CHANGES IN STORE FOR SOUTH CONGRESS
More changes are taking place on Austin’s trendy South Congress Avenue, with the latest redevelopment underway at the site that houses the CityView at SoCo apartments.
The developer, Turnbridge Equities, is demolishing a fourstory building at the front of the complex, which is at 1007 S. Congress Ave.
The old building — which included 36 apartments atop street level retail space — will be replaced by a new four-story building that will have three floors of office space on top of groundfloor retail space. The new building will feature about 50,000 square feet in all, said Andrew Joblon, managing principal with Turnbridge Equities.
Turnbridge, a privately held real estate investment and development firm with offices in Miami, New York and Austin, has an ownership stake in the CityView property.
Leasing has not begun for the office and retail space, Joblon said.
The 36 apartments being demolished were already vacant, with the leases having expired some time ago, Joblon said. No current residents will have to relocate during the construction, he said.
As part of the $18 million redevelopment, the remaining 217 apartments in the CityView complex, along with all amenities including the fitness center and leasing center, will be renovated with new upgrades throughout, Joblon said. The property also will be getting a new name.
The project is expected to take just over a year to complete, Joblon said.
“Our hope is to provide a great place to live for residents that like to enjoy all of the incredible restaurants, shopping and entertainment that South Congress offers,” Joblon said.
Turnbridge is partnering in the project with F&B Capital, an Austin-based real estate investment firm specializing in multifamily
acquisitions and redevelopments throughout Texas.
Turnbridge is also a partner in the adjacent Music Lane project, a 1.5-acre mixed-use development underway to the south, where Doc’s Bar & Grill and other tenants formerly were located.
The projects are part of a tide of new high-end development sweeping the avenue — a surge that has some observers wondering if South Congress can keep the quirky character that has made it a popular destination for locals and tourists.
The Music Lane project, which involves developers Clark Lyda and Austin Pfiester, eventually will include the current site of Twomey’s Auto Works, which is expected to relocate when its lease expires this year. Music Lane, named for the small street along its eastern border, will have three lowrise buildings with 163,000 square feet of retail, office and restaurant space. A fourstory underground parking garage will have nearly 500 spaces.
In an interview last year, Lyda said he hopes to attract a mix of local and regional specialty retailers to the project, which he said is being built at a cost of $55 million.
Soho House, a trendy private social club, will open a location in the project. Founded in London in 1995, Soho House now has multiple locations across Europe and North America where its members — many of whom work in creative fields like film, fashion, music and art — can work, dine, drink and relax.
The Austin Soho House will have a restaurant that will be open to members as well as the general public.
Behind the Music Lane development, Texas hotelier Liz Lambert, along with Lyda and other investors, is partnering on The Magdalena, a boutique hotel that has broken ground and is slated to open in the fall of 2019. At 86 rooms, it will be the largest hotel to date for Lambert’s Austin-based Bunkhouse hospitality group, which operates the nearby Austin Motel, Hotel San José and Hotel Saint Cecilia, among other hotel properties.
Farther south on Congress, work is underway on another previously announced mixed-use project, called Saint Vincent and being developed by the Kor Group, teaming with Drake Real Estate Partners. The project is on a site that formerly housed a St. Vincent de Paul thrift shop, which in 2016 moved to 901 Braker Lane.
The former thrift shop building is being remodeled, and next to it a new threestory building will be constructed with office and retail space. Construction on the completed shell of the new building is expected to wrap up in the first quarter of 2019, said Matt Green, managing partner in Austin for the Kor Group, which also is building Austin Proper, a high-rise hotel and condo project in downtown Austin.