The Hills

On 4/17/2024 at 6:49 PM, Houston19514 said:

What's the over/under on the percentage at which Downtown Austin's office availability rate tops out?  Will it hit 40%?

Why do you care so much about Austin vacancy rates?  Everyone knows that spec office space is dead virtually everywhere in the U.S. for many years.

I don't understand Google's plans.  They have been paying a ridiculous amount of rent for more than a year for the Sail tower without occupying it.  Yet they don't seem to have put the space on the sub-lease market.

I'm happy to see a pause in the amazing 15+ year building boom.  High rents have had a significant negative affect on both commercial and residential leasing in Austin proper the past few years and has caused a big shift to suburban sprawl.  I'm not in CRE, so I like it.

This is a pretty significant project that started with zero fanfare.  It's one of the benefits of being the State Capitol.

Here's a great skyline photo showing this temporary new tallest in the skyline.  Move-ins start in February.

Nice.  I didn't realize that project was starting.

That is Phase II of Apple's second Austin campus which is near their first campus.

This project has been in the works for ~9 years.  But it finally looks like it may be starting in Q1.

That photo is Rainey on the eastern end of downtown.  On the west/central side there are towers U/C that are 710', 675' & 640'.

Meta signed a 10 or 12-year lease and couldn't back out.  So the developer made out OK.  But WFH in the Tech industry has seriously hurt the demand for office space.

Here's another one by Riverranchdrone at SSP looking South towards the river:

Here are some new photos by Riverranchdrone at Skyscraperpage: 

https://skyscraperpage.com/forum/showpost.php?p=10051094&postcount=2487

Ha.  I think the $1 Billion cost is a typo.  This will be rare large office project to break ground.  It was largely pre-leased by IBM which is how it got financed.  Here's a rendering:  

There has never been any announcement about a pre-lease.  Either way, there won't be any significant speculative office projects starting virtually anywhere in the U.S. for years.  This along with the U/C Republic tower were he last major office projects in Austin to break ground.  The Republic tower did have a significant pre-lease.

Just a pile of rubble.

https://twitter.com/b1mb1mm/status/1699472341951008896

15 hours ago, monarch said:

^^^ developers in austin, tx, seem to THINK OUTSIDE OF THE PROVERBIAL BOX.  maybe, just maybe, this is the sole reason that their newest skyline is fast becoming a TEXAS-SIZED MASTERPIECE.  the future is THEIRS TO BEHOLD...

Yeah, Austin rocks.  But Houston is my second favorite city in Texas, and I would move there if I couldn't live in Austin. 

On 8/26/2023 at 4:01 PM, monarch said:

^^^ downtown austin, tx, is starting to remind me of dubai, uae.  how on earth, is this even possible?

I'd say that it's more like Houston in the '80s.  🙂

This project is just about complete and ready to open later this year.  Seems like a late TDLR filing.

Demo begins.  Credit goes to an anonymous source via X.

The U/C tower in front is the Waterline.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CwTE3_lJnoM/

That same article stated that the Asbestos abatement has been completed.  I'm less skeptical about this project than I was.

23 hours ago, Houston19514 said:

Austonians on SkyscraperPage reported in early August that the fence was all taken down.  I think the smart money is still against this one happening any time soon.

It's Austinites. 🙂 I was one of the skeptical posters on SSP. The fence was put up prematurely for the groundbreaking.  It had to be removed because the ROW closures weren't permitted until 08/14.  I can't confirm if the fences are back up.  Someone who works for the development team informed me that demo is still happening.  They'll be a lot of time spent on asbestos abatement.  The site plan was split in two - one for demo/site prep which was approved, and one for the tower which is not yet approved.  This is not high up on the list of the most significant projects in the works.  So I don't have any real interest as to whether or not this actually gets built. But I still like it even though it's not a supertall.

On 7/29/2023 at 11:50 AM, Houston19514 said:

Can we change the thread name to reflect the downsizing of this building to 45 stories?  I wonder if that was just a "for-show" groundbreaking or have they actually started construction?  Looks kinda like the former.

The site is fenced off for demo and site prep, and a ROW closure permit lists an 08/14 start.  But the developer only has approval for Demo and site prep at this point.  The tower is still going through the approval process.  The new height is 519'.

That's amazing considering how much larger the other markets are compared to Austin.