The ATX

Here's an updated rendering of the first of several towers on the former Green Water Treatment site being developed by Trammell Crow. The biggest change appears to be the color scheme. The latest projected start date is the second quarter of this year. http://www.bdcnetwork.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/insert_image_big/Greenwater.jpg Here's a flyover of the site from the Austin Trammell Crow website. The rendering of this building is on the right. Adjacent to it are renderings of a future ~300 foot hotel and ~500 foot office tower. There is also a similar sized residential tower planned as part of the Trammell Crow development. Adjacent to the Trammell Crow development is the former City of Austin Energy Control center where another developer is planning two towers. Both of these sites are next to the Seaholm development site mentioned in a previous post. So this area of downtown is going to have a nice cluster of high rises. http://www.trammellcrow.com/EN/o/austin/Pages/home.aspx

Plans were filed this month for a high rise hotel in the 6th Street/Red River Entertainment District. This is on Red River directly across the street from the Stubb's BBQ music venue on Red River: Here's an article about it: http://v4.virtualbx.com/construction-preview/6318-central-tx-9th-red-river-emerges-as-new-downtown-austin-hotel.html

Here's another proposed downtown residential tower. Plans were filed with the city late last year for the 22-story building to be called Aspen Heights. There was a nice virtual flyover video of the project on Vimeo, but it is no longer available. Someone at SSP took some some screen shots from the video: http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showpost.php?p=6398124&postcount=53

All of the condos in the under construction Seaholm Residences were quickly reserved, and the tower crane just went up this week! This a good sign that the condo market is back. The other residential high rises just completed or under construction in Austin are all rentals.

This office project has been in the works for a while. It's called Shoal Creek Walk and has long been rumored to be space for Whole Foods headquarters expansion. The building in the background of the rendering is Whole Foods Headquarters. Whole Foods had to lease space in an office building outside of Downtown last year because they need more space. When this building is finished they are expected to move back downtown.

Here are some of the latest renderings for the three towers of the Waller Creek project. They're significantly different and the height of the tallest tower has been reduced. But the developers have started filing for construction permits this week, so this is still moving forward. This project will be next to the 39-story apartment tower pictured in the previous post and more or less across the street from the 47-story, 1,000+ rooms Fairmont Hotel. This will be a nice cluster of five high rises. Photo credit goes to the Downtown Austin Blog: http://downtownaustinblog.org/2013/09/16/plans-evolve-for-rainey-streets-waller-center/

Here's another just announced residential tower (39-stories, ~475'). The article said financing is secured and construction will start in early 2014. http://www.mystatesman.com/news/business/39-story-apartment-tower-planned-downtown/nbsZx/

Here's a link to the City of Austin's Emerging Projects poster. The city updates this every few months (roughly every quarter), and it lists downtown projects under construction and planned. It also shows their location on a map: ftp://ftp.ci.austin.tx.us/DowntownAustinPlan/Emerging_Projects/emerging_projects_poster_2013_oct.pdf

Here'a an update to the Seaholm Power Plant Re-Development. The project has been converted to condos from apartments and will be called Seaholm Residences. It will also be 30-stories instead of 28. The new rendering shows the Trader Joe's that is part of the development. Whole Foods' headquarters and flagship store is only four blocks or so from this project, so residents have a couple of good and convenient choices for groceries. They have started pouring the caissons now in the huge pit that was dug for the underground parking.

Since I was only able to edit and update my original post for one week, I'll have to continuously post replies to update the projects list. Anyway, here's an updated rendering of Waller Center which seems to now be called Waller Creek Center: The rendering can be found here: http://www.kbge-eng.com/waller-center-downtown-austin/ This is an engineering company that specializes in the permitting process and designing utility infrastructure. This project has had steady forward progress since it was announced.

Here's an excellent picture taken by Corvairkeith at SSP. It shows the three cranes at the JW Marriott site, and looking to the horizon the three cranes for the Colorado Tower, 7Rio and the IBC Bank Plaza can also be seen. http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=192074&page=5

