Indiana-based White Lodging is gearing up to develop a 269-room high-rise hotel at the intersection of Fifth and Trinity streets.
The project, planned at 307 and 311 E. Fifth St., would rise 128 feet and encompass 188,640 square feet, according to public documents.
While White Lodging is developing the project, the owner is listed in public documents as 311 E 5th Series, a subsidiary attached to Finley Company.
The project site is about four-tenths of an acre. The space is currently occupied by low-slung buildings that were once home to the Trinity Hall event venue and House restaurant and bar (formerly Russian House), both of which have closed.
White Lodging declined to discuss more granular details of the development at this time.
In an engineer’s letter to the city, Nick Brown of HR Green Development Tx LLC wrote that development will include “great street” improvements, participate in the Downtown Density Bonus Program and will not propose any parking.
Over the past decade, White Lodging has developed 12 hotels, 10 restaurants and five rooftop bars in Austin, which has coincided with the city’s expansive growth, said Mike Banas, director of communications and corporate affairs.
White Lodging seeks to be a part of the communities that it develops in, Banas said.
“All of our newer hotels have varied options that attract locals, including restaurants, bars and rooftops that are designed to stand on their own regardless of hotel guests,” he said.
Banas cited Upstairs at Caroline at the Aloft Austin Downtown as being a popular happy hour destination for young professionals, Dean’s Italian Steakhouse garnering positive reviews at the JW Marriott, Zanzibar at the Austin Marriott Downtown having its own direct-to-rooftop elevator and Otopia at the Otis Hotel being a popular destination for university students.
This isn’t the only tower planned for Fifth Street.
Merritt Development Group plans a 28-floor, 454-room hotel for the southwest corner of Fifth and Lavaca streets, while at 410 E. Fifth St., Wilson Capital plans a 54-floor multifamily tower, according to previous reporting.
These developments have been added to Austin Business Journal’s Crane Watch database, which now has data on roughly 420 large commercial projects in the metro. Keep reading for even more construction news, and scroll to the bottom of this story for a map, or go here to see a large version.
Baylor Scott & White Medical Center – Round Rock could soon get bigger.
Earlier this month, filings for additions to existing buildings at the hospital at 300 University Blvd. were submitted to the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation. In total, the filings sketched out an estimated $85.6 million in work.
“We are constantly evaluating ways to expand access to care for Texans, especially in our fastest growing communities,” Baylor Scott & White said in a statement. “Our plans are not yet finalized, and we look forward to sharing more in the coming months.”
The TDLR filings — which are always subject to change — indicate that building expansions are in the works for the hospital’s newborn intensive care unit, the surgery and emergency department, the bed tower and the central utility plant. The NICU, surgery and emergency and bed tower expansions are core and shell expansions that include mechanical, electrical, plumbing and other related utilities in anticipation of interior buildout.
The bed tower’s expansion is the largest, with 125,722 square feet expected to be added, according to the filing. That expansion is expected to cost about $43.6 million.
The surgery and emergency department expansion would add 49,748 square feet and cost about $18.3 million. The NICU expansion encompasses just 7,418 square feet and would cost about $3.3 million.
The central utility plant expansion would add 2,652 square feet but cost $20.5 million. It would include an electrical switchgear room, a workshop space and space to store medical gas, vacuums and other related utilities.
All construction has an estimated start date of Oct. 24 and a listed completion date of Sept. 2, 2024. Houston-based PhiloWilke Partnership is attached as designer for the expansion.
Austin-based Tapestry Ventures LLC will build a two-building senior apartment community off West McCarty Lane near Hunter Road, according to TDLR filings. The first building is a four-story independent living apartment building, while the second is a three-story assisted living and memory support apartment building.
The independent living building will be constructed of wood, and the assisted living and memory support building will be poured-in-place, post-tensioned concrete.
The two buildings will be a combined 275,000 square feet, with an estimated project cost of $60 million. Construction is expected to begin Oct. 3, 2022 and conclude in June 2024.
