Awards
Merit Award for adaptive re-use
The Heritage Society of Austin
Penn Field
PowerBrokers - Top 20 based
on leasing transaction volume
Austin Business Journal
Southwest Strategies Group
Mixed use Commercial real estate winner
Austin Business Journal
Penn Field
Historic Preservation Award
The Heritage Society of Austin
for The Morley Brothers Drug Store (Grove Drug)
2004, READERS POLL, Architecture & Lodging
Austin Chronicle
Best Recently Restored Building
TIE: Harry Ransom Center, Driscoll Villa at Laguna Gloria, Penn Field
Nobody wants to revisit a childhood home to find it’s been replaced
by a convenience store. As it turns out, people don’t feel any better
when it happens to familiar public spaces, either. Our landscape is our
home, and the Penn Field, Harry Ransom Center, and Driscoll Villa renovation
projects have proved that as a familiar landscape changes – be it
updating World War I-era airfield barracks for modern business-use, bringing
more light into the HRC, or restoring Laguna Gloria’s Tuscan villa
to its original 1916 beauty – it can still remain, quintessentially,
Austin.
Press - excerpts from articles - 2009, 2010 & 2011
2008/2007 | 2006 | 2005 | 2004 - archived
Austin school district to mull offers to buy headquarters, Baker Center
Austin American-Statesman
http://www.statesman.com/news/local/austin-school-district-to-mull-offers-to-buy-1748798.html?cxtype=rss_ece_frontpage
By Laura Heinauer and Shonda Novak
August 16, 2011
The Austin school district has received two offers each on its West Sixth Street headquarters and Hyde Park-area administration building, both of which were put up for bids in May as the district faced major state funding cuts.
... Sales within the past couple of years of retail, residential and office properties in the area around Carruth support the minimum bid at the site, said Danny Roth, a principal with Southwest Strategies Group, which represents the district in the bid process.
The district has 120 days to respond. The Austin school board has the final say on whether to accept the bids.
"Part of the due diligence process will include understanding who the buyers are and their qualifications," Roth said. "The board will ultimately decide on how the district elects to proceed."
...
The Baker property, which is unzoned, is valuable partly because of the amount of land on the site — nearly 4 acres — and because of its prime location in a well-established Central Austin neighborhood that includes many historical homes, Roth said.
The Carruth property, originally designed to be a mixed-use project has 128,000 square feet of space in five buildings of three or four stories each, plus 13 apartments. It was touted by Southwest Strategies as a possible corporate headquarters location.
HomeAway
Keeps Growing, Expands in CIM Group's Penn Field Complex
CoStar Group
http://www.costar.com/News/Article/HomeAway-Keeps-Growing-Expands-in-CIM-Groups-Penn-Field-Complex/131220?ref=100&iid=244&cid=41AB2A5774666A471F2DE8AFC432BEE3
By CoStar Research
August 10, 2011
Continuing its rapid growth, Austin-based HomeAway, Inc., recently leased 26,170 square feet in the Penn Field complex on South Congress Ave.
Along with its headquarters at 1011 West Fifth Street and office space at 907 West Fifth Street, HomeAway plans to initially place about 110 of its 421 Austin-based personnel in the newly renovated space at 3601 South Congress by the end of this year.
Matt Frizzell and Brad Philp of Stream Realty Partners represented Los Angeles-based building owner CIM Group in the transaction. Daniel Roth and Mike Wiley of Austin's Southwest Strategies Group represented HomeAway.
Dirt may turn at Seaholm site next year
Mix of uses still in air; nearby land to change
Austin Business Journal
http://www.bizjournals.com/austin/print-edition/2011/07/29/dirt-may-turn-at-seaholm-site-next-year.html
By Cody Lyon , ABJ Staff
July 29, 2011
The Seaholm power plant redevelopment can proceed now that a major obstacle was removed, said John Rosato, a principal at Southwest Strategies Group and the spinoff it established for the project, Seaholm Power LLC. Now that Union Pacific Corp. agreed to release an easement of less than 1 acre to the city, Rosato's team hopes to complete its site plan with the city of Austin by year's end. The new target date for the 7.8-acre project's construction is mid-2012, he said.
