2008
december 15
City, developer are near Seaholm deal
By Shonda Novak
The taxing zone “is a way for the city to participate in the Seaholm project without having to come up with out-of-pocket funds,” said John Rosato, principal with Southwest Strategies Group, the lead developer in Seaholm Power LLC, which the city chose to redevelop the site after a competitive selection process.
“As a government-owned property, Seaholm has yet to contribute a cent to the tax base. But that will change dramatically in the coming years, and this vehicle enables future funds to pay for the city’s participation,” Rosato said.
The focal point will be the preservation of the landmark power plant, a 136,000-square-foot building with more than 110,000 square feet of useable floor space. Once renovated, the building will house an events center plus offices, shops and restaurants.
Jeff Trigger and his La Corsha Hospitality Group will oversee the construction, management and operations of a 180-room hotel planned for the project.
Trigger is the former managing director of the historic Driskill Hotel in downtown Austin, Trigger said there’s keen interest from “Austin-centric retailers” who want to be part of Seaholm.
“We’re not going to be generating a whole lot of electrical power, but we sure want to generate a lot of energy,” Trigger said. “As you can tell, I’m jazzed about this.”
april 15
Seaholm Plan Approved: New Downtown Neighborhood to Emerge in 2011
By Towers Staff
Last week, the city approved a master plan for the redevelopment of the Seaholm Power Plant site on Cesar Chavez near Lamar. The $117.2 million project, a partnership between the city and Southwest Strategies, will result in a 22-story hotel, 60 condo units, and 180,000 square feet of retail and commercial space. Between the initial proposal and final draft, the condo portion of the project was reduced from 80 units to 60 units.
The 150,000-square-foot decommissioned power plant will be the centerpiece of the 7.8-acre property across Cesar Chavez Street from Lady Bird Lake. With offices, extensive retail, and more than 3 acres of open space, Seaholm will further shift the heart of downtown to the west. While downtown life used to center around 6th street between Congress and red river, the warehouse district, 2nd street district, and Whole Foods have shifted the balance. With Seaholm, the downtown action will increasingly be centered between Congress, Lamar, 5th, and Town Lake.
The most exciting part of the project is the redevelopment of the Seaholm facility itself. When complete, the art deco structure will include nearly 100,000 square feet of retail and restaurants. Construction will 2009, with the final project completed in 2011.
Here is a summary from the Statesman:
The Austin City Council approved the master development agreement for the $117.2 million Seaholm mixed-use redevelopment project today.The agreement says the development group Seaholm Power LLP, led by Southwest Strategies Inc., will pay $98.6 million or 84 percent of the cost of the project, while the city will pay $18.6 million. The redevelopment plan calls for a 22-story hotel, 60 condo units, 130,000 square feet of office space and 50,000 square feet of retail and commercial space. The 150,000-square-foot decommissioned power plant will be the centerpiece of the 7.8-acre property across Cesar Chavez Street from Lady Bird Lake.The city’s contribution to the project, which will be raised through property and sales tax revenues, would pay for street and utility improvements, public parks and a parking garage. The city will continue to own the renovated Seaholm Power Plant.
City, developer are near Seaholm deal
Proposal calls for Austin to pay 16 percent of $117.2 million mixed-use project downtown
by Kate Miller Morton
The City of Austin and the local group it chose to redevelop the Seaholm Power Plant and surrounding property three years ago are close to reaching an agreement that would allow the $117.2 million project to move forward.
... Rosato hopes the group will be able to start construction by this time next year. If that happens, construction could be completed in 2011.
march 28
2007
october
ILLUMINATION
A new site-specific aerial dance from Blue Lapis Light
Where: The Seaholm Power Plant, downtown Austin
(Entrance at 3rd Street & West Ave.)
Dates: October 4-7, 11-14, 18-21, 25-28 | Time: 8pm
Blue Lapis Light presents its latest site-specific aerial dance performance, Illumination, at the Seaholm Power Plant in downtown Austin. Artistic Director and recent Austin Arts Hall of Fame inductee Sally Jacques, along with choreographers/dancers Laura Cannon and Nicole Whiteside, will transform the interior of the historic building to create images of beauty and transcendence. The architecture of Seaholm, reminiscent of a cathedral, inspires the vision for Illumination. The dancers, suspended from ropes and cloth, will soar through the space in graceful athleticism. Highlighting the grand architecture, Illumination will feature lighting by Jason Amato and sound design by William Meadows.
Illumination has been made possible with great assistance from various departments of the City of Austin and Southwest Strategies Group Inc.
