AUSTIN: Green Water Treatment Plant & Seaholm Power Plant Redevelopment Update Thread - Page 17

MichaelB · #**321** Posted **Apr 11, 2013, 5:49 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by SecretAgentMan

Big day today for seaholm!

Do tell!

AusTxDevelopment · #**322** Posted **Apr 11, 2013, 8:07 PM**

Here's the "big" Seaholm news. They are actually closing on the property, which I think everyone assumed had already happened. I hope that "one office tenant" who is in talks to take most of the low rise office space has a backup plan. Fall of 2014 sounds a bit ambitious for this group.

Austin Business Journal
Apr 11, 2013, 2:52pm CDT
Seaholm project groundbreaking is imminent

The long wait for the Seaholm Power Plant project to begin construction appears to be over. Developer Southwest Strategies Group Inc. — which formed Seaholm Power Development LLC to oversee the office-residential-retail project — confirmed Thursday afternoon that the associated real estate transactions with the city of Austin will close Friday or Monday at the latest.

Read the rest of the story here: http://www.bizjournals.com/austin/bl....html?page=all

ATXboom · #**323** Posted **Apr 11, 2013, 8:08 PM**

Yeah! ...Seaholm commencing immediately.

AND... 30 story apartment tower announced - to be delivered by mid 2015 - that would mean starting this year.

one tenant will take up most of the power plant the way I read it. The low rise will be trader joes plus other retail and biz... at least they have the anchor tenants to go.

http://www.bizjournals.com/austin/bl...is.html?page=2

AusTxDevelopment · #**324** Posted **Apr 11, 2013, 9:41 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by AusTxDevelopment

Here's the "big" Seaholm news. They are actually closing on the property, which I think everyone assumed had already happened. I hope that "one office tenant" who is in talks to take most of the low rise office space has a backup plan. Fall of 2014 sounds a bit ambitious for this group.

Austin Business Journal
Apr 11, 2013, 2:52pm CDT
Seaholm project groundbreaking is imminent

The long wait for the Seaholm Power Plant project to begin construction appears to be over. Developer Southwest Strategies Group Inc. — which formed Seaholm Power Development LLC to oversee the office-residential-retail project — confirmed Thursday afternoon that the associated real estate transactions with the city of Austin will close Friday or Monday at the latest.

Read the rest of the story here: http://www.bizjournals.com/austin/bl....html?page=all

UPDATE: I just heard that the company that will be taking the low rise office space is from out of town, and is closely connected with CIM. That makes me hopeful because CIM has a ton to lose if this project doesn't start making some serious progress, and it also means they are taking an active role in pushing it forward.

Trader Joe's must be feeling a little more optimistic now, too.

KevinFromTexas · #**325** Posted **Apr 16, 2013, 2:36 AM**

http://www.statesman.com/news/busine...-at-las/nXMzM/

Quote:

Posted: 6:55 p.m. Monday, April 15, 2013
Seaholm redevelopment ready to break ground at last

By Shonda Novak
American-Statesman Staff

It’s been several years coming, but redevelopment work is set to begin on Austin’s former Seaholm Power Plant site, with plans calling for a $100 million mixed-use project that will reinvigorate the area and add millions to the city’s tax base over coming decades.

The project on downtown’s western edge will include a 30-story tower with 309 apartments, a two-story building with a Trader Joe’s store, plus other retail, office and restaurant space.

The city is making a $13.6 million investment in street extensions and improvements, a public plaza and the main Seaholm building, said Fred Evins, the city’s project manager for the Seaholm redevelopment. The city will capture property and sales tax generated from Seaholm’s redevelopment to pay off the debt for its share of the investment.

lzppjb · #**326** Posted **Apr 16, 2013, 4:07 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by KevinFromTexas

http://www.statesman.com/news/busine...-at-las/nXMzM/

KevinFromTexas · #**327** Posted **Apr 17, 2013, 11:47 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by H2O

KEVIN:

This thread has gone entirely off topic. Could you move the affordable housing discussion to a new thread so we don't have to wade through this every time we think there is new information on the Seaholm District?