The developers are "in due diligence mode" and "updating our plan," Rosato said, adding that Seaholm's height and scale will not change markedly. The Seaholm project was originally planned to have 80 condominiums, 160 hotel rooms, up to 60,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space, and 100,000 square feet of office space.
AISD puts two properties valued at $39.5M up for sale
Community Impact Newspaper
http://impactnews.com/northwest-austin/256-recent-news/12865-aisd-puts-two-properties-valued-at-395m-up-for-sale
By Kate Hull
May 19, 2011
Potential buyers have until Aug. 15 to make pre-bids. The minimum value for the two properties is slated for $39.5 million. The properties are considered two of the most valuable real estate assets in the district’s possession, according to Danny Roth with Southwest Strategies Group, an Austin-based brokerage firm.
The brokerage firm has been hired to assist the district in disseminating the bid package and property information for the two properties. AISD executive staff will evaluate all qualifying bids.
"The properties are as prime as prime properties get, and present special redevelopment opportunities in Austin's core," Roth said.
Austin School District Shopping Pair of Sites
CoStar
<http://www.costar.com/News/Article/Austin-School-District-Shopping-Pair-of-Sites/128871>http://www.costar.com/News/Article/Austin-School-District-Shopping-Pair-of-Sites/128871
By CoStar Research
May 18, 2011
Southwest Strategies Group, an Austin-based brokerage firm, has been retained to assist the District in disseminating bid packages and property information for the two properties. AISD’s executive staff will evaluate qualifying bids with its Board of Trustees ultimately making any final decisions regarding the property sales.
Danny Roth of Southwest Strategies Group said the properties are considered two of the most valuable real estate assets in the district’s possession and present special redevelopment opportunities in Austin’s core market. He also said bids for the two properties will be accepted individually, and deliberated upon separately.
AISD sells prime property in budget crisis
KVUE
http://www.kvue.com/news/AISD-sells-prime-property-in-budget-crisis-122198209.html
By Jade Mingus
May 18, 2011
"It was originally built in the 80s as a mixed-use project with retail, residential, and office, and I feel like it's ready to go back to that again," commercial realtor Danny Roth said.
Roth's firm, Southwest Strategies Group, is helping the district market the two properties. The second property is in Hyde Park on Avenue B, just east of Guadalupe Street. The minimum bid for the property is $7.5 million. It is known as the Baker Center. It houses administration offices.
Austin ISD Buildings up for sale
KXAN
http://www.kxan.com/dpp/news/local/aisd-buildings-up-for-sale
By Catenya McHenry
May 18, 2011
Southwest Strategies Group, an Austin-based brokerage firm, has been retained to assist the District in disseminating the Bid Package and property information for the two properties. All qualifying bids will be evaluated by AISD executive staff. AISD’s Board of Trustees will ultimately make any final decisions regarding acceptance or rejection of bids. The process will fully comply with state law regarding the sale of land by a governmental entity, which is designed to “stimulate competition, prevent favoritism, and secure the best price for the property.”
SWSG Principal Danny Roth notes the properties are considered two of the most valuable real estate assets in the District’s possession. He also said bids for the two properties will be accepted individually, and deliberated upon separately.
“While the District is facing tough financial times, this isn’t a fire sale, and it won’t be in the community’s best interest to sell if appropriate buyers don’t materialize,” Roth said. “The properties are as prime as prime properties get, and present special redevelopment opportunities in Austin’s core.”
Austin school district seeking bids for West Sixth Street headquarters, other office center
KUT News
http://www.kutnews.org/post/aisd-takes-steps-sell-downtown-headquarters-and-baker-center
By Nathan Bernier
May 18, 2011
“The property was originally built as a mixed use property with retail intended to be on the first floor and office and residential above and behind,” Southwest Strategies Group’s Danny Roth told KUT News. Southwest Strategies was hired to manage the bidding process. “I think that is prime now to return to that original use.”
