AUSTIN | SkyHouse Austin | 264 FT | 23 FLOORS | T.O.
 

http://www.statesman.com/blogs/conte..._tower_pl.html

That's gonna create quite the mini cluster right there. And right down the street from the Rainey Street bars...

I've already noticed more traffic in that area - foot traffic and bicycle traffic. And also more bars and restaurants. In 2006 when the first new building was built in that area and I started venturing over there for photos, there was hardly anything there and you'd maybe see one person coming or going at that one building. Now though, there are more pedestrians and bicycles. I saw two or three in just the first few seconds I was on that street last week. That area is a neat spot in downtown. It's quiet and almost tranquil. There are really nice views of downtown from there, and also the hike and bike trail comes to within just a few hundred feet of the new residential buildings. So there's a lot more people jogging on the trail in that area or riding their bike. I saw some people dragging a kayak out of Lady Bird Lake last week. The area of downtown near the waterfront is just booming right now. It's going to be so nice. They're building a new public boathouse so people can park their canoes and kayaks there. On the south shore the city is working on building a boardwalk over the river. This boardwalk will actually constructed like a fishing pier. It's going to complete the hike and bike trail and make it a complete 10 mile loop all around downtown on both sides of the river. There are sections of the trail on the south shore east of downtown that were never finished, and that land was later developed privately in the 70s and 80s. Developers then didn't plan for the trail to be completed, so there wasn't enough space available on those lots between the building and shoreline for the trail to be completed. So the solution the city came up with was to build a sort of boardwalk over the water in those sections. The views of the skyline from the boardwalk will be beautiful. I'm sure it'll be a fishing spot. You'll be able to walk, jog or ride your bike. I'm really excited about it. It's supposed to start construction at the end of the year. The city has already agreed to purchase a private piece of land along the river to use as a staging area for the construction, and that property may be used as a trail entrance or even a park.

This article also talks about other projects, but mentions that Skyhouse will break ground next month.

http://www.statesman.com/business/re...inglePage=truehttp://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b2...y_1495468a.jpg
Smallwood, Reynolds, Stewart, Stewart

^That's literally the exact same render used for Skyhouse in Atlanta. They just cropped out the surrounding Atlanta buildings. Either Novare is getting lazy, or the newspaper just assumed this was the rendering for Austin.
Either way, great to see both Austin and Atlanta getting decent rental towers.

I assumed it was the opposite, as the background buildings are pretty generic so it's difficult to tell and the street/parking deck setup is not how SkyHouse Atlanta is situated.

Larger view render on SkyHouse Atlanta facebook page:
https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net...39734898_n.jpg
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?f...type=3&theater

Novare is notorious for that. We have another building by Novare (360 Condominiums) that looks like one in Atlanta, and I think Denver has one, too.

That being said, it's not a bad design. And kudos for no overt parking podium.

^At least for the Atlanta one, there is an ugly separate parking structure. It's just not shown in the renderings. I'd assume the Austin design would have the same thing, but it hasn't been confirmed.

I'm happy with Novare's other building here - 360 Condominiums. It's actually one of my favorite buildings in Austin. The garage is attached, but they hid it well. It has design decorations on the outside to cover up the typical "garage slats". And it sits under the tower. And the building just looks good from almost every angle. They did a very good job with the facade details on the building, and the lighting design isn't overdone. It also has good public artwork inside and out.

^Yep, the same as Viewpoint condos in Atlanta. Novare does a decent job with condos because it's a higher price point. But with apartments, they just slap on a detached parking deck and call it quits. We just successfully fought their proposal for a detached parking deck on another apartment tower they're proposing, and they had to incorporate street level retail and a dog park into the design. Just a heads up for Austin - pay attention to Novare's proposal and don't let them build a giant blank parking deck.

FWIW: this identical design is proposed, for downtown Orlando, and it's listed at 23 stories and 347', higher than I would have expected.

^That would be nice. SkyHouse Austin's neighbor to the south is 339 feet tall. So it would be nice to see this one be taller.

347 feet!? Wow. That is a lot taller than I would have ever guessed. That is quite tall for a 23 story building isn't it?

Yeah, that's pretty tall. I had figured maybe 275 feet. The Shore is 257 feet tall and has 22 floors. The rendering doesn't make it look that tall. I would love for it to be, though.

What is the vacancy rate in these downtown high-rise condos?

I'm not sure about the condo numbers, but the apartment vacancy rate is very tight right now. According to this, the apartment occupancy rate is 90.4 percent.

The next wave of construction will likely be mostly apartments.

According to DAB up to last month they had sold 73% of the newest big 4 condos towers. I'm not a real estate person, so I really have no idea if that is good or bad or what it means. But here you are. :P

http://downtownaustinblog.org/catego...ta-statistics/

Hmm, wonder why they're bringing more towers onto the market when the ones they've got are 27% unsold.

They are not bringing more condo towers on the market to sell. Every project under construction or scheduled to start soon is rental. There is a shortage of rental properties in Austin.