Here’s a list of proposed projects for Austin. Keeping up with the proposed buildings is more difficult than the ones under construction since there are so many of them. I have only included the ones that were announced recently and/or have recent renderings and/or building permit activity on file with the City of Austin. Austin has a good website where permit filings can be researched rather easily. Waller Center – Three Buildings ~800’ – 65-stories, Residential, Hotel ~500’ – 45-stories, Residential ~300’ – 20-stories, Office This was announced in May and has at least one major equity investor on board which will help move this along. Also, there have been several demolition permit requests filed recently for six abandoned/underused properties in the southeast part of this development. The southeast portion is where the 65-story tower would be. The Fairmont 700’ – Spire, 581’ - Roof, 47-stories, Hotel This is scheduled to start in November. There have been several recent permit filings for this project related to the excavation of the underground parking levels. 5th & Brazos 504’ – 47-stories, Residential, Hotel The developer, Chicago based Magellan Development Group, announced on 08/23/13 that they plan to start construction in the second half of 2014, and the actual height will be anywhere between 35 and 50 stories. So the design may change. Green Water 413’ – 38-stories, Residential This is the first of four high rises planned for the site. The site plan has been filed with the city with construction expected to start in early 2014. At least two of the other buildings planned for this site will be of the same scope. I didn't include them because there are no recent renderings. Hotel Zaza 305’ – 24-stories, Residential, Hotel This one should be starting soon as it appears to be largely done with Austin’s approval process. 5th & Colorado ~225', 16-stories, Office University of Texas School of Engineering ~160', 8-stories, Education Austin is going through an incredible building boom right now, and there are many projects in the pipeline. I'll add more as I have time. It's a good time to be a skyscraper nerd in Austin!

Here is a list of the tallest buildings that I’m aware of currently under construction in Austin. I did not include some residential buildings that are tall enough to make the list that seem to be completed and may only need some interior finishes. The Bowie (423’ – 37-stories, Residential) JW Marriott (408’ – 34-stories, Hotel) Webcam: http://oxblue.com/open/tournee/jwmarriottaustin Colorado Tower (397’ – 29-stories, Office) You can see this one from the JW Marriott webcam link posted above. It's the construction site in the left-center part of the view. Seaholm Power Plant Re-Development Tower (314’ – 28-stories, Residential) Austin Skyhouse (264’ – 23-Stories, Residential) Webcam: http://oxblue.com/open/SkyHouseApartments 7Rio (263’ – 24-stories, Residential) Gables Park Plaza II (223’ – 18-stories, Residential) Westin (214’ – 17-stories, Hotel) The Catherine (209’ – 19-stories, Residential) Hotel Van Zandt (197’ – 16-stories, Hotel) IBC Bank Plaza (186’ – 13-stories, Office)

The Charlotte X Games video got taken down because the makers of the Detroit video claimed a copy right infringement for using their video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GHKoHrW_ow

Unfortuately, there are a lot of people talking about Grand Rapids now for something tragic. But that lip dub video was pretty impressive. It shows there is still a lot of city pride in G.R.

You must be about 12 years old.

LOL

The Weather Channel is loving the concert flooding.

That is so disgusting! (But it probably tastes good.)

The start of the commuter rail line has been postponed indefinitely due to federal safety violations and technical difficulties. http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news...21capmetro.html CAPITAL METRO Rail opening on indefinite hold Further rule violations, system glitches cause delay. Agency accused of making 'scapegoat' of contractor By Ben Wear AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF Saturday, March 21, 2009 Capital Metro said Friday that it is indefinitely delaying the opening of its Leander-to-downtown-Austin rail service in the wake of further allegations of federal safety violations and because of continued technical problems. In addition, the transit agency called on Veolia Transportation, its rail operations contractor, to fire its local safety director. Capital Metro is bringing in rail officials from the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, which has a dozen commuter rail lines in the greater Boston area, "to assist with startup operations and safety implementation." Festivities to celebrate the opening that were scheduled for next weekend at all nine rail stations have been canceled. They were to include short demonstration rides for the public. The opening, which has been pushed back several times, now has no target day. "By May 15, Capital Metro will report back to the community with the status of the project and an action plan," an agency news release said. A week ago, the Federal Railroad Administration began an investigation into a February incident in which two Veolia train engineers drove their MetroRail trains into a section of track without getting proper clearance. According to Capital Metro rail operations director Bill Le Jeune, they realized their error after a third of a mile, stopped, got proper clearance and then moved on. The violations could result in federal and state fines for Veolia. Capital Metro then decided to delay the March 30 rail opening by as much as a month but said opening events set for March 27 and March 28 would proceed. But on Thursday, according to Le Jeune, the railroad administration accused Veolia of seven violations, alleging irregularities related to"efficiency testing" and poor documentation of hearing and vision tests on workers. On Friday, Capital Metro, which is still trying to fix a problem with signal crossing gates that in some cases don't come down quickly enough, applied the brakes to the project. Those efficiency tests, Le Jeune said, involve testing workers on rules and procedures. Veolia, he said, had not done all required testing. Veolia officials noted that the company is the majority owner of the Massachusetts Bay Commuter Railroad Co., the passenger rail operator for the Boston transit agency that Capital Metro is bringing in to help. "That's ironic because we run that system," said Ron Hartman, executive vice president for rail with Veolia. Veolia's five-year contract there was recently extended three years. Hartman said Veolia disputes the allegation that its efficiency testing was inadequate and will make that case to federal regulators. He said that the hearing and vision tests had been done and that documents supporting that will be filed immediately. Hartman also said that the replacement of the safety director was already under way and that Capital Metro was told that about two weeks ago.