Austin school district selling two buildings for about $40M
Austin Business Journal
http://www.bizjournals.com/austin/news/2011/05/18/austin-school-district-selling-two.html
May 18, 2011
Southwest Strategies Group, a commercial real estate brokerage, is working with the district to manage the bid process and property information. All qualifying bids will be evaluated by AISD executive staff. The district's board of trustees will make any final decisions regarding the bids.
“While the district is facing tough financial times, this isn’t a fire sale, and it won’t be in the community’s best interest to sell if appropriate buyers don’t materialize,” SWSG Principal Danny Roth said.
Austin school district seeking bids for West Sixth Street headquarters, other office center
Austin American-Statesman
http://www.austinchronicle.com/music/2011-05-13/off-the-record
By Laura Heinauer and Shonda Novak
May 17, 2011
The district has retained Southwest Strategies Group, an Austin commercial real estate firm, to manage the bidding process.
Danny Roth, a principal at the firm, said the properties are considered two of the district's most valuable real estate assets.
"While the district is facing tough financial times, this isn't a fire sale, and it won't be in the community's best interest to sell if appropriate buyers don't materialize," Roth said. "The properties are as prime as prime properties get, and present special redevelopment opportunities in Austin's core."
Today, bid packages will be available on the district and Southwest Strategies websites. Roth said his firm also will post the properties on commercial real estate databases.
Asked about the odds of an eventual sale of the properties, Roth said, "I'm hopeful, and I believe we will get some qualified responses."
...
Roth said he expects the site to attract interest from investors as well as companies seeking a headquarters location near downtown.
"It's a spectacular piece of real estate, and there will be a tremendous amount of interest," said Jamil Alam, a principal with Endeavor Real Estate Group.
... Roth said the Baker property could attract interest from other schools, potential office users, nonprofits or religious entities.
Off the Record
Music News
http://www.austinchronicle.com/music/2011-05-13/off-the-record
By Austin Powell
May 13, 2011
The Black Angels proved that their Austin Psych Fest could be the All Tomorrow's Parties of the South, a three-day, artist-curated rock & roll drone that proved as singular of mindset as the towering, historic confines of the Seaholm Power Plant where it took place two weeks ago.
Constructed of cast concrete in two phases in 1950 and 1955 and retired four decades later, the art deco-style former municipality was deemed ready for public reuse in January 2006, after a nine-year, $13 million remediation process. Since then, the city-owned facility has become a popular event destination for everything from last November's Hot Rod Revolution to the recent Fusebox Festival.
"It may not be the greatest sound in the world for most music," says prolific local composer and Fusebox performer Graham Reynolds, "but the environment trumps and every event is memorable."
"The inside of it is like an old European cathedral or a Roman Baths," furthers choreographer Sally Jacques, whose site-specific dance company, Blue Lapis Light, hosted Illumination there in October 2007, the first and by far the most legally challenging event in the space. "The sunlight that comes in there and the way that it radiates across the space is just magnificent."
... According to Gloria Aguilera of the Contract and Land Management Department, Seaholm will close at the end of the month for a series of site-intensive infrastructure projects, including the installation of wastewater lines on Cesar Chavez, which will take 18-24 months.
Those improvements will coincide with the redevelopment efforts of Seaholm Power LLC, a development consortium led by Southwest Strategies Group of Austin, whose Master Development Agreement with the city was approved by council in April 2008. The 7.8-acre site overhaul will include a 160-room boutique hotel, condos, an abundance of mixed-use space for retail and restaurants, plus two spaces on the south lawn and in the plaza for outdoor events. The renovation is scheduled to break ground next year and will last an estimated 24-28 months.
"One of the things that struck me about the building is that it's versatile and has a very broad appeal that can encompass even very formal events, " says John C. Rosato, a managing partner at Southwest Strategies Group. "We hope to continue that in the future."
