2023
october 16
Austin-area office market facing challenges, but outlook is optimistic
By Shonda Novak
Several new reports are out from commercial real estate firms providing the latest snapshot of the Austin area office market.
Despite a growing amount of sublease space hitting the market across the Austin metro, the outlook for the rest of 2023 remains optimistic, according to CBRE's third-quarter report.
March 28
After long search, Poppi finds its HQ space
Maker of prebiotic soda moved from Dallas to Austin in 2021
by Sahar Chmais
Poppi, a company producing prebiotic soda, has finally found space for its headquarters after moving here from Dallas in 2021.
… The 3,500-square-foot office is located at The Hatchery, a mixed-use development just off I-35 with views of Lady Bird Lake. Jeremy Avera, a senior vice president at CSA Realty Group, helped broker the deal. The Hatchery is close enough to downtown, making it central for workers, but also more convenient for employees to leave the area and find parking, co-founder Stephen Ellsworth said.
February 14
by Cody Baird
The next step in the Hatchery's development is the revitalization of the tallest building on the site.
Th redevelopment of hte Rebekah Baines Johnson Center into a mixed-use community called The Hatchery took a big step with the Jan. 20 grand opening of The Lady Bird, an affordable senior housing facility with more than 200 units.
... Momark and Southwest Strategies are serving jointly as the developer of The Hatchery's market-rate housing and commerical and retail amentiies.
The final phase of construction is for either office space or market-rate multifamily housing. A site plan on The Hatchery's website indicates that it could be a 150,848 square feet of class A office space.
In addition to The Lady Bird, other complete projects at The Hatcher include The Weaver, a 251-unti market-rate multifamily development; 31 Navasota, a 27,631-square-foot class A office building; 41 Navasota, which is home to classical radio station KMFA; and 49 Navasota, home ot Minthouse, a micro hotel.
Tenants in 31 Navasota include Hestia, the Center for Music Therapy, Afuga Coffee, Momark, Zengistics Solutions and Forest Family Dentistry, according to The Hatchery's website.
January 20
New development for active seniors opens in East Austin
The Ladybird will feature 47 studios, 208 one-bedroom units and 24 two-bedroom units for active seniors 55 and up.
by Kim Yonick
A new mixed-income development for active seniors is opening its doors to the public Friday in East Austin.
The Ladybird will feature 47 studios, 208 one-bedroom units and 24 two-bedroom units for active seniors 55 and up. Besides living arrangements, the development also has several amenities including a library, training/meeting room, theater and food pantry.
... The Ladybird works with the Tax Credit Affordable Housing program and updates its income limits annually for Travis County. Below are the current levels: 30% AMI: $23,190 for an individual; $26,490 for a couple 50% AMI: $38,650 for an individual; $44,050 for a couple 60% AMI: $46,380 for an individual; $52,980 for a couple 80% AMI: $61,840 for an individual; $70,640 for a couple
For more information about The Ladybird, visit the community's website.
2021
November 19
Mixed-Income, Mixed-Use Travis Flats Open in North Loop
County-backed development combines offices with affordable housing
by Lina Fisher
On Nov. 10, the Travis County Commissioners Court celebrated the grand opening of Travis Flats Apartments, a mixed-use, mixed-income development at 5310 Helen St., at 53½ St. and Airport Boulevard in the North Loop neighborhood. Rents for the floor plans with cute Austin-centric nicknames – "The Lady Bird," "The Zilker," "The Paramount," "The Moon Tower" – range from $990-a-month studios to $1,950-a-month three-bedrooms. That comes in well below Central Austin market rents; as of Nov. 11, the average rent on Apartment List for a studio apartment in Austin was $1,644, and for a three-bedroom, $2,702.
... Plans for Travis Flats began in 2016, when Travis County Housing Finance Corporation partnered with DMA Development Company and Southwest Strategies Group to redevelop a parking lot next to the county's North Campus office complex into both needed workspaces and affordable housing. Construction began in 2019 and was completed in June, financed by, among other loans, $1.5 million in federal tax credits awarded by the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs and $2 million in bond and grant funds from the city of Austin. As a S.M.A.R.T. Housing development, Travis Flats also received $750,000 in city fee waivers.
November 11
Affordable housing complex opens in Central Austin; local leaders hope more are on the way
by Luz Moreno-Lozano
On Wednesday, Travis County and nonprofit Travis County Housing Finance Corp. celebrated the grand opening of the Travis Flats apartments — its newest affordable housing complex in Central Austin.
... Travis Flats opened this month offering 146 apartment units that will mostly cater to residents at or below 60% of the metro area's median Income. For Travis County, that is about $59,340 for a family of four.
October 14
Austin's best new buildings on display
2021 Commercial Real Estate Awards
The future of Austin is being built before our eyes.