Here's more on the proposed downtown rail. It's actually more than just downtown since it includes a line to the airport. http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news...5/0725rail.html DOWNTOWN RAIL $600 million streetcar plan offered for Austin City consultant's proposal still a work in progress, and many hurdles remain before concept could become a reality. By Ben Wear AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF Friday, July 25, 2008 Central Austin should have a 15.3-mile streetcar system, consultants hired by the Austin City Council told members Thursday, a slight refinement of a proposal that the ROMA Design Group unveiled in April. The proposal, similar in many respects to downtown rail plans that have been circulating for about three years, remains well short of a finished product. And the proposal lacks what is perhaps the most critical information: how the city or Capital Metro, or some entity to be named later, would pay for it. The plan, when it does take final shape in a few months, is likely to be reviewed by a "transit working group" formed by the Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization board, the principal transportation planning group in Central Texas. Finding a workable way to pay for a rail plan, officials have made clear, is critical to taking it from back burner to serious debate. In the end, some sort of public vote on the streetcar plan will almost certainly occur. But that won't happen until next year at the earliest. Though the route unveiled Thursday is essentially the same as the one in the April proposal

Whole Foods is a great place, but it is expensive. It will take a lot of people in Grand Rapids willing to greatly increase their weekly grocery budget to support a Whole Foods.