Re-energizing Seaholm
Downtown corner to be remade into vibrant district
Austin American-Statesman
http://www.statesman.com/business/planned-projects-will-transform-downtowns-southwest-corner-1146299.html?cxtype=rss_ece_frontpage
by Shonda Novak
December 26, 2010
Over the next decade, the southwest corner of downtown will undergo dramatic change, as a 13-acre area that once was largely city-owned land is reshaped into a dynamic urban neighborhood with residences, shops, restaurants, and entertainment and cultural attractions.
The land is within the larger Seaholm District, bounded by Lamar Boulevard, San Antonio and West Fifth streets and Lady Bird Lake that is named after the landmark former power plant. The 13 acres includes the largest assemblage of city-owned land downtown that remains for potential redevelopment.
Five major projects, including redevelopment of the former Seaholm Power Plant and Green Water Treatment Plant sites, along with recent private projects nearby, will represent about $2 billion in new investment for the district, said Fred Evins, the city's project manager for the Green and Seaholm redevelopment.
... John Rosato, a principal with Southwest Strategies Group, lead developer on Seaholm, said the projects will be "transformational for downtown."
Seaholm Power Plant’s blank canvas spurs imagination in event planners
Austin Business Journal
http://austin.bizjournals.com/austin/stories/2010/07/19/story8.html
by Sandra Zaragoza
Friday, July 16, 2010
It’s supposed to be a dormant, quiet, old electric plant waiting to be redeveloped in the coming years, but the Seaholm Power Plant has unexpectedly become an in-demand setting for exclusive parties, concerts and black-tie fundraisers.
Despite being stripped of the typical niceties found in hotels or traditional event venues — it doesn’t have electricity, running water or bathrooms — Seaholm has attracted some impressive bookings.
The historic nature of the building has lured MTV, Alamo Drafthouse Cinema and Rare magazine. Paramount Pictures leased the iconic building for about six weeks this spring to film the remake of “True Grit.”
... Adding to the building’s novelty is that the opportunity to see Seaholm in its raw condition may end this year. According to Southwest Strategies Group, the company chosen by the city to redevelop Seaholm and its surrounding land, the long-awaited project may be turning dirt as early as next year.
Under the agreement with the city, the power plant will stay intact, but Southwest Strategies will turn it into a retail, restaurant and event center. Plans also call for a hotel and residential component, a two-story retail and office building, and an outdoor plaza.
John Rosato of Southwest Strategies said the city is meeting its obligations for environmental cleanup at the site. With the progress the city is making, Rosato believes his company could begin developing the site in 2011.
Rosato said Southwest Strategiess plans to maintain Seaholm's integrity while giving it modern conveniences that would enable it to accommodate events.
Junior League buys land for future expansion
Site in Northwest Austin also expected to host other nonprofits' events, help preserve greenbelt
Austin American-Statesman
by Brian Gaar
May 27, 2010
About three years ago, a space and needs assessment showed that the group needed about twice as much space as it has now, Haralson said. At that point, the Junior League had grown to more than 2,000 members, and its current facility couldn't hold general meetings, she said. With parking needs, the group found itself landlocked, she said.
...
Southwest Strategies broker Mike Wiley assisted the league in its land search.
John Rosato represented the family that has owned the building since 1893.
..."This building is one of a handful of original structures that remain along Congress Avenue that are more than 100 years old," Rosato said. "It is absolutely ideal for a boutique hotel," he said, citing its "charming architecture" and location.
Ballet Austin event chairwoman Andrea McWilliams, co-founder of McWilliams & Associates lobbying firm, is planning the 'party of the decade' for Sept. 10.
Dubbed 'Fete to the Power of 10,' the gala will include pricey cocktails, dinner and performances staged by Stephen Mills at the Butler Dance Education Center (tables go for $10,000; individual tickets for $1,000). Tickets for the performance -celebrating Mills - 10 years as artistic director - cost $250.