Central Texas has emerged from the pandemic as one of the most desirable places in the world for companies and people to move. To keep up with that demand, developers, brokers, architects, construction workers and others are rushing to put up new towers, erect enough housing and overhaul spaces for beneficial public use.
There is a lot of newsworthy work being done all over town by hundreds of companies, epitomized by the winners in Austin Business Journal's 2021 Commercial Real Estate Awards, which were handed out Oct. 14.
... Multifamily developemnt: The Weaver Residences at The Hatchery
Lead Developer: SSG Momark Collaborative LLC, a partnership of Momark Development and Southwest Strategies Group
The Weaver Residences at The Hatchery is a 250-unit, market-rate multifamily community that was built as part of the Austin Geriatric Center’s redevelopment of the Rebekah Baines Johnson Center for low-income seniors.
Originally a federally operated fish hatchery, President Lyndon Baines Johnson dedicated the 17-acre property to the nonprofit known as AGC, which opened the tower in 1972. That was quite awhile ago, and modernization is in order for the prime site on the southeast fringe of downtown Austin. That’s why some of it has been handed over to innovative private-sector players in real estate.
Not only did Weaver not displace any of the seniors housed on the site, proceeds from the sale of the land played a pivotal role in enabling ACG to double the number of low-income seniors it can serve — including many longtime residents of East Austin who likely would not be able to stay in the neighborhood otherwise.
Construction is now underway on the RBJ Center’s new affordable apartment complex, called The Lady Bird. Current tower residents will move into the new housing upon completion so no one is even temporarily displaced, then the existing tower will be renovated. After that, current residents will have their choice of staying at The Lady Bird or moving into their renovated home in the tower. It was all made possible by the innovative deal that produced The Weaver Residences at the Hatchery.
August 30
Here are the Austin groups and people chosen for the ULI Impact Awards
by Michelle Pitcher
Looking for inspiration for your next housing development? Urban Land Institute Austin held its annual Impact Awards last week, and several Austin housing projects were recognized for their innovation.
ULI is a global nonprofit made up of real estate and land use professionals. The Austin area chapter alone boasts approximately 1,000 members. The annual Impact Awards highlight people, groups and projects that represent the future of development in Austin, resulting in a helpful list of projects for Austin developers to monitor for the next trends in housing.
... Waterloo Terrace was also a finalist for Best Project Innovation, along with The Weaver Residences at the Hatchery.
The Weaver Residences, made up of upscale units, is located at 1401 Art Dilly Dr. on Lady Bird Lake. A two-bedroom, two-bathroom apartment in the community goes for around $3,000. The residences are part of The Hatchery mixed-use “urban village".
August 17
Maximizing Property Potential Through Adaptive Reuse: 6 Success Stories
by Ioana Gînsa
Adaptive reuse is among the most widely employed sustainable building practices nationwide. Its many advantages include: land conservation and the reduction of urban sprawl; positive community transformation through renewing neighborhood vitality; and the preservation of local landmarks, while simultaneously creating additional office space for new businesses and new industries to expand.
... Seaholm District – Austin, Texas
The Seaholm Power Plant (SPP) is one of the state’s highest-profile adaptive reuse projects. The historic site at 800 W. Cesar Chavez St. was designed by Burns & McDonnell Engineering Co. and built of cast concrete in two phases in 1950 and 1955 by Odom Construction. The power generation facility was later decommissioned in 1996 but, in 2005, the City of Austin entrusted the site to a redevelopment team made up of: project manager Capital Project Management; managing partners Los Angeles-based CIM Group and Southwest Strategies Group, Inc.; Centro Development, LLC for residential development; and State Street Properties and La Corsha Hospitality Group for restaurant and event management. Together, Seaholm Power LLC set out to repurpose the property in a way that would include public and cultural uses, as well as revitalize the city-owned land along Lady Bird Lake in the process.
... Upon completion of the project, Seaholm earned a LEED Gold certification and became an anchor in the downtown Austin market. The former turbine hall was repurposed into 103,000 square feet of Austin office space suited for the research and development operations of anchor tenant Athenahealth — a network-enabled services and mobile apps service provider for medical groups and health systems. The 7.8-acre development is also home to a 30-story residential high-rise with a sky deck on the 10th floor, as well as nearly 40,000 square feet of ground-floor restaurant space and three acres of open space, including a public plaza and an outdoor terrace overlooking Lady Bird Lake.
January 29
KMFA'S New Home Brings the Community Into Contact with Music
Austin's classical music radio station has a new building where people can see the sounds
The exterior of the new KMFA building (Photo by Jana Birchum)
Ann Hume Wilson has the sun in her eyes.
In most buildings, that would be unremarkable. But this is KMFA. For more than four decades, Austin's classical radio station – 89.5 on your FM dial – was ensconced in a leased space on North Lamar that may be best likened to a submarine: a long, narrow tube of a hallway running the length of the building on the ground floor, with virtually no natural light.