Turning the Old into the New and Avant Garde
Redevelopment of Seaholm site a long time in coming, but it was worth the wait
Business District - The Real Estate Issue
For years – almost two decades, in fact – the Seaholm power plant that reigns over the Southwest portion of Austin's downtown sector just across the street from Lady Bird Lake and the hike and bike trail sat silent and seemingly immune to the hustle and bustle and change of the world around it.
That's all about to change, and many will say that change is a good thing and a long time coming.
... The right team at the right time
According to Laura Huffman, the assistant city manager for the City of Austin, the determining factors in awarding the site to the current developer was its team's qualifications, including its experience with similar projects and the resources they could bring to the project.
september
Missing a Longtime 6th Street Advocate
the 6ixth
Pecan Street Owners Association
Jerry Creagh, a founding member of the Pecan Street Owners Association, passed away this summer after battling cancer. Jerry was the longtime owner of "Wiley's Restaurant" on East 6th Street and was a prominent force in the development and success of the 6th Street district.
... Jerry was a well respected business man in the community and was a partner in Southwest Strategies, a commercial development firm.
september 6
Seaholm Construction Begins
By Towers Staff
Construction has officially commenced on a five-year project to transform the Seaholm power plant and surrounding site near Cesar Chavez Street and Lamar into a large mixed-use project. The initial phase of construction, as expected, include mostly infrastructure enhancements and site preparation.
… More than anything else, Seaholm will further shift the heart of downtown to the west. While downtown life used to center around 6th street between Congress and red river, the warehouse district, 2nd street district, and Whole Foods have shifted the balance. With Seaholm, the downtown action will increasingly be centered between Congress, Lamar, 5th, and Town Lake.
august 13
Alamo Drafthouse moving to Sixth St.
The historic Ritz will be a theater again, a change cheered by area business leaders
By Shonda Novak & Chris Garcia
The Alamo Drafthouse Downtown is puttin' on the Ritz.
The cathedral of camp, Quentin and queso — nationally renowned for its innovative film programming and celebrity guests — is moving from its original Warehouse District location at 409 Colorado St. into the historic Ritz Theater building at 320 E. Sixth St. by late summer. Skyrocketing rents in the Warehouse District prompted the move, said owners and founders Karrie and Tim League. With their lease set to expire in June, the Leagues weren't optimistic about staying at the location where they had been for 10 years.
The Drafthouse's longtime real estate broker, Danny Roth, Southwest Strategies Group, and the Downtown Austin Alliance, which represents downtown property owners, helped put the deal together.
march 21
dec 29-jan 4
A sense of history
Book of Power 2007 issue
For more than two decades, Jeff Trigger has been in the business of managing, restoring and renovating hotels. And in that time, Trigger has often been approached often by hotel companies interested in tapping his hospitality expertise.
... Trigger's La Corsha, along with Southwest Strategies Group Inc. and Centro Partners LLC, make up Seaholm Power LLC, the group that's transforming the historic art-deco Seaholm Power Plant site downtown.
..."To me, it's neat to be able to preserve history in a sense of place," Trigger says. "Seaholm is a very special project, and that location is screaming for a community-oriented facility. Once completed, the hotel will be downtown Austin's only independent luxury hotel. And there will be plenty of green space. We're hoping it will become the place to be in the downtown neighborhood. And, of course, the icon of the smokestacks is just phenomenal."
2006
december 15
Austin Inc.
Day care on hunt for new home
With just two weeks before its lease on Congress Avenue expires, the Escuelita del Alma day care has recruited some heavyweight help.
Dina Flores, executive director of the day care, has hired John Rosato of Southwest Strategies Group to find a new downtown or near-downtown location.
... As for a timetable, Rosato said: "We fully expect the Finley family and White Lodging will give Escuelita del Alma a reasonable amount of time to find a new location."
fall
thanks, john
FOCUS . Downtown Austin Alliance Newsletter . Vol. 10, No.2
Our 2006 Alliance Chair, John Rosato, a Partner with Southwest Strategies Group, has been exceptional.
... Here are some of the Alliance accomplishments during John's tenure:
The Alliance successfully advocated for enhanced quality of life ordinances.
The Alliance continues with the Austin Travis County Re-entry Roundtable and the District Attorney's programs geared to reduce recidivism, downtown crime and improve public safety.
The DOWNTOWN television series won a Lone Star Emmy for best magazine format program.
Working with the City of Austin under the leadership of Mayor Will Wynn, the Alliance Retail Recruitment program has opened new doors on Congress Avenue.
OCTOBER 8
Developers, city officials have lofty plans for SW downtown
By Laura Mohammad – Contributing Writer
The Seaholm Power Plant Reuse project's developers are looking to attract empty nesters, young professionals and then some.
