Austin Real Estate Blog

An old abandoned car lot alongside a shabby, garbage strewn creek was transformed into 14 floors of luxury apartments, a project completed in 2004 by CLB Partners. Austin City Lofts, located at 800 W. Fifth Street, brought much needed living and retail space to the Central Business District of downtown Austin and converted an eyesore into a beautiful and distinctive looking high-rise building.

The first four floors of the building contain parking, retail space, a residential lobby and management offices as well as eight apartments overlooking Shoal Creek. The next five floors feature 54 apartments with 12 foot ceilings, and the final floors contain the loft apartments, with 20 foot high ceilings, including 20 two story loft-style homes.

All told, the building houses 82 one, two, and three bedroom apartments, between 1009 and 3049 square feet, with prices running between $325,000 and $1,300,000. The features include balconies overlooking views of the city, hardwood and exposed concrete floors, granite counter tops, and whirlpool tubs. There is 24 hour security, a pool, a gym, and private parking.

The exterior was designed by Larry Speck of Page Sutherland Page Architects of Austin. It features copper shingles and native limestone. Outdoor entertainment areas include a lap pool and spa, a fire pit, and community cooking area. Inside, the kitchens feature Jenn-Air appliances and European style cabinetry, as well as Moen faucets. Bathrooms boast oversized showers and granite counters, along with the whirlpool tubs.

Austin City Lofts is conveniently located near Austin’s vibrant night life on 6^th Street, and within two blocks of retail and restaurant establishments, clothing shops and boutiques. Just across the creek are more retail and restaurant places and a 12 screen movie theater.

…to move to Austin. This is a hard one; there are so many. Austin consistently ranks way up on most ‘Best Places’ lists, placing first among best big cities, best city for Hispanics (2004), second best large city for families, third among top growth cities, great places to live, and cool cities. High among the best reasons to live and work in Austin is it’s a “healthy place to live .”

In 2006, Austin was second best in fittest cities in Texas, its people get a decent night’s sleep, and Austin’s Sustainable City designation assures that the air, water, local foods, and buildings are also among the healthiest in the state and getting healthier. On average, Austin’s air quality ranks near the middle of the 50 cleanest and dirtiest cities in the nation.

Physically, the citizens of Austin are motivated by Mayor Will Wynn’s Austin in Motion challenge, issued in 2004, to make Austin the number one fittest city in the state of Texas. The city gets high marks for its large number of Fitness Centers and healthy restaurants. The mayor has called on Austinites to do more - changing their lifestyles to include more exercise, more healthy eating, and less couch sitting and fast food eating. Austin hosts more than 90 annual walks and runs. Children and their families are being encouraged, as well, in the hope a healthy lifestyle will start early and be sustained throughout life. About 30,000 children participate in 26.2 miles worth of runs every year.

Austin’s people are in good shape mentally, as well. Low unemployment, divorce, crime, and suicide rates contribute to a mentally healthy population. One of the bonuses supporting this health attiude and lifestyle is by the high number of sunny days.

Stay healthy, stay loose, and stay in Austin!

Over the past several years, Tech Ridge Center, located in North Austin, has been building up. Contractors are aiming to create an area with over 800,000 square feet of retail space and approximately 500,000 square feet of office/mixed-use space. To do this, they are working in phases. Phase 1, already complete, has included the arrival of J.C. Penney and Butt Grocery, Co. Offices have popped up, and tenants have moved in enthusiastically. Phase 2 looks to be just as populated.Recently, Office Depot, Petco and Castle Dental announced that they would be setting up shop in Tech Ridge Center. Office Depot will have a 21,000 square foot store while Petco fills a 16,000 square foot space and Castle Dental takes 3,000 square feet in a multi-tenant building. All three are set to open in November as a part of phase 2. With them, phase 2 should result in the addition of 280,000 square feet of retail space. 400,000 square feet of office space has been planned as well. It will be added to the Pavillion, an office complex already begun at the center.

When phase 2 and the ensuing phase 3 end, Tech Ridge Center will be the place to work, shop and live. There’s no telling what other retailers will move in, but considering the ones that have already joined, they are bound to be reputable and worthwhile.

To find out more about Tech Ridge Center, visit www.techridgecenter.com, or take a quick drive up to where I-35 and Parmer Avenue meet and find out in person just what’s being built.

I’ve got to say the whole time the boom was going on in the last 18 months and our developments were selling out as fast as we could build them, I still felt that the downtwon market was being overbuilt. As Neal mentions in the excerpt below, the jobs in dowtown Austin are just not numerous enough or well paying enough (given all the state and local government jobs) to support the amount of $300+/sq ft condos going up. Some of these condos have MONTHLY HOA fees in excess of $600. That’s the cost of a $100k mortgage on a home.

Needless to say, there is bound to be some number of folks who get burned by the glut. If you’re in the market for a downtown condo, make sure you strike a good deal. You might be facing a lot of competition from the new builders if you decide to sell in the next 3 years.

Excerpt from the Neal Spelce Austin Letter.

Despite the mantra being heard of “live and work downtown,” Austin traffic patterns could change dramatically once the surge in downtown high-rise condo construction nears completion and occupancies reach saturation.

The problem is simple. Currently there are not enough jobs in the downtown area to support full occupancy of the new high-rise condos and apartment buildings that are nearing completion. And the pace of job creation in the downtown area is not yet vigorous enough to meet that demand, should the demand materialize. So, living downtown and walking to work may not be possible for hundreds of residents in the Central Business District.

What does this mean? Well, it means that many of those who rush to live downtown will find themselves part of a new traffic pattern during rush hour. You might call it a reverse commute. Cars will start streaming out of the downtown area to places of employment at the same time cars are converging on the downtown area from the suburbs and other neighborhoods.

This potential alteration is based on the assumption that downtown living units will be occupied at a reasonably fast clip (as owners, developers and lenders are hoping!!!). With that assumption, the only thing that could stem this traffic pattern change would be for more major employers to move into the downtown area. These major employers would need to pay a higher-than-average wage so their employees could afford these new units. So far, not many major employers have rushed to acquire pricey downtown space for their companies.

Remember, the majority of the employees in the downtown area right now draw government paychecks; they don’t fit the target profile for the new condo and apartment marketers. When the day is done, they head to their living units in the less expensive parts of town. It will be interesting to watch this develop as our downtown undergoes dramatic changes.