... A search for properties eventually led to the Hatchery, an 18-acre mixed-use development in East Austin being built on the site of a former National Fish Hatchery, where fish were raised to stock ponds across Texas from the Forties through the Sixties. With a spot on Navasota, KMFA became the anchor for the development.
Steve Parker’s Sound Garden installation in the gallery room (Photo by Jana Birchum)
January 11
2 prime Austin locations strike gold with new luxury short-term rentals
by Chantal Rie
In a time when staying home is the norm and social distancing is a must, short-term luxury rentals provide a hotel-like experience without the hotel — and without the need for in-person contact.
New York-based Mint House, billed as an Airbnb-style hospitality concept targeted mainly at business travelers, has opened its first Austin location at The Hatchery, the massive “urban village” being erected on the east side just north of Lady Bird Lake.
Mint House opens its first luxury short-term rentals spot on the east side at The Hatchery. Courtesy of Mint House
... Mint House The Hatchery, which opened December 20, 2020 at 49 Navasota St., includes 30 units — standard to deluxe — with short-term and extended-stay options. The project is the newest to open at The Hatchery, a mixed-use development that will feature hundreds of apartments, as well as restaurants, retailers, and a public park, alongside the new home of local classical-music radio station KMFA and a renovated Rebekah Baines Johnson Center independent living community for seniors and people with disabilities.
2020
August 7
Catching Up With the Hatchery, Transforming East Austin’s RBJ Center
by James Rambin
A little more than two years after its official groundbreaking, the expansive redevelopment of the Rebekah Baines Johnson Center is making visible progress in East Austin. Soon, we’ll be calling it the Hatchery — and along with the construction of new market-rate residential, retail, and office space at the 17.8-acre site just southeast of downtown, its existing 250 units of low-income senior housing will be renovated and then doubled with an additional 250 affordable senior apartments.
The vision of Momark Development, Southwest Strategies Group, and Diana McIver & Associates, the renovation of the original 1972 tower — which will soon be rebranded as the Rebekah, after the center’s namesake Rebekah Baines Johnson — along with the considerable expansion of new buildings surrounding it is a lot to take in, even from the air.
… Split into three phases of construction, in addition to its 500 senior residences the master-planned development will eventually host more than 250 market-rate residential units, 176,000 square feet of Class A office space, 16,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space, a community garden and “food forest” just west of the original RBJ tower, and “Hatchery Park,” a public plaza located near the corner of Haskell and Waller Streets. Here’s a map of everything headed to the site, including a new headquarters for classical radio station KMFA 89.5.
… Shannon says the Weaver appeals to a demographic of Austinites that appreciate its peaceful environment despite its stone’s-throw location from downtown proper — and that’s always been the public appeal of both the RBJ Center area and surrounding parks around Festival Beach, potential that will soon be explored with nearby improvements like the Holly Project and Longhorn Dam Pedestrian Bridge.
February 14
Popular Local Vietnamese Restaurant Opens Second Location
Owners of Pho Please in East Austin debut new location, called Sip Pho
The owners of highly popular Pho Please Vietnamese restaurant will open their newest concept, Sip Pho, on Friday, February 21.
The new spot is located at 512 W. 29th St., just north of the University of Texas at Austin campus. It will feature many of the same ingredients and offerings as the original location by husband-wife co-owners Anh Nguyen and Tien Do.
... Nguyen, the lead chef, adds: “My intent is to honor our heritage, but present authentic food in a modern way,” said Nguyen, Sip Pho and Pho Please’s lead chef.
Part of that entails a modern atmosphere, which their new space enables. The duo turned to Lawson Pedder, commercial real estate agent with Austin-based Southwest Strategies Group – the same firm that redeveloped notable projects such as Penn Field and the Seaholm Power Plant project. Pedder ultimately helped them purchase the site of the former Ruby’s BBQ restaurant.
“Anh and Tien are unquestionably rising stars on the local restaurant scene, and you won’t find two more dedicated, hard-working people determined to make every customer feel like a treasured part of their extended family,” Pedder says.
The prior structure was in too poor condition to be salvaged, with the new owners building their latest concept from the ground up – with considerable assistance from Austin-based Magic Architecture. Scott Magic, the firm’s principal stated: “Guided by the owner’s interest in simple and clean spaces, the architecture was an exploration of how to make ordinary building parts look extraordinary.”
To accomplish that, the space makes solid use of natural light, exposed Douglas Fir wood, white walls, steel community tables and concrete floors.
Eater Austin: https://austin.eater.com/2020/2/19/21143896/pho-please-vietnamese-restaurant-open-austin-north-campus
culturemap austin: http://austin.culturemap.com/news/restaurants-bars/02-17-20-pho-please-opening-new-concept-sip-near-UT-campus-rubys-bbq