Real estate professionals expect retail anchoring new Austin condos to do well
Posted March 1st, 2010 by guy3
Austin Business Journal - by Sandra Zaragoza ABJ Staff
Friday, February 26, 2010
Among the questions remaining as downtown’s most anticipated new residential projects are nearly ready for their well-heeled occupants to move in: What retail will occupy the ground-floor of Austin’s ritzy new residential towers?
Last week, The Austonian offered the first to answer the question, albeit a partial answer. Austonian developers announced two independent restaurants by Austin-based La Corsha Restaurant Partners will open later this year, occupying about 5,800 square feet of the roughly 11,000 square feet of retail fronting Congress Avenue and Second Street. The Four Seasons, which also has about 11,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space fronting Cesar Chavez Street, is expected to make several tenant announcements of its own soon.
The developers of Block 21, which will be home to W Hotel and Residences and Austin City Limits in the Second Street District, said they have quietly begun marketing roughly 25,000 square feet of retail. Block 21 hopes to start announcing the project’s retail lineup this summer.
Whether these projects will be able to attract the A+ tenants they want in an unfavorable retail climate remains to be seen. Still, people involved in leasing these projects — The Austonian, Four Seasons and Block 21 — are upbeat about downtown retail, especially as more residents move in.
Mixed-use projects in Austin have delivered varying degrees of success in a soft retail market, real estate experts said.
But the downtown location, newness and name recognition give these projects a sharp edge, they said.
Besides being in the tony 78701 ZIP code, these projects will give retailers access to a growing downtown residential population, steady daytime traffic, and convention and tourism business.
Even in a down economy, property owners are being selective about the retail they choose for these projects.
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http://austin.bizjournals.com/austin/stories/2010/03/01/focus1.html?b=1267419600^2951511