Dallas-based HKS Inc. is attached for the design.
Tapestry Ventures did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Texas Children’s Hospital is bringing an OB-GYN and aesthetics clinic to Northwest Austin, next to where it’s building a $485 million hospital.
The clinic will be built out of a commercial and retail space at 9817 N. Lake Creek Pkwy. It has an estimated cost of $4.4 million, according to TDLR filings.
Page Architects and McCarthy Building Companies will design and construct the facility, with construction expected to begin in March 2023 and wrap up in September 2023.
The clinic will help Texas Children’s meet the needs of Austin’s growing population, said Jill Pearsall, senior vice president of facilities planning and development.
“When we started really looking at Austin, 30% of the patients were leaving the Austin area for care,” she said. “A lot of those patients were coming to Houston.”
The one-story clinic will be about 12,600 square feet, according to the TDLR filing. It will employ 25-35 staff, said Ivett Shah, senior vice president of community hospitals and Austin expansion at Texas Children’s. That would include roughly six to 10 health care providers, plus staff.
The scope of the aesthetics side of the clinic is still being defined, Shah said, but could include services that mothers might seek outside of a physician’s office after having a baby.
Just east of the clinic site, Houston-based Texas Children’s is developing 365,000-square-foot hospital and 170,000-square-foot outpatient facility. They are expected to open in 2024.
Tesla Inc. appears to be setting up its fourth retail location in the city, at 2323 Ridgepoint Dr. in Northeast Austin, according to a TDLR filing.
The roughly 52,000-square-foot site would be both a service center and showroom in an industrial area near U.S. Route 290 and U.S. Route 183. The owner of the site is listed as Boyd Watterson Asset Management LLC.
Tesla did not respond to requests for comment.
Illinois-based Chipman Design Architecture Inc. is listed as designer. The firm previously designed downtown Austin’s first Chick-fil-A restaurant at 600 Congress Ave.
Tesla has its headquarters at its gigafactory east of Austin but also has a showroom at The Domain and showrooms/service centers on Research Boulevard in North Austin and East St. Elmo Road in South Austin.
The region’s packed multifamily construction pipeline includes new communities on the northeast side of the metro.
RangeWater Real Estate broke ground in June on The Darby, a multifamily development in Manor, according to an Aug. 19 announcement.
It is the Atlanta-based developer’s first new build in the Austin area.
“Both the Austin region and state of Texas are growing at breathtaking rates, creating a huge demand for housing,” chairman and CEO Steven Shores said. “We’re excited to plant our development flag here.”
The development will consist of 24 townhomes mixed among 326 garden-style apartments. The townhomes will have three bedrooms, 2.5 baths, garages and private outdoor areas. The development will also have outdoor lawns, a dog park, pool, fitness center, fire pits, grilling stations and a clubhouse.
The Darby is being developed on 25 acres near the ShadowGlen Golf Club and Austin Executive Airport off U.S. 290, according to the announcement. No exact address was given, but a roughly 25-acre property off Hill Lane in that area is listed as owned by CH DOF I-RangeWater MF Austin Manor LP, according to Travis Central Appraisal District.
Meanwhile, work is expected to start in November on Northwind Apartments at 11105 Cameron Road in Northeast Austin, according to TDLR filings. It would consist of 12 two- and three-story buildings, a clubhouse, nine garage buildings, parking and other amenities totaling 362,994 square feet.
Construction could be completed in June 2025, according to the filings. An entity called Northwind Apartments LP is listed as the owner of the property. That entity is tied to an Indianapolis address associated with Kittle Property Group, a national multifamily developer with market rate, affordable, workforce and senior housing.
It was not clear how many units would be in the community. Attempts to reach Kittle for comment were unsuccessful.
According to Kittle’s portfolio, it also developed Main Street Commons in Taylor, a 75-unit affordable senior housing complex, and Agave East, a 240-unit workforce housing apartment complex in Austin.
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