The party will migrate to the Seaholm Power Plant for an evening-long event (tickets: $95-$125).
With downtown party space at a premium during South by Southwest, MTV has managed to work out an agreement with the City of Austin to rent the former Seaholm Power Plant for $500 a day over six days. You read that right: no zeroes are missing.
“Wow,” publicist Elaine Garza said, incredulously, at the bargain rate. “Some people are paying $10,000 to rent a club during the day. Seaholm is the hot space. Everybody’s been trying to get it.”
Gloria Aguilera of the City’s Real Estate Services Division said MTV reserved Seaholm, which has 117,000 square feet of space, after doing a few tapings at last year’s SXSW. Aguilera said the price is only $500 a day because there is no electricity or bathrooms in the warehouse-like shell.
Also, the low rental fee adhere’s to city ordinance #20080306-038, an economic growth initiative signed by then-mayor Will Wynn at SXSW 2008, which encourages filming of movies and television programs in Austin.
Several party planners were fighting over Seaholm, Aguilera said, including Rare magazine, which had been contracted by SXSW to put on a couple events, and Perez Hilton, who wanted MTV out at 5 p.m. Saturday so he could host his now-annual SXSW-closing bash. But MTV had already secured the hot spot.
MTV to take over Seaholm during SXSW
Austin American-Statesman
by Michael Corcoran
February 23, 2010
The vacant Seaholm Power Plant, which is managed for temporary use by Austin’s Real Estate Services Division, will be occupied during South by Southwest by MTV, the city’s Gloria Aguilera said Monday. “They’ll be filming there all four days,” Aguilera said.
Spelman and Riley competing to cut carbon; plans for artwork at Seaholm
Austin American-Statesman
Urban Affairs
February 17, 2010
Seaholm wall to be public art TheSeaholm Power Plant, which sits on the north side of Lady Bird Lake, is prime real estate, but, its Art Deco lettering aside, not exactly the prettiest thing along the shoreline. On Feb. 25, the City Council is scheduled to vote on a small step toward spiffing up the area.
The city is already planning to redevelop Seaholm and the neighboring Thomas C. Green Water Treatment Plant as a mix of shops, condos and amenities. Part of that plan is shrinking an existing substation to make room for a new library and then turning a wall that will enclose the substation into a work of art.
Exactly what sort of art hasn't been decided. The city has budgeted $750,000 for the wall and would spend an additional $181,200 that is already budgeted for public art. The city's Art in Public Places program would commission the design, engineering and construction.
Building downtown density, toll roads created opportunity
Austin Business Journal
by Kate Harrington
December 25-31, 2009
For John Rosato, a principal with Austin's Southwest Strategies Group, Inc., two significant economic downturns coupled with periods of wild prosperity are among the biggest factors that have shaped the area's commercial real estate industry. During the decade, Rosato has had a front-row seat to developments that have shaped parts of Austin during both downturns, as well.
Southwest Strategies Group helped develop the 16-acre Penn Field project on South Congress Avenue. Penn Field was among the first South Congress projects to take off. It has anchored a rapidly changing area that now draws natives and tourists alike. The former World War I Army training field and its existing buildings is now a 230,000-square-foot retail, office and warehouse complex.
Let's make a deal
Austin Business Journal
by Kate Harrington
July 24, 2009
Opporunity not yet knocking for all
Now is a good time for those who are well-capitalized tos ave on rentals and purchases, said Daniel Roth, a principal with Southwest Strategies Group. But he said bargain seekers won't always find dramatic 50 percent savings in rental and sales prices that some may hope are out there; such cuts are closer to 10 to 15 percent.
And in many cases, Roth said, this environment has not yielded better deals, particularly in some of the older properties he works with. That may be because their owners bought them with more equity, which Southwest Strategies started doing several years ago, and have the cushion to wait longer.
Highland Mall today ... but what about tomorrow?
