Planned 74-story development in downtown to get luxury hotel

A 74-story tower deliberate for downtown Austin’s Rainey district has landed a luxurious lodge model for the challenge.

1 Motels, which payments itself a sustainably centered luxurious model, will be a part of the mixed-use improvement at 98 Purple River St., alongside Waller Creek. The challenge’s plans name for 352 residences, 686,000 sq. ft of workplace house and a 251-room lodge.

The tower — which would be the tallest constructing in Austin if accomplished as deliberate — has not formally been named and 1 Motels didn’t say when the placement is predicted to open. Augustine Verrengia, civil market chief with WGI, the challenge’s civil engineering agency, stated earlier this yr that 98 Purple River will likely be greater than 1,000 ft tall.

1 Resort Austin will embrace a pool on the sixteenth flooring of the tower and can have spanning views of Austin and the Waller Creek greenway beneath, the corporate stated.

Extra:A deliberate 74-story tower can be the tallest in Austin — and possibly the tallest in Texas

“Once we open our doorways, our visitors will immerse themselves within the energetic sights of the Austin inventive group whereas concurrently serving a restorative relationship to the Hill Nation’s pure magnificence,” 1 Motels Founder and CEO Barry Sternlicht stated in a written assertion.

The Rainey Road property marks 1 Motels’ entry into the Texas market. The corporate has accommodations in New York, West Hollywood, South Seashore, Toronto, San Francisco and China. 

Lincoln Property and Kairoi Residential are creating the 98 Purple River high-rise, which upon completion might turn out to be the tallest constructing in Texas. The present tallest high-rise within the state is the 75-story, 1,002-foot JPMorgan Chase Tower (previously Texas Commerce Tower) in downtown Houston.

In Austin, 98 Purple River is predicted to be taller than one other skyscraper at the moment underneath development — a 66-story, 875-foot-tall mixed-use tower named Sixth and Guadalupe after its location downtown. Sixth and Guadalupe can also be being developed by Lincoln Property and Kairoi Residential.

Presently, Austin’s tallest accomplished constructing is the 58-story Impartial — nicknamed the “Jenga tower” for its offset design — which is 690 ft tall.

1 Motels is operated by SH Motels & Resorts, which is an affiliate of worldwide personal funding agency Starwood Capital Group. 1 Motels launched in 2015 and at the moment has initiatives in improvement in cities together with Nashville, Cabo San Lucas, Paris, London, Copenhagen and Melbourne.

Austin market bouncing again

The 1 Motels announcement comes as Austin’s lodge market continues to rebound from the financial blow dealt by the COVID-19 pandemic. Paul Vaughn, senior vp at Source Methods, a San Antonio-based consulting agency that tracks the lodging trade, stated the Austin market is “on a powerful path, however it’ll nonetheless be recovering misplaced floor over the course of the subsequent yr or extra.”

The downtown Austin lodge market, with its focus of higher-priced accommodations, was hit laborious through the pandemic and has been one of many slowest to get well within the Austin metro space, Vaughn stated.

Throughout all the five-county Austin-Spherical Rock area, total lodge income within the first quarter greater than doubled from the year-ago quarter and even topped total income within the first quarter of 2019 by nearly 11%, he stated.

Extra:Hyatt sells historic Driskill lodge in downtown Austin to new possession group

“That is nice information and factors to a constructive total restoration trajectory, however some areas of the market are coming again quicker than others,” he stated.

Leisure and private journey have returned quicker than enterprise and group journey, he stated. Luxurious and upscale accommodations that cater to higher-end enterprise vacationers have been even slower to get well.

Dewitt Peart, president and CEO of the Downtown Austin Alliance, stated downtown has 5 accommodations underneath development and 5 extra deliberate.

“Within the subsequent couple years we’ll have 10 new accommodations that can add about 1,000 rooms to downtown’s lodge provide,” Peart just lately instructed the American-Statesman.

Because the lodge trade emerges from the COVID downturn, Austin is being focused by various luxurious manufacturers trying to enter the market.

In terms of new lodge openings in 2022, Austin is second solely to New York, in accordance with a Lodging Econometrics report.

Of the highest 50 markets within the U.S., New York is predicted to have 77 accommodations with 10,934 rooms, for a 9% progress fee. Austin is subsequent with a forecast of 26 accommodations with 3,387 rooms on the way in which, the report stated.

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Amongst these on the way in which is a 17-story citizenM lodge, which is rising in a former parking zone within the coronary heart of downtown at Colorado and Seventh streets. The lodge is predicted to open in 2023.

“As an thrilling cultural heart and an influential tech and enterprise hub, Austin has been on our radar for years,” stated Ernest Lee, citizenM’s managing director for the Americas. “Now, with town’s emergence as one among North America’s most important locations for data staff, it’s cementing its place on the nationwide stage.”

Different Austin downtown lodge initiatives within the works embrace two Hyatt-brand accommodations at Fifth and Brazos Streets. Not too long ago opened is boutique luxurious lodge Thompson Austin, a 229-room property on San Jacinto that features the smaller 193-unit tommie Austin on the similar location.

Statesman reporter Shonda Novak contributed to this report.