‘Signature’ tower venture on 1.7-acre downtown Austin house will have to prioritize inexpensive housing, Metropolis Council says
The proposal from Aspen Heights Associates would location two towers—one household and 1 office—on the downtown tract. (Courtesy Austin Financial Progress Department)
The enhancement represents a unusual option for the metropolis to mildew a downtown tower into a venture that fulfills its demands. In greenlighting the graduation of negotiations amongst the city and Austin-primarily based developer Aspen Heights Companions, Metropolis Council gave the Austin Financial Advancement Section a listing of priorities.
The deal-breaker precedence is very affordable housing. Due to the fact the city reacquired enhancement legal rights to the tract in 2016 right after HealthSouth vacated it, the prospective of the home has been tied to acquiring inexpensive housing downtown for the service market and reduced-cash flow personnel in the Central Organization District.
District 9 Council Member Kathie Tovo, who has had the job in her sights for decades, also pushed to prioritize family members-sized affordable housing in the job. She said the development need to be a “signature project” for the town and that the city need to do on this tract what Town Council is generally asking personal builders to do: offer much more inexpensive housing and far more two- and a few-bedroom units for people.
The 2nd and 3rd priorities for Metropolis Council ended up finding cost-effective child care providers and a reside tunes venue into the development. Reasonably priced little one treatment and keeping the city’s reside tunes identity have prolonged been priorities as the price of actual estate in the town has skyrocketed in modern yrs.
Reside new music venues have ongoing to suffer by the pandemic and continue to be on the brink of closure, especially in the Purple River Cultural District—the city’s densest collection of stay music venues. The 1215 Purple River St. job sits just north of the Pink River district. Austin Mayor Steve Adler mentioned he saw this growth as the city’s “last and most effective chance” to preserve a reside new music presence on Purple River Street.
The metropolis very first sought progress proposals for the tract in November 2019. The town said the job outlined by the Austin-based Aspen Heights Partners—responsible for downtown’s Unbiased skyscraper—best met its desires.
Two towers are proposed for the web site. The first would be a 36-tale, 420,000-sq.-foot residential tower with 348 apartments and 160 condos. The tower will offer 25% of the full models as inexpensive housing, with a mix of rental models for residents earning among 50%-60% of the median family members income—$48,800-$58,550 for a relatives of four—and possession condos for people earning 80% of the median family income—$78,100 for a loved ones of 4.
The 2nd would be as a 15-tale, 170,000-sq.-foot office tower, which, according to Margaret Shaw, a software manager with the economic growth division, would come with other components as very well, which includes 25,000 square feet of retail area, 18,000 of which will be dedicated as a “culinary destination” with room for the “local food method.” The proposal also consists of a rooftop cafe and publicly available viewing deck, 6,000 square feet of tunes and arts space, and a 22,000-sq.-foot elevated plaza that would link the towers and act as a general public park.
The city will now negotiate Metropolis Council’s priorities into the challenge and appear back to Metropolis Council later on this calendar year with a master advancement agreement, which sets binding rules for how the property is formulated.