Austin Business Journal
by Kate Harrington
April 17-23, 2009
Daniel Roth, Principal
Southwest Strategies Group
"The property could be repurposed, but I don't see it long term as a mall," Roth said. "The question is what would it be in its new purpose. Our specialty, and I think something a lot of people would look at, is mixed-use – maybe with retail pushed to the edges.
... We're the home of state, county and city government, and lots of public education facilities. If it was handed to me tomorrow, I'd be approaching all those entities as well as retailers and residential."
Crestview Station and Mueller are models for the type of mixed-use development that could occupy the Highland Mall site, he said.
01_Adaptive Reuse
Four preservation projects -- a barn, a grain elevator, a nurses' dormitory, and a power plant -- show that repurposing old buildings for new uses needn't sacrifice soul.
The ArchitectsNewspaper
http://www.archpaper.com/e-board_rev.asp?News_ID=3395
April 15, 2009
Seaholm
Austin, Texas
Ayers Saint Gross
On a prominent site separating a booming downtown residential district from Town Lake, the Seaholm Power Plant, built in the 1950s, is one of Austin’s most distinctive midcentury structures. Its red neon sign, towering stacks, and stark concrete mass are immediately recognizable landmarks. So when it was decommissioned in 1996, and following a nine-year remediation of hazardous materials, the city drafted a redevelopment masterplan and issued an RFQ to develop the site.
The winning team, including Southwest Strategies Group and Baltimore architects Ayers Saint Gross (ASG), programmed the site for new high- and low-rise construction to house a mix of office, residential, hospitality, and special-event space. The Seaholm building itself, with its cavernous turbine hall ringed by high clerestory windows, was envisioned as a retail center. “The model is the Ferry Building Marketplace in San Francisco,” said Ann Powell of ASG.
Travis may join city in Seaholm taxing district
Austin American-Statesman
http://www.statesman.com/search/content/news/stories/local/04/15/0415seaholm.htmlby Suzannah Gonzales
April 15, 2009
Travis County commissioners, lured by the prospect of gaining hundreds of thousands of dollars in tax revenue, voted Tuesday to advise the City of Austin that they're willing to join a taxing district to help redevelop the former Seaholm Power Plant.
Seaholm currently generates no tax money because the property is owned by the city, but officials hope the site on West Cesar Chavez Street will become a $117 million mix of shops, offices and condominiums and will include a boutique hotel and special-events space.
... The proposed structure of the (Seaholm financing district) is for the proceeds to help offset the costs of the redevelopment of the power plant, addition of a plaza and transportation improvements," said John Rosato, lead developer of Seaholm Power LLC, which is spearheading the redevelopment.
416 Congress for sale
126-year-old building never changed hands; pitched as a 'piece of Texas history'
Austin Business Journal
by Kate Harrington
April 10-16, 2009
The building is being marketed for sale by the family, members of which declined to comment. John Rosato, a principal with Austin-based Southwest Strategies Group, who is representing the owners, said the family started talking about selling the building late last year.
... "Anyone who buys it will probably want a piece of Texas history," Rosato said.
Planned Seaholm Development puts retired power plant to different use
Community Impact Newspaper
http://www.impactnews.com/central-austin/news/3909-planned-seaholm-development-puts-retired-power-plant-to-different-use
by Mark Collins
April 10, 2009
For nearly 40 years the Seaholm Power Plant on Cesar Chavez provided energy for residents. Now on the verge of a major transformation, the power plant will serve Austin in a completely different capacity.
...
“It is one of the most interesting spaces I’ve ever been in, and I’m a 69-year-old architect that has traveled the world and seen a lot of spaces,” Black said. “I’ve never seen a space more interesting than the inside of that building; it really is a magnificent thing inside.”
... “We were very intrigued by the power plant and spent a tremendous amount of time there,” lead developer John Rosato said. “That has been the main purpose of our design team — figuring out how we take an industrial site and convert the building into retail and offices while maintaining its character.”
2008/2007 | 2006 | 2005 | 2004 - archived
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