... Daniel Roth, a partner with Seaholm Power LLC and with Southwest Strategies Group Inc., envisions a project that will feature an events center and a plaza with shops and cafés, a bus stop, the Lance Armstrong Bikeway, a rail stop, a streetcar stop and an Austin-San Antonio commuter rail station.
... Fellow project partner Kent Collins, a partner with Centro Partners, says Seaholm's condos will range from 800 to 3,000 square feet.
Daniel Roth (right) and Kent Collins are partners on the Seaholm reuse project .
Hotel/condo tower to become 1st part of Seaholm makeover
Work could begin next summer on 163-room hotel to open in 2009
A 22-story hotel and condominium tower could rise above the smokestacks at the former Seaholm Power Plant by 2009.
The project is the first part of a multimillion dollar plan to transform the Seaholm site into a vibrant district with shops, offices, housing, entertainment and cultural attractions.
... Jeff Trigger, former managing director of the historic Driskill Hotel, will run the 163-room hotel, tentatively called the Seaholm Plaza Hotel.
... Austin-based Centro Partners LLC will develop the 62 condominium units, with prices from about $350,000 to more than $1 million, said Kent Collins, a Centro partner.
... The city last year tapped a group led by Austin-based Southwest Strategies Group, Inc. to redevelop the 7.8-acre Seaholm site, which will include preserving and reusing the power plant and its Art Deco-style facade.
september 22
Several Penn Field tenants go on an expansion spree
... "We've loved this space from the beginning," Marchant says of the Penn Field digs. "The architecture was beautiful and we felt it had a really nice environment."
... In 2000, a group of six investors formed Majestic Partners Ltd. to purchase the 16-acre Penn Field site. They transformed the former World War I Army training field and its existing buildings into a 230,000-square-foot retail, office and warehouse complex with a modern industrial look aimed at attracting unique Austin companies.
... "The very thing that scared us about Penn Field was the thing that made it successful: its mass," says Danny Roth, a principal with Southwest Strategies Group and one of the six project partners. Southwest Strategies also handles leasing on the development. "If we had started out with a tiny building it would not have had this dramatic impact."
... "The market had to catch up to Penn Field, so we were definitely hanging out there by ourselves for a while," Roth says. "We did have tenants like Sixth Street and The Davis Group Inc. and others who believed in the project and the location early on."
Eric DeJernett, senior vice president of the retail division for Trammell Crow Co. in Austin, says Penn Field has been a solid anchor for a transitional area of South Austin.
"They were very forward-thinking in their development," he says.
august 4
Mixed-use properties provide convenience to residents
Further south, it's anticipated that the redevelopment of the Seaholm Power Plant site will act as another hub of activity, particularly since mass transit will be a part of the mix.
august 4-10
Austin Inc.
Not your ordinary ceremony: Architects honored at Seaholm
The awards dinner was at an old power plant, and prizes went to projects that included a parking garage and a water plant expansion.
In other words, this year's local American Institute of Architects awards were a little out of the ordinary.
The Austin chapter held the recent banquet at the closed Seaholm Power Plant, slated to be reborn as a mixed-use project by 2008.
... Finally, Seaholm itself walked away with an honor recognizing its sustainability — it has been around for 50 years and could last 50 more with the pending transformation.
march 10
Seaholm's rebirth set for 2008
EPA says ex-plant ready for development; summer start possible
The former Seaholm Power Plant overlooking Town Lake could be crackling with new energy by mid-2008.
... A grand opening for at least part of the project is set for July 4, 2008, Rosato said.
... Seaholm is the first facility nationwide to receive a "ready for reuse: designation under the federal Toxic Substance Control Act.
to read the article.
january 18
Development on former Seaholm Power Plant site move forward
EPA and Texas commission has given site in downtown Austin an environmental clean bill of health
Austin American-Statesman
A new chapter unfolded today for the former Seaholm Power Plant as a federal agency cleared the way for work to start on transforming the decommissioned 1950s plant into a mix of housing, shops, restaurants and offices.
The plant is the first nationwide to receive the designation among sites subject to the federally regulated Toxic Substances Control Act. Since 1997, the plant has undergone $13 million of remediation work to clean up PCBs, asbestos, lead-based paint and other contaminants.
january 17
Market Review: South Central/Southeast Austin
Returning closer to Austin, one of the biggest success stories in the south Austin sector has been the 16-acre development at Penn Field. The 230,000 square-foot project of the Southwest Strategies Group began in 2000. Danny Roth says the developers currently are "cutting up" a 43,000 square-foot warehouse into 3,000 to 5,000 square-foot office warehouse spaces.
to read more of the article - Flick Report, Dec '05 - Jan '06.