Texas Tour Day 1-Chestnut Commons

This was also a development by Momark Development. It is a residential community just off of downtown in a more urban area. One thing I loved about this development is the profit given back to help develop the neighborhood surrounding the community. This project is located in one of the underdeveloped areas of Austin which allowed for the developer to invest more into the community. Because of its limited space the developer decided to use a garden style home community.The Chestnut Commons now caters to young professionals who are looking more for the urban feel, but want to be closer to downtown. This 64 unit development is completely built and it sold out quickly. It has already proven to be a success.

Texas Tour Day 1-The Austonian

This is a beautiful mixed use development high rise building in the center of downtown Austin. We were toured through this facility by Terry Mitchell, one of the developers with Momark Development. This building was 56 stories that will give the owners a great exclusive community feel of downtown Austin. The median price point is $621 per sqft. The community actually offers everything a owner will want is a building. the general demographics of the the owners is about 55 years of age, empty nesters. The building has achieved an Austin Green Building 4-star rating. Great building and project. The Austinonian is scheduled to open in June of this year and is already 45% leasesd. It is currenty the tallest building in the Austin area and is one of a kind. This project is surely to be a success.

Texas Tour Day 1-City Hall

We started off the day at Austin City Hall.
Our first speaker was Fred Evins who works in Economic Development for the city of Austin. It was great hearing a description of his job and how the city works when approving projects and partnerships between the city and private partners on the economic development of the city.
Our second speakers were Chris Johnson-Development Assistant and Leon Barber the Director of city inspectors. They expressed how the city works citizens and developers in from kind of a one-stop shop sense in which can help someone looking to start a project in the city of Austin. Mr. Barber explained the process of passing inspections and city codes. I got the feeling that a lot of things get passed the city as far as code enforcement.
Our third speaker Michael Knox explained the process Austin is going through to try and get businesses and people to move to downtown Austin area. I thought it was strange the city does not offer many incentives for companies looking to move into the area. However, from the number of construction projects seen today, whatever they are doing is working.
Our last speaker was Richard Morgan from Austin Energy, who went through the process of the Austin Green Certification and compared and contrasted it to hte LEED system.
Overall the city hall visit was very informative and really introduced me to the process of project development.