story office tower

The downtown post office building may be the worst structure constructed downtown in the last century. It wastes a prime central block (Block 51) with an enormous elevated parking lot.

... It places the structure in the middle of the block, far from the street and close to parked cars. It wastes a prime tall-building lot with a tiny 2 floor structure.

When Will Wynn was mayor, he led a campaign to rid the block of the dreaded post office.

After developing and selling out 360 -- one of the most successful downtown projects -- Novare Group announced in 2008 that they would build two new towers on Block 51 & 52.

The prime downtown blocks, one the site of the downtown post office and the other on an adjacent block to the West of the post office, were to contain 900 condo units in two 37 and 40 floor towers which were to be completed by 2012.

According to city records, the owners of three vacant historic buildings on Congress Avenue between 9th and 10th street are planning to build a 16-story, 88,000 square foot office tower on the site.

If successful, the project would commence construction in 2011 and open by Summer 2012.

According to a statement by Tucker Lynch, a representative of the site owners, in the Austin Business journal, “The owners told us to keep it as quiet as possible,” Lynch said.

“We are just doing our feasibility. If it is not feasible, we won’t build.”

Novare, the developer of 360, has announced preliminary plans for two new towers to rise one block west of the downtown post office.

A 15-story office tower with ground floor retail is being proposed for the north east corner of West Cesar Chavez Street and Lamar Boulevard.

The new project, to be located between the Gables apartment and Seaholm, would be the first new office project constructed in the downtown core since the Frost Bank tower was completed in 2001.

The developer behind the new project, Capital City Partners LLC, recently completed Capstar Plaza, a 115,000-square-foot, eight-story, office building at the southeast corner of MoPac Expressway and Fifth Street.

Arthouse, a downtown contemporary art museum located on Congress and 7th, today announced plans to remodel and expand their downtown galleries and educational facilities.

According to Arthouse, "The plans -- developed by Lewis.Tsurumaki.Lewis, New York-based architects, the Board’s Building Committee and Staff -- will triple total space from 7,000 sq. ft. to 20,830 sq.ft."

As we have reported, the Austin Museum of Art this week announced a new project which would combine an 40,000 square foot museum facility with an adjacent 425,000 feet of commercial office space in a new 465,000 square foot project on the AMOA-owned site

As predicted, the Austin Museum of Art today announced new plans for their prime downtown lot.

With the official announcement, additional details of the project emerged: