under construction downtown started in at least 2022. (Two student housing towers, the Icon project and the unnamed building bound for the former Cain & Abels site, did manage to break ground this year — further proving our point that West Campus is Bizarro Austin.)
These drones-eye views of Austin from Curlee Capital on YouTube are a must-watch.
With record office vacancies and occupancy seemingly settled at no more than 60 percent of its pre-pandemic rate, that’s not too hard to believe, but it still feels like the city of the eternal boom got hit with a lukewarm bucket of water this year. It’s unclear precisely how the commercial real estate market’s going to look when all the projects with an office component currently under construction downtown are substantially complete and also looking for tenants, but the upside is that some developers including the Related Companies are taking a hard look at the situation and choosing to pivot buildings like One Lady Bird Lake from office to residential use, which suddenly seems like a more reliable future investment.
One Lady Bird Lake Office Tower Project Redesigned for Residential Use
We can’t help but notice that all the tall buildings we’re hoping to see break ground next year are either residential or hotel projects — Wilson Tower, the Liberty, 506 West Avenue, 62 East Avenue, the Waterloo Park Hotel, and more. There’s still enough in the pipeline that we expect a few new projects to push through in the near future, but the overall takeaway is that downtown Austin could be facing some leaner years compared to the extravaganza of growth we’ve experienced over the last decade or thereabouts. This slowdown doesn’t really come as a surprise, but it’s still going to take some adjustment — for a minute there, we got our hands on a new tower plan practically every week. The party’s not quite over, but the music sure has changed. Why don’t you take a minute and tell us about your year downtown?
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