Done. I've moved the affordable housing posts to their own thread here:
http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...=1#post6094324

KevinFromTexas · #**328** Posted **Apr 17, 2013, 11:50 AM**

By the way, here's the rendering that came with one of those articles.

jngreenlee · #**329** Posted **Apr 17, 2013, 2:39 PM**

From that rendering, is there a reduction in size of the project?

_Matt · #**330** Posted **Apr 17, 2013, 5:03 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by KevinFromTexas

http://www.statesman.com/news/busine...-at-las/nXMzM/

Great comments on this article. *Save the Taco Cabana Organization*

Syndic · #**331** Posted **Apr 17, 2013, 6:07 PM**

Haha, that was me.

_Matt · #**332** Posted **Apr 17, 2013, 6:59 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Syndic

Haha, that was me.

Bravo...

On another topic, should we separate this topic into two? GWPT and Seaholm are two distinct developments at this point.

priller · #**333** Posted **Apr 17, 2013, 8:25 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by KevinFromTexas

By the way, here's the rendering that came with one of those articles.

Looks like a Borderlands version of Austin.

Austin_Expert · #**334** Posted **Apr 18, 2013, 12:19 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by jngreenlee

From that rendering, is there a reduction in size of the project?

No. There seems to be a lot of confusion between the Seaholm redevelopment and the Green Water Treatment Plant redevelopment. They are two separate projects.

wwmiv · #**335** Posted **Apr 18, 2013, 12:21 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by _Matt

Bravo...

On another topic, should we separate this topic into two? GWPT and Seaholm are two distinct developments at this point.

There are already two threads for each project and it has gotten on my nerves very much recently when people post updates for each in both threads. Is it possible to either make a stern announcement to keep it germane to each of the threads OR to combine the threads into a single one because of the significant psychological overlap of these developments?

austlar1 · #**336** Posted **Apr 18, 2013, 3:33 AM**

The announcement said this was a $100 million project. How are they gonna build that tall building and redo the power plant for $100 million? What exactly is supposed to happen after the "groundbreaking"? Will work begin on the power plant and the high rise component at the same time? Does anybody really know what is going on with this project?

KevinFromTexas · #**337** Posted **Apr 18, 2013, 6:21 AM**

My guess is the $100 million is for the power plant redo, the retail building and landscaping alone. I would imagine the apartment tower will be a bit separate in the development process. It won't even start at the same time as the power plant redo.

_Matt · #**338** Posted **Apr 19, 2013, 7:11 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by wwmiv

There are already two threads for each project and it has gotten on my nerves very much recently when people post updates for each in both threads. Is it possible to either make a stern announcement to keep it germane to each of the threads OR to combine the threads into a single one because of the significant psychological overlap of these developments?

Good points. There are going to be multiple structures in the GWTP development, so once specifics are known, we can spin off threads for the individual towers.

MichaelB · #**339** Posted **Apr 19, 2013, 10:20 PM**

A real question: Do folks really think that Seaholm would be great for retail?? I have never thought that would be a good idea. It;s moot now, but was there anyway to do retail that would not have been just a Mall? I never thought it was a good idea to have esentailly a downtown mall. Did I miss how this would have opened to the outdoors?
I would love for it to have been a civic space of some kind, but then the city would have to fund it. So. Real dicussion: would indoor downtown reatail work in Austin? ( note this will have street level retail including Trader Joes all of which look more like it would connect eventually with 2nd via the Green Development.
Thoughts?

KevinFromTexas · #**340** Posted **Apr 19, 2013, 11:44 PM**

The thing is the Seaholm building isn't all that big. It's only about 117,000 square feet. That's smaller than most Walmarts. I'm not sure mall is the right word for it. It would be ok as a retail space, but would really be kind of limited and couldn't be expanded without eating up green space on the property. It would work much better as a market place type development if you wanted to do any kind of retail. It would be a decent grocery store or farmer's market. But to use it as generic office space just seems to really be under utilizing it. Can you imagine going there for fresh foods and then sitting outside in the greenspace/public areas enjoying it your food? That space has the potential to be Austin's main public attraction in downtown. Instead it's being privatized and shuttered to the public. Being that it was a power plant, it's always been a public building, even if it was off limits to the general public.