Downtown

October 2001

• 11th and 12th Street Community Redevelopment
  The Austin Revitalization Authority has selected RIATA Development to help develop up to 95,000 sq. ft. of office/retail space with up to 400 parking spaces on E. 11th between Curve and Lydia Streets. RIATA also proposes to build 24 town homes along Juniper Street, and up to 12 work/live loft units on Waller and Curve Streets. Design work is underway with construction for this initial phase of development projected to begin late 2001. In addition ARA has attracted a tenant to occupy 1101 East 11th Street. Restoration is completed. A ribbon cutting ceremony was held on October 26, 2001 for this project with Deputy HUD Secretary Alphonso Jackson attending. Balcones Recycling administrative offices will occupy the entire building. A groundbreaking ceremony was held at the same time for the East 11th Street streetscaping project and the mixed use project.

  A city funded historic resources survey has been completed. Required by the federal government as part of all federally funded projects. The survey has identified and made recommendations for preserving both physical and cultural historic resources within the East Austin Master Plan area. The City is making the results available to the public at the Austin History Center, Carver Library and on the City's Web page, at http://www.austinrev.org.

• Anderson Hill Redevelopment Project (formerly SCIP II)
  The City of Austin, NHCDO has broken ground on the first three (3) units in the second phase of the project. Up to twenty-five (25) additional home ownership units will follow in the next eighteen months, along with up to thirty (30) rental units.

• Austin Resource Center for the Homeless (ARCH) - Interim Location
  On August 15, 2001, the ARCH moved to an interim location at 400 Nueces. The City added an overnight shelter program for 73 men at the interim site and amended CAHA's contract to include operation of the shelter. The shelter has been operating at full capacity since it opened.

• Austin Resource Center for the Homeless (ARCH) - Permanent Location
  The Downtown Shelter, Resource Center, and Health Clinic facility will be named the Austin Resource Center for the Homeless (ARCH). It will be an expansion of the current ARCH, but it will remain a place where people in homeless situations can access numerous resources to help them work toward self-sufficiency. The City will build the facility and will provide funding for operations. The City's Primary Care Department will operate the health clinic. A request for proposals will be released in early 2002 to solicit an operator to serve as the facility manager. The physical design of the facility is nearing completion. The construction of the project will be put out for bid in January of 2002. The expected date of completion for building the facility is July of 2003.

• Convention Center Expansion
  Installation of the exterior skin is wrapping the north elevation and will soon turn down Trinity Street where it will become complete. The atrium glass is complete and the remaining glazing is nearing completion. Temporary chilled water is in service and the interior finishes have commenced. Austin Energy will eventually supply 1800 tons of chilled water service from the Hobby Garage to the Expansion. The abandoned portion of the 66" water main that is now under the expansion will be used as a sleeve by Austin Energy to bring the chilled water lines in from Hobby and connect to a future District Plant that will provide backup service. All of the air-handlers have been set. The 200,000 square feet of new roof is about 90% complete. Interior partitions are about 80% complete. Many of these partitions are air entrained concrete block, a relatively new product that is making its way into the construction industry. The blocks are solid and the pathways for utilities, like electrical conduits, are routed out of the surface. All of the stairways are complete. The freight elevator is in place and the escalators are installed. The existing facility was taken out of service for the entire month of September so that renovation work and tie-ins to the new building could occur. The north wall separating the two buildings came down during September and a dust partition was installed.

• Lance Armstrong Bikeway
  Together with consultant Wilbur Smith Associates of Houston, staff of the Transportation, Planning and Sustainability (TPSD) and Public Works Departments spent this past spring and summer planning the alignment for the route. Several public meetings were held in August to hear input from citizens, neighborhood groups, cycling associations and business owners on myriad elements of the route. The Bikeway will pass through Downtown from IH-35 to Shoal Creek as striped, on-street bicycle lanes, following a combination of the 3rd and 4th Street corridors. TPSD staff is close to finalizing the alignment, considering both the design goals of the Great Streets project and possible future light rail facilities.

  Design and engineering will last through 2002, with construction to begin in 2003.

• Lester Palmer Events Center
  Bid Package 1, providing for the removal of the Riverside Center building at 901 W. Riverside Dr., was substantially completed July 6th 2000. Bid Package 2 construction includes relocation of some existing utilities and placement of new as well as the placement of 376 drilled piers that will become the foundation for the new Palmer Events Center and Parking Facility. Bid Package 2 was substantially completed November 22nd, 2000. Bid Package 3 construction contract was awarded by Council November 9, 2000. This work includes construction of the new Palmer Events Center and Parking Facility and started on December 5, 2000. The Parking facility is anticipated to be open by December 2001, and the Palmer Events Center by June 2002. Two additional construction contracts are expected for award during 2001. These include the access roads to the new Palmer Events Center and Parking Facility as well as the first Landscaping contract for the area around both the Events Center and Parking Facility. December 2000 and January 2001 involve putting caps on the facility foundation piers. The new facilities will begin to emerge from the ground in February 2001. The new Events Center construction is progressing in four quadrants, with the NE quadrant at the most advanced level of completion. By May 2001 approximately 1/3 of the parking Facility precast panels have been placed.

• New City Hall & Public Plaza
  In March 2000, the City Council selected the Austin firm of Cotera, Kolar, Negrete and Reed Architects with Antoine Predock, FAIA of Albuquerque, New Mexico as the Lead Designer. Council approved the Schematic Design for the New City Hall and Public Plaza in May 2001. Construction of the underground parking garage began in April 2001.

• Republic Square
  The Austin Parks and Recreation Department (PARD), is working in collaboration with the Downtown Austin Alliance, the Austin Parks Foundation, and a variety of downtown stakeholders to transform these often overlooked and underutilized Historic Squares into beautiful green places buzzing with people and activity. This new initiative will bring together private and public resources to create physical improvements and programs that attract, engage, and reflect Austin's diverse community.

• Seaholm Power Plant Reuse
  The City has also completed the historical documentary photography for the three Seaholm buildings that have been identified as eligible for listing on the National Historic Register: the Turbine Building, the Water Intake Structure and the Fuel Oil Building. This photography documents the plant with all its equipment in place, prior to the final demolition and remediation phase that began in July 2000. This photographic collection will be made publicly available at the Austin History Center collection later this fall.

• Town Lake Park, Phase I
  Construction Documents preparation led by TBG Partners for Phase I. This first Landscape package construction is scheduled for November 2001 through June 2002. Phase II funding is anticipated to become available in 2001 to allow the phase II construction to start in 2002, after removal of the City Coliseum.

• Waller Creek Trail and Park Improvements
  The project is complete, except for the bridge below Cesar Chavez (no construction yet; re-design underway).

Back to the October 2001 Downtown Report