The commuter rail line is still on schedule to begin service late Fall of this year. There is also renewed interest in light rail. Here's a story about it from the Austin American-Statesm http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news...tml?UrAuth=%60N]NUOaNVUbTTUWUXUaUZTYU_UWUbUcUZUaU_UcTYWYWZV&urcm=y Light rail plan New light-rail plan rolls into Austin Among many obstacles: What's the cost, and who pays? By Ben Wear AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF Wednesday, April 23, 2008 A consultant hired by the city is recommending a 14-mile light-rail system for Central Austin, not streetcars as proposed by Capital Metro. The system would run from the airport to downtown, through the University of Texas and east to the emerging Mueller development. The route is essentially the same one City Council Member BrewsterMcCracken and Austin Mayor Will Wynn have been talking about for the past six months or so. The proposal, finished just seven weeks after the council voted to pay ROMA Design Group up to $250,000 to produce it, comes as a "transit task force" formed by Wynn and state Sen. Kirk Watson moves into the final stages ofcreating a process to analyzerail proposals. No one yet knows how the proposal, which likely will cost hundreds of millions of dollars, would be paid for. That task force would almost surely analyze this proposal, and the Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization board (chaired by Watson) would have the final say. But it is not clear whether such an examination could occur quickly enough for the light-rail proposal to be put before voters in November. Wynn has said he would like to have a rail vote this year, but there will be a number ofcomplicated questions about costs and benefits. Watson, who was in South Texas on Tuesday, had not seen the proposal and had no comment. But Watson said that the process created by the task force "will allow any project to be fully vetted in a transparent, open, complete way." McCracken, at least, said he think that the proposal can make it through that gantlet to a public vote in November, which he said would probably involve voters being asked to approve some sort of long-term debt. "Yes, I think that's likely," McCracken said of getting the proposal onto the ballot in time. Council Member Lee Leffingwell has his doubts. He said that only Wynn and McCracken, to his knowledge, had been briefed on the rail proposal. "The key to this whole thing has been, how's this going to be paid for?" Leffingwell said. "If you just want to put the concept on the ballot in November, that would be one thing. But if you're talking about some sort of financial commitment by the city, I think it would be very hard to get there by that time." Leffingwell and McCracken are often mentioned as likely candidates for mayor next year. McCracken says he envisions the city taking the lead in building the line but that Capital Metro probably would run it. "I don't see that anyone else knows how to do that," McCracken said. But that would presumably mean that Capital Metro, which has said that running its current operations will require all of its revenue the next few years, would have to absorb what are likely to be substantial operating losses. "How does that affect bus service now and in the future, which is the only means of transportation for many people in Austin?" Leffingwell asked. The recommendation from ROMA did not include a specific cost estimate. McCracken said the cost would be somewhere between $5 million a mile and $30 million a mile, depending mostly on how many underground utility lines would have to be relocated. That would put the total cost at between $70 million and $420 million. Those figures, he said, would probably not include the cost of the cars. The diesel-powered cars Capital Metro has purchased for its "red line" commuter service from Leander to downtown, set to open in a few months, cost about $6 million apiece, and the agency bought six of them to start with. Light-rail cars typically cost less than that. John Lewis, a real estate developer who supported Capital Metro's commuter rail project after vigorously opposing a light-rail referendum in 2000 that failed, scoffed at McCracken's cost figures. "We all know that there will be serious under-estimating of what this silly thing is going to cost," Lewis said in an e-mail. "What is guessed to be $400 million today will be $800 million when it nears completion. ... These routes being proposed have no user demand and will do virtually nothing to give taxpayers an alternative to their car." Capital Metro officials have said they have no money left in the kitty to pay for more rail, so where would the money come from to build this? McCracken envisions a funding scenario that includes using perhaps 15 percent to 20 percent of revenue from Capital Metro's 1 percent sales tax (although the agency has indicated it needs it all for current bus and rail expenses), contributions from the city and other local governments, from property taxes likely to be generated by new development along the line and, potentially, from airport bonds. "We think it is possible to build this with no new taxes," McCracken said. According to McCracken, the recommendation from ROMA will propose putting double tracks (allowing travel in both directions simultaneously) from Austin-Bergstrom International Airport and west on Riverside Drive. The route would turn north at South Congress Avenue (although there could be a spur to the parking-poor Long Center, McCracken said, or even to Zilker Park), cross the Ann Richards Congress Avenue Bridge and then go through downtown either on Congress or San Jacinto Boulevard. Then it would pass through UT, turning east at Dean Keeton Street and going along Manor Road to Mueller. A major criticism of the light rail that voters rejected in 2000 was that it would take street lanes away from car traffic. Not so, in this case, McCracken said, although the tracks would be in "dedicated lanes" segregated from cars. The space for the tracks, McCracken said, would come from available right of way on Riverside east of Interstate 35. Downtown, the tracks would run on pavement currently occupied by parked cars, he said. The tracks, McCracken said, might take two lanes from the bridge over Lady Bird Lake, he said, although alternatively it could use the space now taken up by sidewalks. In that case, a sidewalk alternative bridge, such as the one on the South First Street bridge, would continue pedestrian and bicycle access across the lake on Congress. The dedicated-lane concept was news even to Charlie Betts, executive director of the Downtown Austin Alliance. The alliance has been firmly behind the streetcar plan, in which the trolleys would share lanes with cars. To avoid reducing lanes on Congress would require tearing up the curb and sidewalk extensions that currently delineate the parking spaces. "That's a new wrinkle, and we haven't had time to think about it," Betts said. Pat Clubb, vice president for employee and campus services at UT, likes the Mueller connection. The university has a new research building there, and she anticipates that some faculty and staff will live in the residential community swiftly rising at Mueller. And she said having a rail line on San Jacinto, in the shadow of Royal-Memorial Stadium and near the LBJ Library and Bass Concert Hall, will help. As for losing parking spots along San Jacinto, Clubb said that "losing any parking on campus is an issue" but that the university generally has been looking to move most of that to garages anyway. [email protected]; 445-3698 More on the proposed light-rail line Would we lose car lanes on some major streets? Not necessarily, Austin City Council Member Brewster McCracken says. On Riverside Drive, there is ample city right of way to put in the tracks outside of the existing street. On the Ann Richards Congress Avenue Bridge, existing lanes would be needed unless the sidewalk space were used and a new pedestrian bridge were built. Who would run this railroad? Capital Metro, McCracken says, although he says the city would take the lead in financing and building it. Are there other possible extensions? Yes. McCracken says a spur could extend west from Congress to the Long Center for the Performing Arts or even to Zilker Park. And a crosstown line from the Seaholm Power Plant development area west of City Hall to the end of the commuter line at Fourth and Trinity streets is a possibility, as is building commuter rail from a railroad junction in East Austin out to Manor and Elgin. What's next? The creator of the light-rail plan, ROMA Design Group, will take public comment and perhaps tweak the plan before taking it to the City Council on May 8. The plan is likely to go before Mayor Will Wynn's transit working group. The final decision would be made by the Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization board, which includes Wynn and McCracken.

Michi on SSP posted an excellent photo spread of Grand Rapids: http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread...d=1#post3439892