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AUSTIN: New mixed use project in West End
Mixed-use pegged for West End
Austin Business Journal - September 7, 2007by A.J. MistrettaABJ Staff
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Looney Ricks Kiss Architecture
Pressler, a project in the West End, is slated to have 165 apartments and 26,000 square feet of ground-floor retail.
View Larger An October groundbreaking is slated for a $35 million mixed-use development in the West End area.
Dubbed Pressler, the project will bring 165 apartment units and 26,000 square feet of ground-floor retail to the northeast corner of Fifth and Pressler streets just west of downtown. The project is a joint venture between Gables Residential out of Atlanta and a group of local investors represented by Austin-based Capital City Partners Inc. Construction is expected to take about 13 months to complete.
With numerous downtown condo projects already in the works, Pressler will add to the smaller, yet not insignificant, apartment project landscape. High-end apartment developers have carved out their share of Austin's urban living market, betting that enough people want to live near the action but don't want to commit to buying a condo. In fact, across Fifth Street from Pressler, Gables is partnered with Dallas-based Direct Development on another mixed-use project called 5th Street Commons that will include 138 apartments and 38,000 square feet of retail.
"We think the combination of offering rental homes, dining and shopping options in this prime location will be well-received by the market," says Joe Lamy, principal with Capital City Partners.
Austin's rental market continues to heat up. Just over 1,200 new units were added to the overall inventory in the second quarter, most of those in the northern submarket, according to the latest report on Texas apartments from Hendricks & Partners. But with the job market growing steadily, developers are having a tough time keeping up with demand. Vacancy declined to 5.4 percent in the second quarter, the lowest rate since 2001, as year-over-year rents rose 5.5 percent. And with the national credit crunch beginning to affect would-be homebuyers in Austin, occupancy and rents are sure to continue rising.
In addition to 5th Street Commons, in April Gables bought the former Fox & Hound Smokehouse and Tavern site at Fourth and Guadalupe streets for a project there. The company also expects a 2009 delivery on Gables Park Plaza, a mixed-use project at West Third Street and North Lamar Boulevard.
On the retail side, Aquila Commercial, which has been tapped to market the shopping space at Pressler, is targeting a mix of service-oriented shops and restaurants. Jason Faludi, a broker with Aquila working on the project, says Pressler's location should be able to capture shoppers living in multiple neighborhoods -- from Tarrytown to Westlake -- while also catering to the nearby residents and businesspeople working in the Central Business District.
Pressler is Capital City Partners' seventh endeavor in Austin.
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