AUSTIN | Waterline | 1,034 Feet | 73 Floors | T/O
 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v291/texastarkus/waller_zpsd28a6b5a.jpg

Proposed project: 3 downtown towers, one up to 65 stories


Two Austin developers are proposing a $500 million mixed-use project downtown that — if it happens — would change the skyline with three new towers, including a high-rise with condominiums and hotel rooms that could become Austin’s tallest building.

See AAS Article:

http://www.mystatesman.com/news/business...pr2013_statesmanstubtomystatesman_launch

This is great.

Minor annoyance: Does the tower really need to look so much like the Austonian?

That was my first thought, too. Would have liked to see some more interesting crowns. But I imagine with 3 similar towers, the types of crown you could use is very limited -- otherwise it would look strange. You couldn't have 3 towers with a common theme looking like Frost or 360.

I do like the asymmetry and variation of height, which is especially pronounced at the lower levels/base. I like that the actual "ground" level is almost undefined with greenery and open spaces on the tiers and the bridges. Should be a treat to walk around there.

It is the sexiest building site in downtown Austin, especially the part along the creek across from the Four Seasons. It would be nice to get something special built there. The Fort Worth based equity partner does not have a very impressive real estate portfolio. They are mainly an oil and gas outfit. Here is a link to their RE holdings. http://www.klabzuba.com/realestate/portfolio.html

Info from the article:

$500 million mixed use project

It'll occupy 3 acres at East Cesar Chavez and Red River streets near Waller Creek.

Condos/Hotel tower - 65 floors

Apartment tower - 35 to 45 floors

Office tower - 17 to 20 floors

The project would include retail and likely restaurant space in a riverwalk setting.

Groundbreaking - mid to late 2014.

They plan to file a site plan with the city within 90 days.

Looks too good to be true. I love how the rendering casts a shadow over the edge of the older condos that are nearby, as if they are saying, better lower your sale price or we will lower it for you :) I think they have the shadow wrong though. I don't think the sun gets that far north.

WTF is that prominent roundish thing in the lower left of the the rendering?

Looks like the convention ctr to me.

the Genral is right. It's the convention center.

http://i241.photobucket.com/albums/ff158/LoneStarMike/Austin%202009/CCSkyline001.jpg

I never noticed that before. That must be the shortest, least significant observation lookout in Austin.

It's actually a rotunda, but I would imagine there is a balcony up there somewhere for maintenance.

From the looks of the renderings it doesn't seem like the building will have much street interaction. I guess I can live with that... but it be nice if there were street interaction.

I hope this gets built. Being a Rainey Street resident I would love to see something like this added in my backyard, but after seeing what Sutton did with the property on Rainey Street I remain skeptical.

It really bothers me to think what Sutton did with that deal.

They received all those permits to remove all those awesome houses and then flipped the property to some Houston development company called the Dinerstein Companies. I hope to god that company doesn't build anything like they have in their portfolio. They should keep places like that in Houston and certainly not on Rainey Street! And from what I understand the building there will be 8 stories? Lame..

As for this place it seems like a carbon copy of the Austonian. Its like they just pasted the image and added it to their initial designs. Also that equity company has no history of developing something close to this scale on the real estate end of their portfolio. I would be absolutely shocked if this one gets built. Shocked!

Again, I hope it happens....but it seems more pie in the sky if anything.

Interesting take austinsky, can't say I don't disagree with you. Great looking renderings but seems far fetched with the fairmont going in across the street and all the other developments, but maybe there is room for it come the next 3-4 years. Every week I'm reminded that Austin has far outgrown supply of everything and even with new hotels, condos, and office space going in there is still high demand and room for more.... I guess time will tell but very cool that a 65 floor project might be on the horizon. AustinStrong!

I wonder what Austin's ratio of proposed to actually built tower projects for the last decade would be... and how it compares to other Texas cities.

I know lots of projects failed or were just pipe dreams (T Stacy), but even with those, it seems like 50%. Which is good, considering the bust happened during that time. Anyway, if that's the rate, between the Fairmont and this, we have at least a very good chance of a new tallest within about 2-3 years.

KVUE did a mock rendering of the project. It should be noted that these are NOT the designs. ^The building on the left kind of looks like One Canada Square in London, and the one on the right is Houston's Memorial Medical Plaza (shrunk a bit). I'm not sure what building that is in the middle.

Proposed towers possibly Austin's tallest buildings

Hookem you are correct...Most of these projections are pie in the sky for sure..The Fairmount is 50% at best..This Rainey three tower complex has less than 5%..I would like to be more positive but this is all boots and no cattle. It gets boring after a time. Build it or shut the f--k up!!!!!

With your abysmal record at predicting failure (virtually every project that has started construction since you joined this board), this project is certain to come to fruition. ;)

Exactly. Spaceman is the most cynical person that I have never met.

