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Austin | The Republic Tower | 710' | 47-Stories | U/C


The ATX

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This will be a big project and worthy of its own thread.  This block was the site of a proposed 15-story Travis County courthouse and a privately developed tower that one Travis County Commissioner envisioned to be as tall as 70-stories.  But the proposal died when Travis County voters failed to support the bond referendum last year.  

A few months ago the County put out a RFP for the site.  They have received eight proposals from an impressive group of high rise developers.  The County will decide which developer to go with in February.  The site is an entire city block currently used as a parking lot, and there are no Capitol View Corridor height limits on the block.  This should end up being a significant tower (or two).

Statesman Article 

 

Here's the site from Streetview.

2cfAsKE.png

 

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This is the list of developers that the county will pick from.  I'm really looking forward to this project.  

  • Cielo Property Group with Gables Residential
  • Cousins Properties Inc.
  • Endeavor Real Estate Group LLC
  • Hanover Co. with Brandywine Realty Trust
  • Lincoln Property Co.
  • Riverside Resources
  • Southwest Strategies Group
  • The Presidium Group.

Austin Business Journal 

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  • 2 months later...

I forgot that I created a separate thread for this project because it should be a substantial tower or two.  This is a cross-post from the proposed project thread.

We're getting closer to announcement concerning the development of this Travis County owned block.  The County has chosen a developer to begin negotiations with from an impressive list of suitors.  The name of the developer has not been made public.  

A couple articles:  

Community Impact

Austin Business Journal 

 

Here's the block from the Community Impact article:  

Guadalupe-St-e1473810444917.jpg?w=1200&s

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If the renderings are scaled properly, this appears to be about 725'.  If that's the case, the Independent won't hold the title as Austin's tallest for too long.

The top floors are obviously residential.  The middle section could be office or hotel.  A Virgin hotel is coming to Downtown as part of a yet unannounced project.  This project would be a good candidate for the Virgin hotel.  But there are several other hotel projects that haven't announced the hotel brand yet.  

Those aerials used for the renderings are old, and a lot of towers are missing.  I hate out of date skyline shots.   

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AusTxDevelopment at SSP posted some excellent drone photos of Downtown that he took earlier today.  I'll post some of them in the U/C thread later.  What I like about this photo is that the current tallest Austonian is left of center.  The next new tallest Independent is U/C to the right of center, and the site of this proposed future tallest of them all is the surface lot near the center of this photo.  There are also three 600'-700' towers proposed for the area near the bend in the river in this photo.  But I don't have much confidence in those being built as proposed right now.

Construction4_zpsd3xyulvi.jpg

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  • 4 weeks later...

Travis County selected the developers for this project yesterday.  The winners are a joint venture between Texas based Lincoln Property Group and the Phoenix Property Group.  No renderings were presented as part of the announcement.  So we don't have any confirmation if the renderings for the 700' tower are the current renderings.

Statesman Article

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Travis County picked the winning proposal for the site among three finalists.  I suspect the first set of renderings posted in this thread were for one of the losing bids.  But I can't be sure because the winning development group didn't provide renderings or details about their proposal at the time of the announcement.  But we now have renderings from Gensler for one of the losing proposals.  This one was ~42-stories and pretty sweet. 

aD1oQVn.png 

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A site plan was filed Monday.  All we know is that it's a "high rise office building with mixed use" and is called The Republic.  It's across the street from Republic Square Park hence the name.  No word yet on the height.  But this site covers an entire block and has no Capitol View Corridors limiting the height.  The allowable FAR at this site means a new tallest is possible.  It'll probably be three to four weeks before we get more info from city filings unless there is an announcement by the developer.

 

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Towers' has a good summary of the history of this project and the site.  We have not seen any renderings from the winning development team, but renderings from the two runner ups - posted earlier in this thread - show an office and residential mixed use project.  The fact that the site plan only mentions office is a little worrisome for those hoping for a new tallest.  That's because Downtown Austin is dominated by residential towers, and the possibility of an office tower without a residential component maxing out the FAR on the site seems unlikely.  Whatever the use(s) turn out to be, the site has a 25:1 FAR.  A single tower on the site would likely be built on a parking podium and take up around half of the block.  That would be 50 stories and around 650' not including a crown for an office project.  With setbacks and a smaller footprint, it could be much taller.

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This is going to be a big tower based on the site plan that was released yesterday.  Elevations were not included, but the tower will include almost 1.5 million sq. ft.  Here are the uses and square footage:  

Office/Lobby - 711, 401

Retail - 21,463

Parking - 690,662

Total - 1,423,566

That's a lot of parking.  So I'm guessing public parking is planned as a revenue stream.  One fourth of the site facing Republic Square is planned as a landscaped plaza.  The tower footprint can be seen in this drawing from the site plan.  Depending on the parking podium and crown, this could be 600' to 800'.  This is being designed by HKS and  Duda Paine who did the Frost Bank Tower which has an incredible crown.  

Oa0y2qY.png

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4 hours ago, Dale said:

Based on opinions being tossed around on SSP, this could range from short and stubby to a new tallest.

Yeah, I don't think it will be a new tallest.  But I suspect it will be around the low end of the range I put in the thread title based on the square footage and footprint from the site plan and the allowable FAR on the site.  To get to 800' it will need setbacks.  But I don't think the developer will go to the expense of making an iconic tower with setbacks.  

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The developer released some info today through the Austin Business Journal.  Apparently the previously planned  residential component has been dropped, and this is a single tower.  It came in just under the 600' I has hoping for, and is shaped like wedge similar to the Block 71 office tower.  A few wedges to break up the sea of giant rectangles is a good thing.  This is the same developer - Lincoln Property Company - as the new tallest 842' 600 Guadalupe project three blocks down the street.  Here's an elevation from the ABJ article:  

Rendering-5-18_zpssawxw8wm.jpg

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On 5/18/2018 at 8:18 PM, The ATX said:

The developer released some info today through the Austin Business Journal.  Apparently the previously planned  residential component has been dropped, and this is a single tower.  It came in just under the 600' I has hoping for, and is shaped like wedge similar to the Block 71 office tower.  A few wedges to break up the sea of giant rectangles is a good thing.  This is the same developer - Lincoln Property Company - as the new tallest 842' 600 Guadalupe project three blocks down the street.  Here's an elevation from the ABJ article:  

Rendering-5-18_zpssawxw8wm.jpg

"imitation is the sincerest form of flattery".... there are ways to not make rectangles while being distinctive and stand-out.

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On 5/22/2018 at 9:22 AM, Dale said:

Sure, I wanted it to be taller. Larger picture: the SKYLINE is getting taller and taller.

Yup.  The buildings towards the top of the projects list keep getting taller and taller.  I just hope most of them get built and built as currently proposed.  

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Here we are looking at the back of the Google Tower, Austin Proper Hotel & Residences and the Facebook tower.  I posted the photo in this thread because it was taken from the parking lot that will become The Republic.  That two story building at the base of the towers is Austin Ballet.  Unless they really, really like their location, I suspect they would be taking offers for the site and using the profits to move into some new digs.   

QkZObCF.png

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