A rendering of the St. Vincent mixed-use building planned at 1333 South Congress Avenue. Image: Lake Flato
The holiday season isn’t exactly the hottest time for development news around here, but we’ve still noticed a few interesting city filings, local business updates, and other fun stuff over the last couple of weeks. Let’s take a look:
87 Rainey Street – No Va / Stagger Lee
What's going on/in the old No Va site at 87 Rainey? #atxrising pic.twitter.com/3Qy0mBfFeo
— Stephen Ratke (@steveratke) November 20, 2018
Shuttered bar No Va is receiving an addition to the front of its building at 87 Rainey Street, which we assume is in preparation for its transformation into new bar Stagger Lee. Stagger Lee, if I understand correctly, is a legendary outlaw mythologized in a popular folk song — quite a mascot for a Rainey Street bar, ain’t it?
Velocity Shenanigans
A view from the region looking west towards the Capitol. The Velocity Credit Union annex building at 705 East 12th Street is on the right of this image, while the building at 700 East 11th Street is on the left. Photo by James Rambin.
Remember the Alexan apartment tower planned at 700 East 11th Street? On two sides of this property, one across the street and one right next door, there are two lots owned by Velocity Credit Union — one’s a retail bank and the other’s some kind of storage annex. The bank — or “credit union,” I guess, is at 610 East 11th Street, while the annex structure is at 705 East 12th Street.
You may remember these sites from some 2017 tower rumors, and it’s unclear exactly what we should expect here, but now there’s a permit filed with the city that seems to imply that Velocity is simply relocating its bank from the 610 address to the 705 address, complete with a new drive-through? That’s also not what’s been previously reported about the bank’s plans, so I’m not sure what to believe — needless to say, something is going on over here.
San Marcos Hotel
A current view of 924 East Seventh Street, where the San Marcos Hotel is allegedly planned. Image: Google Maps
The folks behind the development of the San Marcos Hotel, which has been planned at 924 East Seventh Street since at least 2015 judging by its history of plans with the city, has applied for another year-long extension of its site plan. Patience is a virtue and all, but considering how many hotels have gone up in the time span between 2015 and now, I’d be curious to know what’s causing the holdup. I also hope they’re going with a different name, and this one’s just a placeholder — try googling “San Marcos Hotel” and let me know what happens.
Tacodeli – 301 Congress
Image: Tacodeli
We’ve known Tacodeli was opening its first downtown location in the 301 Congress tower for months now, but that doesn’t mean we’re not excited to see permits going in for Tacodeli signs on the exterior of the building. Good tacos, good addition to the urban fabric, overall just a good situation for those of us who enjoy paying reasonable amounts for breakfast.
Marine Layer – St. Vincent Project
A rendering of the St. Vincent mixed-use building planned at 1333 South Congress Avenue. Image: Lake Flato
The three-story mixed-use project underway at the former St. Vincent de Paul thrift store at 1333 South Congress Avenue, also known as St. Vincent, is getting a Marine Layer. What’s a Marine Layer, you ask? Apparently, it’s a brand that sells very soft t-shirts for $48, and sometimes they like to build Airbnbs above their stores, which is actually pretty neat. There’s already a location at the Domain, but now we’re getting one down south — congrats, everyone!
Parking Garage Mural – Second and Brazos Streets
A mural at the corner of Second and Brazos Streets. Photo by Amber Galligan.
Here’s a pretty nice mural we noticed today on the northwest corner of the parking garage at Second and Brazos Streets. Turns out it’s by artist Josef Kristofoletti, commissioned by the city through the Art in Public Places program. I’m not saying anyone’s really a fan of parking garages on an aesthetic level, but all those massive blank concrete walls sure make nice canvases, don’t they?
