Quote:
Originally Posted by AusTxDevelopment
If there is going to be a 1,000 sf (or even 800 sf) building in the next 10-15 years, it will be apartments, condos or mixed use. There won't be a strictly office building that tall in Austin in the near future. Unless Perry is successful in bringing some of those California companies to Austin, our office market is too small to support it at this stage. Even Stacy's proposed Gumby building was only about 30% office.
The broker gossip is that 3rd & Colorado has 2 leases pending, but both of those pending leases will automatically cancel in April if they can't get another lease committed and bring the building to their proforma'd preleasing to start construction. So, if the building doesn't start by the end of April, it will probably be put on hold indefinitely. Once word gets out that a developer can't meet a deadline, the project becomes tainted and no one wants to commit to a lease. And then, generally, your equity bails on you. No money means no building. You either hold the land and eat the carrying costs hoping to restart it in the future with new investors, or you flip the land to the next guy. Which wouldn't be a bad thing because maybe the next guy can deliver? I guess we'll see in April if the rumors are true.
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That kind of sucks, if true. I am excited by this building. I think it is well designed and will look good at street level. It will house well paid workers who may opt to live in or near downtown. It will certainly add to the credibility factor for downtown Austin as THE place to do business in this area. I am not so concerned about the height, but I am not a skyscraper fanatic. I like really tall buildings when they add something at street level. A lot of the tall buildings I see in other cities with their big street level plazas and gale force downdrafts, are kind of energy drains on the nearby streets. I like to look at impressive skylines from afar, but sometimes I am most struck by the bulk of a skyline just as much as I am by the sight of some really tall buildings poking up or standing alone.