Right you are..I'm headed to watch the topping out of the planeterium and the cloud touching county complex..Also I'm meeting Tom Stacy in his office atop the 800 ft building at 5th and Congress..What???? Wait a minute, this just in..Someone says those projects are not being built........
By the way you quote Trent"Walking Funeral" Reznor and call me cynical..

You do realize you can cherry pick as many projects as you want, but for every one of those there's a project that was successfully built, or two, or three.

Wait I thought the Fairmount was a done deal. Surely they can get financing with J.W. Marriot pre-selling at a brisk pace.

I can be pessimistic about projects sometimes (3rd and Colorado), but I would be surprised if Fairmont doesn't happen. Also I believe 3rd and Colorado will be built now as well. This project is still too early to tell though the lack of previous history with high end real estate is the big worry. They could be getting all the permits to then flip the property again, but maybe not. They could have just as easily wanted to build a large project, and with the waller creek redevelopment, saw much greater promise in these properties than the one they sold.

..."walking funeral." I like it.

Agree on all points!

From KVUE
 

KVUE did a piece on this and they had a different photo designed to confuse everyone since it doesn't look anything like the first...:shrug:..
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v291/texastarkus/Clipboard02_zps91d839cf.jpg

^The building on the left kind of looks like One Canada Square in London, and the one on the right is Houston's Memorial Medical Plaza (shrunk a bit). I'm not sure what building that is in the middle.

It's also the reverse order of what is presented in the actual rendering. It's really just a lazy attempt to draw attention and not even trying to be accurate at all...

I don't think the Fairmount developers have made a definitive announcement with regards to financing. They have not named a lender or provided any figures or loan details. Projects usually don't get started until this kind of announcement has been made. They have spent a ton of money on plans, engineering studies, permitting, etc., but they have not really spelled out the details regarding financing. I think they are serious about wanting to do this project, but it remains to be seen whether they can line up the money to make it happen. I suspect that it will happen in the reasonably near future, but I kind of doubt they'll start on it this year.

Won't happen!!

Did anything ever happen with this project?

Only recent permit I found for the properties of this project was a demolition permit for 96 Rainey.

aka Bar 96. I would imagine that they would have planned on moving it similar to how they were talking about moving Lustre Pearl. It does have a much larger footprint than Lustre Pearl though.

Bar 96 is on a different property a block away from this development. It would be interesting to found out if they did file a site plan. 90 days would have been August 1st.

Oops! I meant 96 Red River, not Rainey.

There are a total of three permits related to demolition at the development site. They are for 96 and 96 1/2 Red River:

https://www.austintexas.gov/devreview/b_showpublicpermitfolderdetails.jsp?FolderRSN=10978664
https://www.austintexas.gov/devreview/b_showpublicpermitfolderdetails.jsp?FolderRSN=10999546
https://www.austintexas.gov/devreview/b_showpublicpermitfolderdetails.jsp?FolderRSN=10976900

96 Red River is a now abandoned warehouse:
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7361/9522074239_8c51fe4a8e_m.jpg

96 1/2 Red River is a house:
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7390/9524849176_c3715b284e_m.jpg

The demolitions are on the part of the site where the 65-story tower would be.

Here's another demolition permit that was filed this week for 94 Red River which is adjacent to the ones pictured above as well as nearby 505 Willow St. This project seems to be moving forward.

https://www.austintexas.gov/devreview/b_showpublicpermitfolderdetails.jsp?FolderRSN=10999499

If you read their applications for demo they were denied by the city. It looks like they didn't clearly show the city where the fencing and protected trees were located on the property. While it is encouraging that they are trying to move forward on this development .... it's weird that they can't even figure out a simple demo permit for a 500 million dollar project.

Denied requests are common.

denied request is still better than no request!

I hope this thing moves forward. The actually demo'd a house right across the street from iron works about 6 months ago. Not sure if that is going to be part of this or not, but is still a lot of land to build on.

Here's a big new rendering. Feel free to resize it yourself.

http://i241.photobucket.com/albums/ff158/LoneStarMike/Renderings/wallercreek.jpg

Thanks!

http://i241.photobucket.com/albums/ff158/LoneStarMike/Renderings/wallercreek.jpg

As I said in the other thread:

Where did the rendering come from, Hill Country?

^^^ from here:

http://www.kbge-eng.com/waller-center-downtown-austin/

Click on that tiny little image and you get a bigger version.

I had just figured this out right before you posted and was about to comment again...

Maybe we should take them seriously then, as this firm had a hand in all of the following:

W Hotel and Residences
Four Seasons Residences
Gables Park Plaza
Cirrus Logic

The rendering and design are not by them, but they have it on their own website. If you click there, you'll notice they're only doing:

In other words, the design is already done by someone else and they're moving it along in practice for all intents and purposes. We may actually be able to take this project seriously.

I see Urbannizer used his editing privileges and shrunk my giant rendering. I kinda' liked the big in your face version.:)

Love it! It reminds me of Vancouver!

I love it. This is exactly what Austin needs to shake things up. It looks just enough like the other buildings we have, but is still different and bold.

fingers crossed this thing materializes... awesome.